Amanda Aldridge’s Moorish Pictures, I: Prayer Before Battle
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/68sUH36DEzs It’s not all that easy to find recordings of music by Amanda Aldridge (1866–1956), even when you know that she composed under the pseudonym of Montague Ring. Aldridge, the daughter of the African American Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge, was best known as an opera singer. She studied voice with, among others, Jenny Lind at the Royal College of Music. Her singing career ended when she had a particularly bad bout of laryngitis, which permanently damaged her throat. She turned to teaching and composing. Most of her works were what was known as “parlour music,” which means that they were performed in people’s homes. Ray White points out that Aldridge inspired Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson: “Amanda Aldridge was able to inspire up-and-coming actor and singer Paul Robeson with the confidence and technique ...