Fanny

Today, I asked the year 5 and 6 classes I teach to research a composer of 'classical' music.  I wrote lots of names on the board, asked them to pick one and find their first names, dates, a picture, three interesting facts and make a single page PowerPoint. In one class one of the girls asked me if they were all men.  I said they were, apart from the fact that there was a male and female Schumann. I completely forgot that there were two Mendelssohn's as well.  Realising that this must be another example of History forgetting about Her story I suggested that they look for some female composers and we would listen to their music.

One group of girls found Clara Weick Schumann immediately.  Their interesting facts were that Clara was a pianist who gave her first public concert when she was only 11; she married her husband Robert against the wishes of her father and she stopped composing at the age of 36 because, as she said, "I once believed I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose - there has never been one able to do it.  Should I expect to be the one?"  I have always thought Clara's compositions to be far superior to Robert's, so maybe she was the one.

Clara Schumann Nocturne in F major 1836

She wasn't the only one though.  While the children were all working quietly, there was a sudden excited shout, "I've found a Fanny!"  I was very professional, I didn't even smirk as the colour drained from the girl's face and she said, "I probably should have thought about that before, shouldn't I?"  

Fanny Mendelssohn:  I'd completely forgotten about her. She was Felix's sister.  She was no slouch.  She composed a sonata in Eb major when she was just 16 and is credited with over 400 works.  It is also known that several of her compositions were published under her brother's name (it was so much easier for a man to be published than a woman).  She had to wait until she was 32 years old before she was able to get anything published in her own name.

Fanny was only 14 years older than Clara Schumann but it seems unbelievable that she couldn't have known of her talent, as Fanny's brother, Felix was very fond of his sister and didn't deny her talent and Clara's first public concert was conducted by Mendelssohn.

I started to wonder if these women were the first composers.  I'm not surprised to find that they weren't.  Here are a few:

Hildegard of Bingen - 1098 -1179

Francesca Caccini - 1587 -1640

Barbra Strozzi 1619 -1677

Isabella Leonarda 1620 -1704

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre 1665 -1729

Marianne Von Martinez  1744 - 1812

Maria Theresa Von Paradis 1759- 1824

I have spent a rather pleasant evening searching out, and listening to works by these women.  There is nothing inferior about their work.  You might even have heard some of it and thought it was by a man.

You have probably heard this piece by Maria Paradis played by Jacqueline Du Pre and thought it was written by a man.