International Women's Day: A century of music by British women

This year it seemed even more important to present a celebratory concert for International Women’s Day and I’m delighted we’ve been able to go ahead with this programme of music by British women with my London Chamber Ensemble. This spans exactly a century from 1921 to the present, including a world premiere and I’ve selected a wide range of strong, personal voices, juxtaposing ensemble pieces with solos and smaller works. A similar programme was originally scheduled in the Southbank International Chamber Music Season, but since they remain closed, I’m thrilled and that the fabulous St John’s Smith Square have welcomed us and have been able to film this concert in house for a live-streamed performance. It’s really special to be able to perform with friends and colleagues again, albeit socially distanced and although we really miss live audiences, it is fantastic that music is reaching new audiences online. It’s been great to discover all sorts of treasures in a range of styles by Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979), Grace Williams (1906-77), Ruth Gipps (1921-99), Thea Musgrave (b.1928), Judith Weir (b.1954), Errollyn Wallen (b.1958), Cheryl Frances-Hoad (b.1980) and Helen Grime (b.1981).

There are various connections between the composers and an American sub-theme has emerged: Errollyn Wallen’s new piece is inspired by an American abolitionist; nonagenarian Thea Musgrave wrote the serial piece we’re playing, Colloquy for violin and piano in the UK, for the 1960 Cheltenham Festival of Contemporary British Music, but has been resident in the US for many years; Judith Weir’s violin duos, Atlantic Drift celebrate the flow of traditional music from the British Isles to North America and back again. Rebecca Clarke’s father was American and she went to live in the US from World War II onwards, marrying a founder member of the Juilliard School (where I studied as Fulbright/Fellow to New York). The music will not be performed in chronological order, though it opens with the earliest work – the extraordinary piano trio by Rebecca Clarke of 1921. It’s good to think that the Trust of Ralph Vaughan Williams, the Royal College of Music composition professor of both Clarke and Grace Williams, has supported my commission of the new work. 

Some seeds for this concert were sown a few years ago when I was invited to be artist-in-residence at the Canberra International Music Festival in 2013, celebrating the centenary of the founding of Canberra, with Australian, British and American music. We gave a concert entitled ‘Celebrating Creative Women’ including some gorgeous chamber music by Rebecca Clarke and Amy Beach and I wanted to find out more. Then four years ago I discovered the manuscript of Grace Williams Violin Sonata at Ty Cerdd – the Wales Music Centre in Cardiff - hardly played because the composer wrote that the outer movements were not good enough. This led to a well-received performance at the first International Women’s Work in Music conference in Bangor and to my researching more chamber music by this fine Welsh composer at the National Library of Wales, most of it then unpublished.

On International Women’s Day 2019 our London Chamber Ensemble album of Grace Williams Chamber Music was released by Naxos, supported by the British Music Society – all world premieres. We’re delighted all her music on our album has had such a good reception. Grace Williams played violin and piano but her favourite instrument was the trumpet and she incorporated it into both her major chamber works to brilliant effect. We’re very happy to be able to give this Nonet a rare outing and to perform this live as the finale to the concert.

I’m glad we’ve been able to include a work by Ruth Gipps, whose centenary falls this year – a short work for bass clarinet composed for her husband Robert Baker. She was one of my lecturers when I was a student at the RCM. Helen Grime also studied there and Errollyn Wallen and I are both professors at the College.

Errollyn and I have known each other for many years. In 2001, we both performed in the festival UKinNY at Lincoln Center, New York which turned out to be six weeks after 9/11 so particularly poignant. We’ve spoken for a while about a new piece and when I was creating this programme I thought it would be ideal to have this premiere. One of the good things about lockdown is that we were able to play it for the composer via FaceTime – which was very helpful and Errollyn showed me the view of the sea from her lighthouse on the north coast of Scotland which reminded me of Judith Weir’s Atlantic Drift and the Scottish folk music on which that’s based. The Scottish hue is continued in Weir’s ‘Bagpiper’s String Trio’, about the life of 18th century James Reid who was executed after a judge classified the bagpipes to be a weapon.

Wallen’s new piece for violin and piano is called Sojourner Truth, the name of an extraordinary American abolitionist and women’s rights activist, born into slavery in 1797, who died in 1883, three years before the birth of Rebecca Clarke. Errollyn uses the melody of the slave song ‘O’er the Crossing’ and in the words of the composer: 'to celebrate International Women’s Day, my own Sojourner Truth conquers despair and rather like a march, certainly a walk of defiance, the spiritual is transformed into a song of freedom'.  

Even 50 years ago it was very difficult for women composers and it’s only in the past few years that some of the earlier composers’ music is more widely known. I hope that the next century will see great freedom for women to create more wonderful music.

I’m very grateful for the support we’ve received from the Ambache Trust.

This programme is available to watch and listen until 8 April and we and St John’s Smith Square would much appreciate any donations people are able to make.

Madeleine Mitchell directs a streamed concert at St John’s Smith Square on International Women’s Day (8 March 2021) celebrating A Century of Music by British Women (1921-2021) with her London Chamber Ensemble– 8pm: https://www.sjss.org.uk/online-performances

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