The Women Composers Challenge Week 4
Welcome to week four of our community-driven challenge on women composers! In week three, we heard some music by Madeleine Cottin, Annette Kruisbrink, Maria Linnemann, and Ida Presti. Hopefully, many of you are saving up what you are working on for this last week, and so we will have many more posts to enjoy!
So, the goal is to choose a piece (or several pieces), and to work on it throughout the course of the challenge, posting videos or audio files of your progress along the way.
Or maybe you are a woman composer, and you would like to take this opportunity to share some of your work with the community.
The challenge will last for four weeks, ending on Saturday, May 3rd. A new discussion thread will be posted for each week of the challenge.
If you are looking for a place to start your search and pique your interest, Candice Mowbray has an excellent website on the subject. Here is a link.
If any beginners would like some suggestions for your playing level, feel free to ask the community by posting a message here.
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Two short pieces from Album pour les tout-petits, Op. 103, by Mél Bonis (1858-1937).
There's a great documentary of women composers by pianist Kyra Steckeweh, and Mél Bonis was one of the artists she featured. Melanie Bonis, who used the male pseudonym Mél, was a student at the Paris Conservatoire where she studied under César Franck and was a classmate of Claude Debussy. She formed a relationship with a fellow student, but her parents disapproved and forced her to drop out and marry a twice-widowed man 25 years older with five sons. She eventually got back to music (and to her fellow student, happily), but it's clear there was a lot of conflict in her life with her family, her religion, and her passions. I wonder if any of that is why Prière sounds so tense and different from other "prayers" I've heard in music by Barrios, Hand, Grieg, etc.-
Steve Price Interesting music which seems to work well on guitar, Steve. Are these your own arrangements? Btw, I read the entry for the composer in wikipedia - her life story reads like a Victorian novel. (The romance between her son and (unbeknownst to him) his illegitimate half-sister is surely the stuff of fiction!) She was certainly prolific (and evidently quite successful too) - I wonder if her work is known among pianists?
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Eric Phillips Eric Phillips Thanks a lot, Eric. These were for piano, and they were in Annette Kruisbrink's book of transcriptions. I agree that it does feel good in some small way to carry this music on. Thankfully, she was pretty successful in her lifetime. One of the others in the documentary, F@nny Mendelssohn Hensel (edited to get past the Tonebase filter, lol), Felix's sister, was only able to publish one work in her lifetime, and that was in the year she died. That's an entirely different annoying story.
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David Krupka Thanks, David. These were done by Annette Kruisbrink. I think she is fairly well-known, more so because of the exposure from the documentary, and was certainly successful in her time. She had the majority of her work published while she was alive. It was a pretty dramatic life, but it seems it all mostly turned out okay in the end.
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Thank you, Steve. Interesting miniatures. Well done! I would like to hear more of this.
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Steve Price These are wonderful pieces, Steve, which you play beautifully. I have never heard of her. I wish they were longer. Does she have more works that you know of?
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Steve Price Thanks for sharing. I love all these stories behind the compositions or composers, make them more ‘real’ than just notes.
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don I totally agree. I'm not to the point that it comes through in my playing, but I enjoy playing more when I know more about the composer and composition.
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I recorded this one before (a bit slower) for another challenge - I forgot which one? So I took it up again and made a new recording of the Danse Rythmique by Ida Presti at a slightly more lively tempo. I hope to get a better take tomorrow. Was a bit hasty today… I love this piece a lot so I’ll continue practicing… and I’m still working on Ahimsa (Kruisbrink) too. Maybe I’ll make it in time.
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joosje This is so wonderful, Joosje! I tried to play this long ago (and gave up), so I know it is a rather difficult piece, technically. You not only handle the technique, but you play it with such a high level of musicality. The variations in tone color, dynamics, and articulation really bring it alive. I am so glad you have kept working on it as you have clearly made the piece your own. Brava!
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joosje This is really good, Joosje. What a challenge but you play it beautifully. You have a great feel for this piece. Thanks for presenting this.
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joosje I love that, Joosje. Such a happy piece, but it looks tough. Very well done.
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joosje Great job, Joosje, this is a difficult piece! Love your musicality.
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joosje well done! Such a playful and difficult piece.
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Finally, after several takes, I was able to produce one that I can upload. Although I only play for a camera, I suffer from stage fright.
I recorded the piece "Nowhere" from Austrian composer Angela Mair. I like the melancholic and simple atmosphere of the music and hope you enjoy listening. I sure enjoy playing this piece.
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Gunter I love it, Gunter! I listened at the end of a tiring day at work, and it was perfect. Thanks for sharing!
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Gunter This is beautifully played, Gunter. The opening phrase sounds like a Beatle song (I think) but I can't remember which one. Thanks for sharing.
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Gunter very nice. Lovely piece and your sound is good too. Very pleasant to listen to. Thank you for this submission.
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Gunter That's a lovely piece and well-played. I love how these challenges expose so much new music.
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Eric Phillips Jack Stewart Steve Price joosje
Thank you for your kind words!
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Gunter Very well played Günter!, No need to be afraid for performing, you play beautiful!. Participating in the Tonebase challenges will certainly help you to deal wit your stage fright.
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Gubaidulina April Day Musical Toys #5 Oh Boy!
What a mess! It has taken me the entire month to transcribe this 1 page piece and get it to this point. I thought I had it more under control until I listened to the video. I don't think I should have posted it like this but I wanted to at least contribute something. I think this is well worth listening to a recording of this in its original.
It is very chromatic and 'spikey' and there are a lot of minor 2nd interval which are a real challenge to play as well as many leaps. I feel I have a feel for it (even though that is not apparent in this video) though there is at least one section that I have figured out musically. I also have a lot not trouble rhythmically especially the first section. Oh well....
If I can get a better recording before Eric blows the whistle I'll post it.
Sofia Gubaidulina was a Russian composer that was out of favor with the Russian Music authorities. According to an NPR piece on her life and music ;
She was able to study composition in Moscow, where she played some of her unconventional music for the revered composer Dmitri Shostakovich. He encouraged her by suggesting that she continue down her "incorrect path" — in other words, don't compromise. That path led to music awards, but also official blacklisting by the Soviet Composers' Union, which denounced her music as "noisy mud." In 1973, a person believed to be a KGB operative tried to strangle Gubaidulina in the elevator of her apartment building. She scared him off by asking him why he was taking so long to kill her.
That was one feisty lady! She died on March 13th of this year at the age of 93 (so take that KGB).
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Jack Stewart fascinating job, Jack. Thank you for bringing this to the forum. Just in time! You managed to keep the tension in those intervals, which is sort of trade mark of Gubaidulina. You really have the feel for this.
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Jack Stewart Amazing transcription, Jack! How you got that to be playable on the guitar is sheer genius. You have a real gift for that!
It looks quite difficult to play, and you are doing a great job. After listening to a few piano performances, I'd suggest trying to play it more softly at the beginning to give it a greater sense of building up as the piece goes on. The piano obviously can do this very well, with its massive dynamic range.
Oh, and BTW ... no whistle shall be blown!
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Jack Stewart This is wonderful. I really hope you continue to work on this piece and I hope to hear you play it when I get back in June.
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joosje Thanks, Joosje. Hopefully I'll be able to post a better rendition within a couple of days. (even though Eric has already (or didn't) blown the whistle.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
