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Amy Beach's Symphony in e minor, Op. 32

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This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers! https://youtu.be/VmLU1CfHcJw Douglas Shadle said in Orchestrating the Nation that most 21st-century concertgoers may never hear any of the 100+ symphonies composed by U.S. composers in the 19th century. To most classical music fans, the 19th century is all about the Russians, the Germans, perhaps some other Europeans, but U.S. music of that time is considered to be popular (e.g., Foster). The first U.S. composer most people will have heard of is Ives. But what about the women composers of the 19th century? Well, in the 19th-century United States, the most well-known and successful woman composer of large-scale orchestral works was Amy Beach (1867–1944). As a composer, Beach was almost entirely self-taught, although she was an accomplished pianist and singer and had received training in both from a very young age. Beach's Symph
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Judith Weir's Heroic Strokes of the Bow

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This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers! https://youtu.be/mki7_jyYWzc The Scottish composer Judith Weir (born 1954) had some composition lessons with John Tavener as a teenager, and Aaron Copland heard a work of hers performed by a youth orchestra in the 1970s and suggested that she go to Tanglewood. It was not long before she was in demand. Her operas were very well received, and I loved her King Harald's Saga for solo voice in particular. The Sekretariat für gemeinsame Kulturarbeit in Nordrhein-Westfalen commissioned Weir to write a work for orchestra in the early 1990s. The result was Heroic Strokes of the Bow , a wonderful work that Weir says was inspired by the painting of the same name ( Heroische Bogenstriche ) by Paul Klee (one of my favourite artists, as it happens). Weir says of this work, "My piece is not principally meant as a depiction of the picture
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Jennifer Higdon’s Trumpet Songs: I. Morning Opens

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This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers! https://youtu.be/DF7kakqQjkI Jennifer Higdon began her musical studies (self-taught) at the age of 15; she didn’t begin formal lessons until she was 18, and she only began composition studies at the age of 21. She has received many awards for her works, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy. Her opera Cold Mountain was co-commissioned by Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and Minnesota Opera in collaboration with North Carolina Opera, and won the International Opera Award for Best World Premiere. James Manheim says, "Part of Higdon's appeal is her colorful orchestration. . . . Her treatment of melody is at once rigorous and pleasantly appealing, and in fact predominantly short pieces . . . offer a good way to get a grip on her music." One of these short pieces, her Trumpet Songs (2004), were originally writ
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Elfrida Andrée's Organ Symphony No. 2 in E Flat

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This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers! https://youtu.be/5w_BfXxmnIc The Swedish composer and organist Elfrida Andrée (1841–1929) was one of the first women organists to be appointed to a full-time position in Scandinavia. She was the organist at Götheberg Cathedral from 1867 until her death. In addition to two organ symphonies, she composed many other works, including chamber music, orchestral music, and an opera. She also was the first Swedish woman telegraph operator. Andrée is definitely not well known either in her native Sweden or, indeed, anywhere else. She probably would not be considered to be a great composer, but her works are definitely tuneful and sometimes quite intriguing. Her Organ Symphony No. 2 for organ and brass is an good example of this. My classical music post for today is Elfrida Andrée's Organ Symphony No. 2 in E Flat.  
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Ruth Crawford Seeger's Music for Small Orchestra

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This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers! https://youtu.be/O_JDzIpuELE Ruth Crawford (1901–1953) was an atonal composer when she met Charles Seeger, but she always had an interest in American folk music. After she married Seeger, she worked with the Lomaxes at the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress. She also arranged and published transcriptions of dozens of American folk songs. She is now seen as one of the most important modernist composers of the 20th century. Crawford Seeger composed Music for Small Orchestra in 1926, following a stint as a percussionist for the Chicago Civic Orchestra. Dave Lewis says, "Crawford submitted the score of Music for Small Orchestra to a scholarship committee sponsored by the Institute of Musical Art, shortly to become the Juilliard School, along with her Sonata for Violin and Piano. Crawford won the scholarship,
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Dora Pejačević’s Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 35

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This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers! https://youtu.be/-chTjgzSkQs Dora Pejačević (10 September 1885–5 March 1923) was a Croatian composer. Although she was born into a noble family, during World War I she saw so much suffering that it served to alienate her from her family and friends. Pamela Blevins says, "Dora was fluent in several languages, including English, and easily shifted among them in her voracious reading. Curiosity was the driving force in her life. She was interested in politics; she knew how to talk to the men and women in the street and understood them. . . . Dora started to compose at the age of twelve. Fortunately her parents recognized her natural gifts and allowed her to study abroad. She was largely self-taught in music, which is remarkable considering the inventiveness, rich brilliance and enduring quality of her compositions. Beginning in
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Morfydd Llwyn Owen's "Gweddi y Pechadur"

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This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers! https://youtu.be/jFj60LUcTVk The Welsh composer Morfydd Llwyn Owen was born in 1891 and died, suddenly and tragically at the age of 26, of chloroform poisoning following an emergency appendectomy. This extraordinary woman had won prizes for her compositions as well as for her singing, and was incredibly prolific in her short life — nearly 200 compositions, including songs, chamber music, piano pieces, and orchestral works. Much of her music had its roots in Welsh literature and folk song. "Gweddi y Pechadur," for voice and piano, with a Welsh text, is one of her best-known songs. She wrote this work, "The Sinner's Prayer," over one weekend in June 1913 at her parents' house. Keith Davies Jones said of this piece: "It is a setting of a hymn by Thomas William (1761-1844) which is said to have been a f
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