International Women's Week
Last week was International Women’s Week, and it was an especially great time within the music sphere to see so many people celebrating the work of women composers, conductors and performers. Obviously as a composer myself, I’m particularly passionate about advocating female composers. A survey by Ipsos MORI in 2016 found that when asked specifically to name a female composer, only 4% of adults could do so. When I was growing up in choirs I rarely remember singing any music that was by women, and all the standard repertoire I knew was just written by men. It became normal for me to think that composers all seemed to be men, and it was only as I started composing myself that I began to research more and more incredible women working in the field and listen to their music.
I think schools, universities and other educational faculties have a real responsibility to young people to break down these stereotypes in the way they educate young people, to advocate the music of female composers, and to make sure that in concerts, set works and studies they are representing a more even ratio of music written by male and female composers.
Last week our Music Department at university, in conjunction with the student-led music society, held a lunchtime concert that was celebrating women in music. I was taking part in this concert, singing as part of a vocal octet a piece by Megan Cunnington, a current music student. It was a real privilege to sing Megan’s piece, which was a beautiful, strophic-structured composition entitled ‘Dream of Home’, written to depict the scene from Titanic where a mother tucks her children into bed, amid the chaos and coming tragedy. I love the simplicity and lyrical flow of Megan’s setting, which so purely captures the emotion of the story, with real tangible aspects of childhood innocence and lullaby heard throughout. Another student, Finola Southgate, also had her work performed in the concert, and other performances that featured were of Amy Beach’s ‘Romance for Violin and Piano’, and Madeleine Dring’s ‘Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano’. It was so great to hold this concert, and to in a sense take a stand for women in the industry and appreciate all that they are contributing to it.
This International Women’s Week I had one of my works sung, a setting of the Magnificat, in University College’s choral evensong service. I was commissioned to compose this piece last April for the Girl Choristers of Durham Cathedral, for an evensong service featuring all-female voices and all-female composed works. The piece is SSA, and I wrote it specifically hoping to celebrate the qualities of solely female voices in a choral setting.
The piece is quite bare in its essence, giving it an intended haunting and ethereal quality. It features elements of plainchant, that are mixed between moments of harmony, mostly in homophony, to create an eerie and uncertain mood. Each phrase is distinct from the next, with rests between each which allow a real sense of space to the music. The chord changes are often unexpected, with these sometimes only having one semitone difference between them. I have really liked the way this piece has turned out, and I think it has turned out to be quite a thought-provoking but also reflective piece, which works well in the context of an evensong service.
Why don’t you have a listen to some choral music composed by women this week and find some new favourites? Here are just a few of my own favourite choral works written by female composers:
Judith Weir’s- Drop down, ye heavens, from above, ORA Singers
Sally Beamish- In the Stillness, ORA Singers
Charlotte Bray- Agnus Dei, ORA Singers
Written by Stephanie Devlin