HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Ethel Smyth
OR:
Ethel Smyth on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 18588 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended to be marginalised as a ‘woman composer’, as though her work could not be accepted as mainstream. Yet when she produced more delicate compositions, they were criticised for not measuring up to the standard of her male competitors. Nevertheless, she was granted a damehood, the first female composer to be so honoured.


Family background

Ethel Smyth was the fourth of eight children. The youngest was Robert ("Bob") Napier Smyth (1868–1947), who rose to become a Brigadier in the British Army. She was the aunt of Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Eastwood. She was born in Sidcup, Kent, which is now in the London Borough of Bexley. While 22 April is the actual day of her birth, Smyth habitually stated it was 23 April, the day that was celebrated by her family, as they enjoyed the coincidence with
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's. Her father, John Hall Smyth, who was a
major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
in the
Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
, was very much opposed to her making a career in music.Gates (2013), pp. 1 – 9 She lived at Frimhurst, near
Frimley Green Frimley Green is a large village and ward of in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. It is south of the town of Frimley. Lakeside Country Club was the national venue for the BDO int ...
for many years, before moving to Hook Heath on the outskirts of Woking.


Musical career

She first studied with Alexander Ewing when she was seventeen. He introduced her to the music of
Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
and Berlioz. After a major battle with her father about her plans to devote her life to music, Smyth was allowed to advance her musical education at the
Leipzig Conservatory The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig) is a public university in Leipzig (Saxony, Germany). Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn ...
, where she studied composition with Carl Reinecke. She left after a year, however, disillusioned with the low standard of teaching, and continued her music studies privately with
Heinrich von Herzogenberg Heinrich Picot de Peccaduc, Freiherr von Herzogenberg (10 June 1843 – 9 October 1900) was an Austrian composer and conductor descended from a French aristocratic family. He was born in Graz and was educated at a Jesuit school in Feldkirch ...
. While she was at the Leipzig Conservatory, she met Dvořák, Grieg and
Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
. Through Herzogenberg, she also met
Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Schumann (; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a ...
and
Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
. Upon her return to England, she formed a supportive friendship with Arthur Sullivan in the last years of his life; he respected her and encouraged her work. Smyth's extensive body of work includes the Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra and the Mass in D. Her opera ''
The Wreckers The Wreckers were an American country music duo formed in 2005 by Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp, both of whom had solo recordings before the duo's foundation. In 2006, the duo released its debut album '' Stand Still, Look Pretty'', which produ ...
'' is considered by some critics to be the "most important English opera composed during the period between Purcell and Britten." In 2022 it was performed at the
Glyndebourne Festival Opera Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, ...
, the first professional production in its original French libretto. It was also performed at the
BBC Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
, where its prelude or overture was included 27 times between 1913 and 1947. Another of her operas, ''
Der Wald ' ''(The Forest)'' is an opera in one act by Ethel Smyth to a libretto by Henry Brewster and Smyth, written between 1899 and 1901. It was Smyth's second opera and it was first performed on 2 April 1902 at the Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin. Per ...
'', mounted in 1903, was for more than a century the only opera by a woman composer ever produced at New York's
Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...
(until Kaija Saariaho's ''
L'Amour de loin ' (''Love from Afar'') is an opera in five acts with music by Kaija Saariaho and a French-language libretto by Amin Maalouf. The opera received its world premiere performance on 15 August 2000 at the Salzburg Festival. Saariaho, living in Paris si ...
'' in December 2016). On 28 May 1928 the nascent
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
broadcast two concerts of Smyth's music, marking her "musical jubilee", The first comprised chamber music, the second, conducted by Smyth herself, choral works. Otherwise, recognition in England came somewhat late for Ethel Smyth, wrote the conductor
Leon Botstein Leon Botstein (born December 14, 1946 in Zürich, Switzerland) is a Swiss-American conducting, conductor, educator, and scholar serving as the President of Bard College. Biography 1946–1975: Early life, education, and career Botstein was ...
at the time he conducted the American Symphony Orchestra's US premiere of ''
The Wreckers The Wreckers were an American country music duo formed in 2005 by Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp, both of whom had solo recordings before the duo's foundation. In 2006, the duo released its debut album '' Stand Still, Look Pretty'', which produ ...
'' in New York on 30 September 2007: Her final major work was the hour long vocal symphony ''The Prison'', setting a text by Henry Bennett Brewster. It was first performed in 1931. The first recording was issued by Chandos in 2020. However, she found a new interest in literature and, between 1919 and 1940, she published ten highly successful, mostly autobiographical, books.


Critical reception

Overall, critical reaction to her work was mixed. She was alternately praised and panned for writing music that was considered too masculine for a "lady composer", as critics called her. Eugene Gates writes that
Smyth's music was seldom evaluated as simply the work of a composer among composers, but as that of a "woman composer". This worked to keep her on the margins of the profession, and, coupled with the double standard of sexual aesthetics, also placed her in a double bind. On the one hand, when she composed powerful, rhythmically vital music, it was said that her work lacked feminine charm; on the other, when she produced delicate, melodious compositions, she was accused of not measuring up to the artistic standards of her male colleagues.
Other critics were more favourable: "The composer is a learned musician: it is learning which gives her the power to express her natural inborn sense of humour... Dr. Smyth knows her Mozart and her Sullivan: she has learned how to write conversations in music... /nowiki>The_Boatswain's_Mate.html" ;"title="The_Boatswain's_Mate.html" ;"title="/nowiki>The Boatswain's Mate">/nowiki>The Boatswain's Mate">The_Boatswain's_Mate.html" ;"title="/nowiki>The Boatswain's Mate">/nowiki>The Boatswain's Mate/nowiki> is one of the merriest, most tuneful, and most delightful comic operas ever put on the stage."


Involvement with the suffrage movement

In 1910, Smyth joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), which agitated for
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
, giving up music for two years to devote herself to the cause. She accompanied the charismatic leader of the WSPU,
Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst ('' née'' Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was an English political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, ''Time'' named her as one of the 100 Most Impo ...
, on many occasions, and her "
The March of the Women "The March of the Women" is a song composed by Ethel Smyth in 1910, to words by Cicely Hamilton. It became the official anthem of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and more widely the anthem of the women's suffrage movement throughou ...
" (1911) became the anthem of the
suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
movement. Smyth is credited with teaching Emmeline Pankhurst how to throw stones in 1912. After further practice aiming stones at trees near the home of fellow suffragette, Zelie Emerson, Pankhurst called on WPSU members to break a window of the house of any politician who opposed votes for women. Smyth was one of the 109 members who responded to Pankhurst's call, asking to be sent to attack the home of Colonial Secretary
Lewis Harcourt Lewis Vernon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt (born Reginald Vernon Harcourt; 31 January 1863 – 24 February 1922), was a British Liberal Party politician who held the Cabinet post of Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1910 to 1915. Lord ...
, who had remarked that if his wife's beauty and wisdom was present in all women, they would have already won the vote. Smyth stood half the bail for Helen Craggs, who had been caught on the way to carry out the arson of the leading politician's home. During the stone throwing, Pankhurst and 100 other women were arrested, and Smyth served two months in
Holloway Prison HM Prison Holloway was a closed category prison for adult women and young offenders in Holloway, London, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was the largest women's prison in western Europe, until its closure in 2016. Hist ...
.Abromeit, Kathleen A.
"Ethel Smyth, ''The Wreckers'', and Sir Thomas Beecham"
''The Musical Quarterly'', Vol. 73, issue 2, 1989, pp. 196–211. By subscription or payment on JSTOR When
Thomas Beecham Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Roya ...
, her proponent-friend, went to visit her there, he found suffragettes marching in the quadrangle and singing, as Smyth leaned out of a window conducting the song with a toothbrush. In her book, ''Female Pipings in Eden'', Smyth said her prison experience was of being "in good company" of united women "old, young, rich, poor, strong, delicate", putting the cause they were imprisoned for before their personal needs. Smyth revealed that the prison was infested with cockroaches, even in the hospital ward. She was released early, due to a medical assessment that she was mentally unstable and hysterical. Smyth gave written evidence in the November trial of Pankhurst and others for inciting violence, stating that she (Smyth) had freely engaged in activism. She continued to correspond with Pankhurst, and heard of her getting lost trying to find the safe house provided for her to avoid re-arrest in Scotland. Smyth strongly disagreed with the support Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel gave to the war effort in 1914, but she did train as a
radiographer Radiographers, also known as radiologic technologists, diagnostic radiographers and medical radiation technologists are healthcare professionals who specialize in the imaging of human anatomy for the diagnosis and treatment of pathology. Radi ...
in Paris. Her fractious friendship with Christabel ended in 1925, and Smyth conducted the Metropolitan Police Band at the unveiling of the statue to Emmeline in London in 1930.


Personal life

Smyth had several passionate affairs in her life, most of them with women. Her philosopher-friend and the librettist of some of her operas, Henry Bennet Brewster, may have been her only male lover. She wrote to him in 1892: "I wonder why it is so much easier for me to love my own sex more passionately than yours. I can't make it out, for I am a very healthy-minded person." Smyth was at one time in love with the married suffragette
Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst ('' née'' Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was an English political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, ''Time'' named her as one of the 100 Most Impo ...
. At age 71, she fell in love with writer
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
– herself having worked in the women's suffrage movement – who, both alarmed and amused, said it was "like being caught by a giant crab", but the two became friends. Smyth's relationship with
Violet Gordon-Woodhouse Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (23 April 18729 January 1948) was a British keyboard player. She specialised in the harpsichord and clavichord, and was influential in bringing both instruments back into fashion. She was the first person to record the ha ...
is depicted satirically in
Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher and writer who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of traditionalist conservative views. Editor from 1982 ...
's 2005 opera, ''
Violet Violet may refer to: Common meanings * Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue * One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly: ** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants Places United States * Viol ...
.'' Smyth was actively involved in sport throughout her life. In her youth, she was a keen horse-rider and tennis player. She was a passionate golfer and a member of the ladies' section of Woking Golf Club, near where she lived. After she died and was cremated, her ashes were, as she had requested, scattered in the woods neighbouring the club by her brother Bob.Ethel Smyth
. Retrieved 23 May 2016 In recognition of her work as a composer and writer, Smyth was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1922, becoming the first female composer to be awarded a damehood. Smyth received honorary doctorates in music from the Universities of Durham and Oxford.Five facts about Dame Ethel Smyth
Oxford University Press Blog. (by Christopher Wiley) She died in Woking in 1944 at the age of 86. She met
Willie Wilde William Charles Kingsbury Wilde (26 September 1852 – 13 March 1899) was an Irish journalist and poet of the Victorian era and the older brother of Oscar Wilde. Background Willie was the oldest son born into an Anglo-Irish family, at 21 Westl ...
, the brother of
Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
, during a trip to Ireland. They became engaged on the railway journey from Holyhead to Euston, but she broke it off within three weeks.


Representations

Ethel Smyth featured, under the name of Edith Staines, in
E. F. Benson Edward Frederic Benson (24 July 1867 – 29 February 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer. Early life E.F. Benson was born at Wellington College (Berkshire), Wellington College in Berkshir ...
's ''Dodo'' books (1893–1921), decades before the quaint musical characters of his more famous
Mapp and Lucia ''Mapp and Lucia'' is a 1931 comic novel written by E. F. Benson. It is the fourth of six novels in the popular Mapp and Lucia series, about idle women in the 1920s and their struggle for social dominance over their small communities. It bring ...
series. She "gleefully acknowledged" the portrait, according to
Prunella Scales Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales (''née'' Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English former actress, best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy '' Fawlty Towers'', her nomination for a ...
. She was later a model for the fictional Dame
Hilda Tablet Hilda Tablet is a fictitious "twelve-tone composeress" created by Henry Reed in a series of radio comedy plays for the British Broadcasting Corporation's Third Programme. Hilda is the inventor of '' musique concrète renforcée'' (literally, "r ...
in the 1950s radio plays of Henry Reed. She was portrayed by
Maureen Pryor Maureen St John Pook (23 May 1922 – 5 May 1977), known professionally as Maureen Pryor, was an Irish-born English character actress who made stage, film, and television appearances. ''The Encyclopaedia of British Film'' noted, "she never playe ...
in the 1974 BBC television film ''
Shoulder to Shoulder ''Shoulder to Shoulder'' is a 1974 BBC television serial and book relating the history of the women's suffrage movement, both edited by Midge Mackenzie. The drama series grew out of discussions between Mackenzie and the actress and singer Georg ...
''.
Judy Chicago Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...
's monumental work of
feminist art Feminist art is a category of art associated with the late 1960s and 1970s feminist movement. Feminist art highlights the societal and political differences women experience within their lives. The hopeful gain from this form of art is to bri ...
, ''
The Dinner Party ''The Dinner Party'' is an installation artwork by feminist artist Judy Chicago. Widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork, it functions as a symbolic history of women in civilization. There are 39 elaborate place settings on a triang ...
'', features a place setting for Ethel Smyth. Since 2018, the actress and singer, Lucy Stevens, has portrayed Ethel Smyth on stage at various venues in Britain. In March 2022, in recognition of International Women’s Day, a larger-than-size statue by Christine Charlesworth of Smyth conducting was unveiled in Duke’s Court Plaza, Woking by the Mayor of Woking, Cllr Liam Lyons, with invited guests who included members of Smyth’s family as well as academics and councillors. Charlesworth described her sculpture as:
“Ethel stands, wearing her usual tweed skirt, enthusiastically conducting passers-by with her over-sized baton, as presented to her at the Royal Albert Hall by Emeline Pankhurst.
“Her jacket is half open, her arms are beating out the time and her eyes are full of concentration as she battles with her hearing loss, which went completely in her 50’s.
“Also detailed in her pocket is a sheaf of paper which could be ideas for a new opera, or maybe notes for a new book, as well as sketches and polemical essays.”


Works


Writings

*''Impressions That Remained: Memoirs'' (1919
Vol. 1

Vol. 2''Streaks Of Life''
(1921)
'
(1927) *' (1928) *''Female Pipings in Eden'' (1933) *''Beecham and Pharaoh'' (1935)
'
(1936) *' (1936)
''Maurice Baring''
(1938), a memoir of
Maurice Baring Maurice Baring (27 April 1874 – 14 December 1945) was an English man of letters, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent, with particular knowledge of Russia. During Wo ...
*''What Happened Next'' (1940)
The Memoirs of Ethel Smyth
(1987), abridged and edited by
Ronald Crichton Ronald Crichton (28 December 1913 – 16 November 2005) was a music critic for the ''Financial Times'' in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a scion of the Earls of Erne. In his ''Times'' obituary he was described as "one of the last of the school of ...
. Available on 14-day loan at Archive.org (free registration required)


Recordings

* ''The Boatswain's Mate.'' Nadine Benjamin, Rebecca Louise Dale, Edward Lee, Ted Schmitz, Jeremy Huw Williams, Simon Wilding, Mark Nathan, Lontano Ensemble, c.
Odaline de la Martinez Odaline de la Martinez (born 31 October 1949) is a Cuban-American composer and conductor, currently residing in the UK. She is the artistic director of Lontano, a London-based contemporary music ensemble which she co-founded in 1976 with New Zeala ...
. Retrospect Opera RO001 (two CDs). * Cello Sonata in C minor (1880): Friedemann Kupsa cello, Anna Silova piano; Lieder und Balladen, Opp. 3 & 4, Three Moods of the Sea (1913): Maarten Koningsberger baritone, Kelvin Grout piano. TRO-CD 01417. * Complete Piano Works. Liana Șerbescu. CPO 999 327-2. * Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra. BBC Philharmonic, c.
Odaline de la Martinez Odaline de la Martinez (born 31 October 1949) is a Cuban-American composer and conductor, currently residing in the UK. She is the artistic director of Lontano, a London-based contemporary music ensemble which she co-founded in 1976 with New Zeala ...
. Chandos Chan 9449. * Double Concerto in A for violin, horn and piano (1926): Renate Eggebrecht violin, Franz Draxinger horn, Céline Dutilly piano; Four Songs for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble (1907):
Melinda Paulsen Melinda Paulsen (born 1964) is an American mezzo-soprano and contralto who has appeared mostly in Germany, with a focus on concert singing. She has been an academic voice teacher at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. Early life and education Pauls ...
mezzo, Ethel Smyth ensemble; Three songs for mezzo-soprano and piano (1913): Melinda Paulsen mezzo, Angela Gassenhuber piano. TRO-CD 01405. *
Fete Galante: A Dance Dream
' Charmian Bedford (soprano), Carolyn Dobbin (mezzo soprano), Mark Milhofer (tenor), Alessandro Fisher (tenor), Felix Kemp (baritone),
Simon Wallfisch Simon Wallfisch (born 22 May 1982) is a British-German classical singer and cellist. Life and career Simon Joseph Lasker Wallfisch was born in London in 1982 to a family of professional musicians: his father is British cellist Raphael Wallfisch ...
(baritone), Lontano Ensemble/Odaline de la Martinez. Retrospect Opera RO007. * Mass in D, March of the Women, Scene from ''The Boatswain's Mate''. Eiddwen Harrhy, The Plymouth Music Series, Philip Brunelle. Virgin Classics VC 7 91188-2. * ''The Prison'': Sarah Brailey, Dashon Burton, soloists; Experiential Orchestra and Chorus; James Blachly, Conductor. Steven Fox, Chorus Master, Blanton Alspaugh and Soundmirror, producer
Chandos Records
(2020). * Serenade in D major. BBC Philharmonic, c.
Odaline de la Martinez Odaline de la Martinez (born 31 October 1949) is a Cuban-American composer and conductor, currently residing in the UK. She is the artistic director of Lontano, a London-based contemporary music ensemble which she co-founded in 1976 with New Zeala ...
. Chandos Chan 9449. * String Quartet in C minor. Maier Quartet. DB Productions, DBCD197. * String Quartet in E minor and String Quintet op. 1 in E Major. Mannheimer Streichquartett and Joachim Griesheimer. CPO 999 352-2. * Suite for String Orchestra (1920), Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, conducted by Douglas Bostock
CPO 555 457-2
(2022). * Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 7, Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 5, String Quintet in E major, Op. 1, String Quartet in E minor (1912): Renate Eggebrecht, violin, Friedemann Kupsa cello, Céline Dutilly piano, Fanny Mendelssohn Quartet. TRO-CD 01403 (two CDs). * Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 7: Annette-Barbara Vogel, violin, Durval Cesetti, piano. Toccata TOCN0013 (2021). * ''The Wreckers.'' Anne-Marie Owens, Justin Lavender, Peter Sidhom, David Wilson-Johnson, Judith Howarth, Anthony Roden, Brian Bannatyne-Scott, Annemarie Sand. Huddersfield Choral Society, BBC Philharmonic, c.
Odaline de la Martinez Odaline de la Martinez (born 31 October 1949) is a Cuban-American composer and conductor, currently residing in the UK. She is the artistic director of Lontano, a London-based contemporary music ensemble which she co-founded in 1976 with New Zeala ...
. Conifer Classics. (Re-released by Retrospect Opera, RO004).


See also

*
Norah Smyth Norah Lyle-Smyth (22 March 1874 – 1963) was a British suffragette, photographer and socialist activist. Life Smyth was born into a wealthy family, and was the niece of the composer and suffragette Ethel Smyth. Until his death in 1912 her ...
– Ethel Smyth's niece and also a notable suffragette *
List of suffragists and suffragettes This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the public ...
*
List of Bloomsbury Group people This is a list of people associated with the Bloomsbury Group. Much about the group is controversial, including its membership: it has been said that "the three words 'the Bloomsbury group' have been so much used as to have become almost unusable" ...


References

Notes Cited sources * *Benson, E.F. (1986),
Dodo: An Omnibus
'. London: Hogarth Press, 1986 * Collis, Louise. ''Impetuous Heart: The Story of Ethel Smyth.'' London: William Kimber, 1984. * *Gates, Eugene (2006), "Damned If You Do and Damned If You Don't: Sexual Aesthetics and the Music of Dame Ethel Smyth", ''Kapralova Society Journal'' 4, no. 1, 2006: 1–5. *Gates, Eugene (2013), "Dame Ethel Smyth: Pioneer of English Opera." ''Kapralova Society Journal'' 11, no. 1 (2013): 1–9. *Jebens, Dieter and R. Cansdale (2004), ''Guide to the Basingstoke Canal''. Basingstoke Canal Authority and the Surrey and Hampshire Canal Society, 2004. (2nd Edition) * St. John, Christopher (1959), ''Ethel Smyth: A Biography.'' London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1959.


Further reading

* Anderson, Gwen, ''Ethel Smyth'', London: Cecil Woolf, 1997. * Bartsch, Cornelia, Rebecca Grotjahn, and Melanie Unseld. ''Felsensprengerin, Brückenbauerin, Wegbereiterin: Die Komponistin Ethel Smyth. Rock Blaster, Bridge Builder, Road Paver: The Composer Ethel Smyth.'' Allitera (2010) * Crichton, Ronald. ''The Memoirs of Ethel Smyth''. London: Viking Press, 1987. * Kertesz, Elizabeth Jane
''Issues in the critical reception of Ethel Smyth’s Mass and first four operas in England and Germany''
PhD Dissertation, Melbourne: University of Melbourne on unimelb.edu.au * Rieger, Eva (editor). ''A Stormy Winter: Memories of a Pugnacious English Composer.'' (Autobiography of Ethel Smyth) (Published in German as ''Ein stürmischer Winter. Erinnerungen einer streitbaren englischen Komponistin.'')
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1988. * Stone, Caroline E.M. ''Another Side of Ethel Smyth: Letters to her Great-Niece, Elizabeth Mary Williamson''. Kennedy & Boyd, 2018.


External links

* * *
LiederNet Archive

Dame Ethel Smyth: Pioneer of English Opera
– by Eugene Gates, ''Kapralova Society Journal''.

– by Valarie Morris, Sandscape Publications.
Ethel Mary Smyth letter
from the Special Collections and University Archives Department at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand- ...

Ethel Mary Smyth letter 2
from the Special Collections and University Archives Department at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand- ...

Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (1858–1944), Composer and writer
(National Portrait Gallery) * *
Dame Ethel Smyth: Composer, suffragette, sportswoman and resident of WokingRetrospect Opera
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smyth, Ethel 1858 births 1944 deaths British women classical composers 19th-century classical composers 20th-century classical composers Composers awarded knighthoods Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire English classical composers English expatriates in Germany Feminist musicians English feminist writers Lesbian musicians LGBT classical composers LGBT musicians from England Musicians from Kent Musicians from London English opera composers People from Sidcup People from Frimley English Romantic composers University of Music and Theatre Leipzig alumni Women of the Victorian era Pupils of Salomon Jadassohn English autobiographers Women autobiographers English women writers Writers from London 20th-century English women writers 20th-century British non-fiction writers Pupils of Carl Reinecke Women opera composers 20th-century English women musicians 20th-century British composers 19th-century British composers Women's Social and Political Union 20th-century women composers 19th-century women composers 19th-century LGBT people 20th-century LGBT people