Oxford Book of Organ Music by Women Composers

INTRODUCTION This book

INTRODUCTION This book is a tribute to the thousands of women across six centuries who have overcome social pressures, limited educational opportunities, exclusion from professional societies, prejudice, and discouragement, as well as childbirth and domestic pressures, to compose music. Research for this anthology was complicated by three factors. First was the location of suitable scores. Countless women composers went unpublished; some published under pseudonyms or their husbands’ names; some composers used only their initials, masking their female status; and some published under both their maiden and married names. The failure to preserve and archive women’s music has further limited the amount available to us today. Secondly, the organ has almost always been viewed as a ‘male’ instrument. While it was considered acceptable for women to sing and to play the piano, harpsichord, guitar, or harp, other instruments were generally considered indecent for women to play, as they displayed women’s bodies inappropriately. Although a few women had been employed as church organists since the early eighteenth century, largely because they cost less than men to employ, by the nineteenth century society feared the injury that organ playing might cause to women’s health or reproductive organs. In 1893 the Girl’s Own Paper declared that ‘organ-playing is not considered advisable for women. Strong, unmarried, middle-aged women may play the foot-keys without suffering from the unsuitable strain on the back and loins, but it is a risk if the instrument be a large one.’ Thirdly, women who composed for the organ frequently restricted themselves to writing gentle, nurturing music to meet society’s expectations, which limited the variety of styles available. All these factors combined to challenge our attempt to provide an anthology of women’s music for organ that represents a range of periods and styles. We have therefore decided to add a few organ transcriptions to bulk out the core of pieces originally conceived for the organ, and it has been striking how many pieces written for other media have benefited from translation to the organ. Over the last fifty years, thanks to a movement to increase diversity in the arts, the repertoire in concert programmes, examination syllabuses, and publishers’ lists has become more wide-ranging than ever before, so women composers have access to more opportunities. Nonetheless there is still a long way to go, and we hope that inclusion will grow to the point where ‘woman composer’ is no longer a useful label, and where all good composers, whatever their gender or race, are assessed, published, performed, and promoted equally. We hope that every player, whatever their level of experience and ability, will find music to delight them, and for this reason we have indicated for each piece an approximate grade standard, matched to the syllabus levels of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. for online perusal only Editorial practice This is a book for performers, so our editing has always been in the interests of improving clarity, consistency, and access. Editorial amendments of works by living composers were made in consultation with the composers themselves; for the remaining pieces we have consulted original sources and aimed to respect the composers’ wishes. Most of the pieces in this book are original organ music. For these pieces we provide the composers’ own registrations when available, clarifying or completing these where necessary; if the composer left no registration, we suggest simple schemes. The older organ pieces in this category also needed light editing, such as additional performance directions to explain or make consistent the composers’ intentions, and correction of obvious misprints. The remaining pieces were originally intended for piano or other instruments; our arrangement of this music includes distributing the notes over three staves, adding manual changes, and providing registrations. Throughout the book we express our commitment to ease of learning by distributing the pitches practically between the hands and adding performance guidance in the commentary. Acknowledgements We are indebted to the team of researchers at the Society of Women Organists, led by Helene Albrecht and Alana Brook, who compiled the Directory of Women Composers available at www.societyofwomenorganists.co.uk. The British Library has provided invaluable help, and we are of course very grateful to the team at Oxford University Press, who commissioned the book and edited it with detailed care. We thank everyone committed to the promotion of women composers, whose ongoing work and provision of scores have helped to make this book possible. Most of all, we thank all the women who, despite the many challenges they have faced over the centuries, persevered in their composing. ANNE MARSDEN THOMAS AND GHISLAINE REECE-TRAPP September 2023

for online perusal only