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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Gisèle Sikora – Daybreak
I'll kick off this week with a composer I had not heard of until yesterday. I found this in one of Annette Kruisbrink’s books of works by women composers. According to Kruisbrink, Sikora lived in Belgium, where she taught at the music school of Lanaken. She played both the guitar and accordion, and her compositions were mainly for these two instruments. Her dates are 1952-2006, so she died rather young. This very short piece (I really wish it were longer) has obvious jazz influence. It’s really fun to play, especially the faster second half.
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Eric Phillips This is a beautiful piece. Definitely surprising how short it is. I've been playing it and trying to figure out a way I liked it with a lot packed into such a short amount of time. Really nice job.
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Nice. I never heard this name before, but apparently she was part of a Belgian folkband ‘ Stemming’, lyrics in Dutch (Flemish), popular over here in the seventies. Thanks for sharing the discovery.
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Really like it a lot. I agree, I really wished it were longer too.
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Eric Phillips Very cool and refreshing piece Eric. Great choice and very well done.
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Eric Phillips Nice! Gisele lived and worked practically around the corner, since I live only 5 km from Lanaken. But I never heard of her before. I'll ask my old guitar teacher if he knew her.
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I finally managed to sit down in my study and record some stuff.
I started with a few studies by Jana Obrovská, a set of 10, actually a coproduction with her husband Milan Zelenka so I hope it’s in line with the challenge theme. I think the musical language is Jana’s. As mentioned in the edition I found in Prague, these ‘Snadné Etudy’ (Easy studies) aim to give beginner students (used to Sor and Giuliani etudes) some introduction to untraditional chord-/ harmony changes within a limited technical range (1974, before we heard the Brouwer studies). I tried sight reading, they’re pretty easy, yet the unpredictability makes it fun to work on.Tomorrow I will continue and hopefully succeed to record Ahimsa and Danse Rythmique
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joosje Thanks for sharing! It does sounds like one of Brouwer's Etude especially Etude X.
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joosje Those are great studies, Joosje! Several of us seem to be combining the Women Composers Challenge with the Studies Challenge.
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joosje Very interesting studies Joosje. Very mysterious and addictive mood. Well done.
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joosje These are awesome pieces. I need to look into these. I really like her writing and mainly know of her through the preludes that are a little beyond me. Thanks for sharing these.
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Snowden's Song for Maria and Guidalina's Serenade
Been busy recently so didn't have much time to practice and like this will be my last update for the two pieces. But will continue to work on them as I really like these pieces a lot.
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don Beautiful, Don! What a great sense of melody she has.
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don Well done Don. I also like a lot the composition from Laura Snowden. Way to advanced for me but very beautiful.
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don that’s great Don. You’ve done some good work here. Sofia’s (early) work for our instrument is so refreshing and intriguing…. Thank you for sharing.
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don Beautiful!, so fragile and tender.
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don Great work, Don. It is really nice hearing the Gubaidulina Serenade. It doesn't get enough air time. The Snowden piece is also beautifully performed. Thanks for presenting these.
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Presti - Etude III (Apr 27)
Here is an update on this. I'm really trying to play the chords very evenly, and not arpeggiate any of them. It gets hard in a few spots, either because the left hand is tricky, or because the chord has open strings, or simply because it is toward the end I am getting tired.
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Eric Phillips Very impressive control in both hands, Eric! At no point is the difficulty (especially for the left hand) made apparent - you make it look effortless! it's a piece I find I like more and more with each hearing. I've put it on my own list of 'essential' studies. Thanks for sharing!
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David Krupka Thanks, David. It is very effective as a study in that there are some very clear technical goals for each hand. Musically, it seems like she is being rather playful with the harmonic movement. In some places, the movement is very traditional and somewhat predictable. In other places, just the opposite is true.
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Eric Phillips beautiful playing, sounds easier than it (probably) is.
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Eric Phillips Thanks to you, I really keen on starting on her studies. Which is you favorite?
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don Without a doubt, my favorite is Etude II.
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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 Excellent, Steve. At the risk of getting too philosophical, I love how her music has survived, transcending her life circumstances, still bringing beauty to us.
I'm guessing these were written for piano? Some of those chords look very non-guitaristic.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
