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From:
Anne Ozorio <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 17 Jan 2005 18:51:46 -0000
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Rick Mabry wrote:

>My wife floored me, I am ashamed to say, with a question: "So who were
>the first great female classical music composers?" I couldn't name
>one. I can't even remember having ever known an example.

Brilliant question!  The most famous spring to mind - Fanny Mendelssohn,
whose work really stands up to Felix's, and Clara Schumann, whose work
is popular but I really don't think would be quite so often played had
she not been Mrs Robert.  There are quite a lot of recordings of both,
and their music frequently appears in recital programmes.

Very important is Luise Reichardt, 1779-1826.  She was the daughter of
one of Goethe's composer friends.  She was determined to make a living
on her own as a composer, moving from Berlin where her father's following
was, to Hamburg, where she set up on her own.  There she became part of
the avant garde at the time, mixing with early Romantics like Brentano
and von Arnim.  She ran an influential school for musicians and wrote a
great deal, most unrecorded.  What I have heard of her work is very
impressive indeed..

Josephine Lang (1815-1880) was on the edge of the Mendelssohn/Schumann
circle.  There's a CD of her work on cpo.

Alma Mahler, in her own words wasa great composer suffocated by her
husband.  In fact her limited output has been polished and repolished
by her teacher/boyfriend Zemlinsky and by that terrible husband without
whom I really don't believe her music would be heard today.  (grin)

My favourite is Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) sister of Nadia, the influential
teacher and composer..  Lili amazes me, for young as she was innovative
and completely original.  Definbitely worth looking out for, the genuine
article!

Anne
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