More often than not, women’s important contribution to music has been overlooked, neglected and ignored. There are probably more forgotten women composers than there are celebrated ones.
In recent years there have been genuine and determined efforts made to address this lamentable state of affairs. Whilst redressing the balance satisfactorily is unlikely, I’d like to invite you to take a short time to explore some of these women.
Contribution To History: Women Pianists and Composers
Rosina Cannabich
The piano began to take hold of musicians and composers in earnest as the 19th century gathered momentum. With it came a flurry of gifted composers and performers. Many were and still are, women.
Rosina Cannabich (1764-1839), was a pianist and composer whose name you probably won’t have uncovered. Coming from a relatively wealthy family and with a father who was the Concert Master of the Mannheim Court Orchestra, Rosina was quite well placed.
Her father was also a composer and as Rosina was the oldest of six siblings she was fortunate to be tutored by none other than WA Mozart. Mozart was impressed by Rosina’s musicianship and demeanour.
He wrote and dedicated to her his Sonata No.7 in C Major K 309. We know little of her compositions, but there is evidence of her composing a Piano Concerto that she performed alongside a Mozart Concerto n St Petersburg in October of 1790.
One of the most important and celebrated composers and pianists is Clara Schumann (1819-1896). At one time Clara Schumann received minimal attention, falling as she did under the shadow of her husband Robert Schumann.
There’s little doubt that Robert was a gifted composer, but so too was Clara. She was also an exceptionally gifted pianist who championed Robert’s work as well as that of the young Johannes Brahms. Her abilities were recognised by many leading composers of her age including Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt.
Clara Schumann gave premieres of many of Robert’s compositions often placing her work quietly beside his. She was deeply critical of her compositions yet her concentrated output contains works that are consummately created with immense imagination and foresight.
Somehow Clara was able to manage an intensely busy home life as a devoted Mother to eight children and Wife to Robert Schumann as well as compose, perform and teach. This only became more difficult as Robert’s mental health declined.
It was following his untimely death (1856), that Clara was able to continue touring and teaching. Sadly, Clara composed almost nothing after Robert’s death instead she made many notable arrangements of other composers’ works.
Louise Farrenc
Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was like Clara Schumann, a first-rate composer, pianist and teacher. French by birth Farrenc’s compositional style was not overtly similar to her contemporaries. Instead, Farrenc leaned closer to the popular music from Vienna and Germany with close echoes of Franz Schubert.
Farrenc’s talents did not go unnoticed and she entered the Paris Conservatory aged only fifteen. Clementi and Hummel were suitably impressed by the young pianist who later ascended to a professorship at the Paris Conservatory. She was the only woman to gain such a post there that century.
Her compositions were around fifty in number which was no small achievement considering her teaching and touring commitments. These include three symphonies, several vocal compositions and a strong collection of chamber music with the piano at the heart of many works.
Sophie Menter
Sophie Menter (1846-1918), was considered by Liszt to be one of the greatest pianists of her age. He marveled at her effortless virtuosity and under his tutorage, Menter became a legendary.
Liszt referred to her as his only piano daughter. Menter’s abilities enabled her to give a brilliant performance of Liszt’s notoriously challenging First Piano Concerto as well as her arrangements of three of the composer’s Hungarian Rhapsodies (Numbers 2,6 and 12).
Menter’s connections did not only include Lizst but Russian composer Pytor Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky held Menter in high regard and dutifully dedicated the Concert Fantasia in G (Op.56: 1884) to her.
The composer also scored Menter’s composition titled Concerto In A Hungarian Style and conducted the premiere. There appear to be only a handful of compositions by Menter who was never confident of her creative facility in this respect. Some speculation suggests that some of her compositions were that of Franz Liszt.
Adele aus der Ohe
Two other pianists stand out from the Franz Liszt years. These are Adele aus der Ohe (1861-1937) and Vera Timanova (1855-1942). Adele was a child prodigy. She gave her first public performance at ten years old and with Liszt’s support embarked upon an astonishing career as virtuoso pianist and composer.
Adele toured extensively with the Boston Symphony Orchestra giving over 50 concert performances. She even performed Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto under his baton at Carnegie Hall in 1891. Of her existing compositions, there are some notable songs, several pieces for piano and a piano concerto.
Vera Timanova
Vera Timanova was equally admired by Pytor Tchaikovsky and Alexander Borodin. Timanova came to the attention of Anton Rubenstein with whom she remained a lifelong friend. It was Rubenstein who facilitated her musical education and later her study with Franz Liszt.
Timanova toured extensively during her career and gained a reputation as a brilliant virtuoso pianist. There is little information on her compositional output but we can consider it to be of far less importance than her monumental contribution to the piano repertoire.
One recording of her playing the First Hungarian Rhapsody by Liszt still exists to give you a flavour of her talent.
Arabella Goddard
Primarily a pianist, but also a composer, Arabella Goddard (1836-1922), was another example of a wunderkind. Very early in her career, Goddard performed for the French Royal Family and later in her life for Queen Victoria too.
While debut performances can err on the side of caution but not so Arabella Goddard’s. She decided to give the first English performance of Beethoven’s notoriously demanding Piano Sonata No. 29 in Bb: the Hammerklavier.
Goddard toured extensively across the world demonstrating to her bedazzled audiences how she could perform the most intricate of compositions. Her work in bringing Beethoven to English as well as audiences further afield cannot be underestimated.
Goddard was one of the first Women to take up a teaching post during the inaugural year of the Royal College of Music (1883) and received many pieces dedicated to her brilliance.
Régine Wieniawski
It is highly unlikely that you will have encountered the name Régine Wieniawski (1879-1932) but more probable that you have Poldowski. Poldowski was one of the pseudonyms adopted by Régine Wieniawski shortly after the death of her first infant son and following her marriage to the nobleman Aubrey Dean Paul, 5th Barronet (1869-1961).
Poldowski worked and published pieces under a variety of name variations that can make tracing her legacy all the more challenging.
Poldowski is mixed in English high society and seems to be surrounded by a glittering mystique. Her account of her early years does not always match the evidence that exists. What we do know is that she was precociously talented and gave her debut at the age of fourteen playing some of her compositions.
Her father (Henryk Wieniawsk) was a celebrated Polish violinist and composer and also a professor at the Brussels Conservatory. Equally, her mother (Isabelle Bessie-Hampton) was well-connected and was the niece of Irish pianist and composer George Osborne. Osborne in turn was close friends with Hector Berlioz and Frédéric Chopin.
Poldowski’s life was a colourful one accompanied by some of the most influential performers and composers of her time. Of particular note is her song that set the texts of Paul Verlaine that became immensely popular in Paris in the early part of the 20th century.
Poldowski performed for eminent audiences that included royalty from across Europe receiving a diamond bracelet from the King and Queen of Spain following her 1925 tour of that country.
Her work has been described as fiercely individual, original and polished with just a hint of Claude Debussy. Poldowski was not only a composer of significance but also a children’s author and a fashion designer.