Head over to the Women’s Song Forum to learn about Dr. Lisa Colton’s discovery of the manuscript score to Smyth’s Mass in D!
Category Archives: New Scholarship
Smyth Mass in D manuscript score now digitised!
The amazing archivists at the University of Liverpool have now made available the full manuscript score of the Mass in D, which was thought lost but had been fully catalogued for decades.
Read more here!
Presumed lost manuscript ‘found’!
Prof Lisa Colton, musicologist at the University of Liverpool, recently came across the location of the presumed lost complete manuscript score to Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D. Thanks to the archivists at the University of Liverpool, it has been carefully catalogued and preserved for decades.
Read more here!
CFP: Ethel Smyth Symposium, Dublin City University, 12-13 July 2024
Dame Ethel Smyth: Connections, Culture, and Context
Dublin City University
12–13 July 2024
CFP deadline EXTENDED: Monday 29 January 2024
Email: smythsymposium2024@gmail.com
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Writing in her 1936 autobiography As Time Went On, Dame Ethel Smyth remarked that she had ‘never yet succeeded in becoming even a tiny wheel in the English music machine’. Smyth’s observation encapsulates the frustration that she often felt during her career as she strove to penetrate the male-dominated world of music. However, since the 1980s, a wealth of research has highlighted Smyth’s significance as a composer, writer, and social activist of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The landmark performance of The Wreckers (1902–04) at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival in 2022, and the world premiere of her cantata The Song of Love in 2023, reflect the ever-growing interest in performing Smyth’s music. The desire to bring new life to forgotten works is further exemplified by the first commercial recording of Der Wald (1899–1901), released by Resonus Classics in 2023 and highly praised by critics.
To mark the 80th anniversary of Ethel Smyth’s death in May 2024, this interdisciplinary symposium invites proposals concerning all aspects of Smyth’s life and music. Moreover, it seeks to broaden our understanding of Smyth’s world by looking at the culture and context from which her music emerged and aims to deepen our awareness of the social connections that she made over the course of her career. As such, we welcome proposals related (but not limited) to Ethel Smyth’s:
- Musical output
- Life and biography
- Identity
- Publications and autobiographical writing
- Education and Leipzig circles
- Political activities
- Friendships and wider networks
We are delighted to announce that Dr Christopher Wiley (University of Surrey) will give the keynote address at the symposium. Wiley is an internationally acknowledged expert on musical biography and has published extensively on Ethel Smyth.
Please submit proposals of up to 250 words for 20-minute individual or co-authored presentations and 30-minute lecture recitals to Hannah Millington at smythsymposium2024@gmail.com by Monday 29 January 2024. Submissions should be sent in Word or Pages format and include a brief biographical note of no more than 150 words. We particularly welcome proposals from post/graduate students, independent scholars, and under-represented communities.
Applicants will be notified of the outcome by Friday 16 February.
We thank you for your engagement and look forward to welcoming you to Dublin City University in 2024.
BBC Culture brings attention to Smyth’s work ahead of several Proms concerts
As the Proms will be featuring Smyth’s music on no fewer than FIVE concerts during the 2022 season, BBC Culture ran a detailed article on her life and music last week. Beverley D’Silva interviewed Leah Broad, Sophie Fuller, Melly Still, Stephen Langridge and Amy Zigler in advance of the July 24 Prom 13 semi-staged performance of The Wreckers by the Glyndebourne Opera Company.
Read the article here.
Listen to the BBC Radio 3 broadcast through the end of August here.
Subscribe to Glyndebourne’s livestream and watch the production yourself here.
New ‘Brainpickings’ article by Maria Popova!
Check out the fascinating piece on Smyth titled “Dignity, Daring, and Disability: The Pioneering Queer Composer and Defiant Genius Ethel Smyth on Making Music While Going Deaf” by Maria Popova!
BBC Radio 4 ‘Tales from the Stave’ Examines The Wreckers!
For more information on the history and manuscripts of The Wreckers, be sure to listen to BBC Radio 4’s episode of Tales from the Stave!
Check out our Music Manuscripts list!
Feel free to browse our Music Manuscripts list! The list of music manuscripts and correspondence was compiled by Amy Zigler.
On Performing The US Premiere Of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison by Conductor James Blachly
Here is a discussion by conductor James Blachly about his experience conducting the U.S. premiere of Dame Ethel Smyth’s “The Prison.” This article is from March 2018, but still an interesting read! You may access the article here.
Check out our Works List!
Feel free to browse our Works list! The list of works and places to purchase or access the works was compiled by Amy Zigler.