Community Women’s Orchestra

Monday, July 14

Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman

Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman is probably the music for which she is most celebrated. Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman is a series of five works composed under the same title, beginning in 1986. Over 500 ensembles have performed the popular fanfares worldwide – a remarkable achievement for any contemporary composer. The fanfares began as a response to Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. Tower wrote:

"Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, No. 1 was inspired by Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and employs, in fact, the same instrumentation. In addition, the original theme resembles the first theme in the Copland. It is dedicated to women who take risks and who are adventurous. Written under the Fanfare Project and commissioned by the Houston Symphony, the premiere performance was on January 10, 1987, with the Houston Symphony, Hans Vonk, conductor. This work is dedicated to the conductor Marin Alsop."

Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra

Young Ethel Smyth, who was taught piano and music theory as ladylike accomplishments, became so obsessed that her family stopped her lessons. Ethel went on strike, confining herself to her room and refusing to attend meals, church, or social functions unless her father would send her from England to Leipzig to study composition. After two years Mr. Smyth gave in, and Ethel went to Leipzig, where her gregarious nature found an outlet in the development of a Brahmsian idiom. Her earliest works were first heard in Germany, and after she returned to England, she gained recognition there with the performance of such works as her Mass in D for chorus and orchestra.

In 1910, Smyth met and became enamored of Emmaline Pankhurst, the founder of the British women’s suffrage movement. Struck by Pankhurst’s mesmerizing speeches, Smyth devoted herself solely, for two years, to the cause of votes for women. Two songs she wrote in 1911 became battle cries for the Suffragettes.

In 1913, Smyth began to lose her hearing, but she continued to compose and also turned to writing memoirs and essays. Smyth penned several volumes of entertaining memoirs about her personal and professional life, including Impressions That Remain (1919), What Happened Next (1940), and A Fresh Start (1944, unfinished). Smyth befriended many contemporary women artists and writers, and was a longtime companion of Virginia Wolff.

Smyth’s compositions found increasing recognition in the 1920s, and she was made a DBE in 1922. Conductor Henry Wood was a staunch supporter of her work, and often programmed her compositions at The Proms.

The Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra, composed in 1926, is dedicated: "To the best friend of English Music, Henry Wood." It was premiered in 1927 by Jelly d’Aranyi and Aubrey Brain with the Queen’s Hall Orchestra conducted by Henry Wood. Although perhaps best known for her operatic works, Smyth’s double concerto has earned a respected place in the orchestral repertory, especially for the horn.