Introduction
‘Why are there no great female composers?’ asked the Victorians. But Alice Meadows White, née Smith (1839-1884), never afraid to voice a challenging opinion, believed that the excited demand for a ‘great’ female composer was actually discouraging a potential host of good ones.
‘YOU have the privilege’ the chairman of the Royal Musical Association told Frederick Meadows White at a meeting in May 1883, ‘of being married to a very clever woman.’
Frederick, an eminent QC, knew that quite well. Alice, a pupil of William Sterndale Bennett and George Macfarren, had composed her first symphony at twenty-four. Chamber music and songs had followed, with another symphony, overtures, choral works and a clarinet concerto. Sir George Grove praised her music as ‘full of tune and poetry’; Stephen Stratton of the Birmingham Post hinted excitedly at ‘greatness’.*
Yet Frederick also knew that Alice blamed the musical establishment’s preoccupation with finding a ‘great’ female composer for discouraging the merely good ones.* It was embarrassing, too, to be singled out in front of Ann Mounsey, and Macfarren’s student Oliveria Prescott.** So Frederick assured the meeting that Alice was no Mozart or Handel, simply a good mother to their two daughters, and a loving wife.
Alice could not have briefed more tactful Counsel.
Sir George Grove was the founder of the famous multi-volume ‘Grove’s Dictionary of Music’.
‘All I would maintain’ said a correspondent writing in ‘The Monthly Musical Record’ in 1877 under the pen-name ‘Artiste’, ‘is that many a woman’s talent is wasted by her undecided, vacillating spirit, and that were she only to aspire humbly but earnestly to a higher form of art, there is every cause to believe that she might work out a path of distinction for herself.’ Biographer and musicologist Ian Graham-Jones believed these were Alice’s own words: see ‘Signature’, Volume II, Number 3 (Autumn 2008).
Ann Mounsey (1811-1891) was the wife of William Bartholomew (who wrote the words for Mendelssohn’s ‘Hear my Prayer’) and a composer in her own right; Oliveria Prescott (1843-1919) was a lecturer in Music at Newnham College, Cambridge, and Sir George Macfarren’s amanuensis, as Macfarren had become blind in 1860.
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Précis
Alice Mary Smith was a successful English composer of the Victorian era, whom the music establishment hoped might be the first ‘great’ female composer from Britain. Alice, however, preferred to portray herself as a working mother, hoping thereby to encourage married women into her profession without either her reputation or the expectation of achieving ‘greatness’ hanging over them. (58 / 60 words)
Alice Mary Smith was a successful English composer of the Victorian era, whom the music establishment hoped might be the first ‘great’ female composer from Britain. Alice, however, preferred to portray herself as a working mother, hoping thereby to encourage married women into her profession without either her reputation or the expectation of achieving ‘greatness’ hanging over them.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, besides, if, may, must, not, otherwise, who.
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Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Clever. Could. Out.
2 Counsel. Eminent. Privilege.
3 Finding. White. Work.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
