Ethel Smyth: Songs & Ballads

Featuring

Lucy Stevens
Odaline de la Martinez
Elizabeth Marcus
Berkeley Ensemble
Ethel Smyth

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Smyth's songs illuminate her appetite for life, love, and her undaunted fight for women's freedom, showcasing the vocal artistry characteristic of her larger works.

Composition History

Smyth dedicated her first song cycle, Songs and Ballads, Op.3, to Livia Frege, a gifted singer to whom Mendelssohn and Schumann had also dedicated songs.

Composer Biography

At 18, Ethel Smyth defied social conventions by insisting on studying music at the Leipzig Conservatorium, despite her father's strong disapproval.

Compositional Technique

Smyth's Four Songs for voice and chamber orchestra are exquisitely orchestrated, with each song treated texturally differently while using the same musical forces.

Composer Biography

Smyth became actively involved with the militant suffragettes (Women's Social and Political Union) after meeting Emmeline Pankhurst, leading to her most influential work, 'The March of the Women'.

Historical Context

Smyth's early songs are closely aligned with the 19th-century German Lied tradition, influenced by her immersion in a prominent Leipzig musical circle.