Composers
Women Composers
The Lost Tradition Found
Romantic Songs, page 2 of 4
Louise Reichardt (1779-1826) (bio forthcoming)
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847) was
a major talent, a better pianist than her brother Felix according to
him, and the person to whom he took all of his compositions for criticism.
Her father and brother discouraged her from having a professional career
or publishing, but she was the musical director of one of the most important
musical salons in Berlin in the 1830's and participated as a conductor,
pianist and composer . In 1846 a small number of her works were published
and she was planning more when she became ill and died. She composed
songs, cantatas, oratorios and operas.
Josephine Lang (1815-1880) came from Münich
where her father was a court musician and her mother an opera singer.
Lang was composing songs by age 13, and was only 15 when she wrote the
song presented here. After meeting the young Lang in 1831, Mendelssohn
wrote, "She has the gift of composing songs and singing them as
I have never heard before. It is the most complete musical joy I have
ever experienced." Lang responded to his enthusiasm by idolizing
him. Robert Schumann wrote favorable reviews of her songs, including
this one. Lang became a professional singer at the Münich court
in 1836, but her career was cut short by marriage and a subsequent move
to Tübingen in 1842. After her husband's death in 1856, Lang supported
her family of six children by teaching voice and piano. Clara Schumann
helped arrange for the publication of her Lieder. More than 150
were printed, establishing her as one of the most published women composers
of the period. More than half of her songs date from the 1830s and 40s,
and were influenced stylistically by Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn.
Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896), the daughter
of a progressive music educator, received the best musical training,
was groomed to become a professional musician, and was encouraged to
compose. By the time she was 18, she was second only to Franz Liszt
among European pianists. She was the first to introduce Chopin's music
to Germany, the first to play Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata
in Berlin, and the first to introduce many works by Johannes Brahms
and her husband Robert Schumann. She managed to continue her piano career
while bearing eight children. At 59 she accepted a full-time teaching
post at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt where she remained for fourteen
years. When she was 20, she wrote, "I once thought that I possessed
creative talent, but I have given up the idea. A woman must not desire
to be a composer, not one has done it, and, why should I expect to?
It would be arrogance, though indeed my father led me to it in earlier
days." These attitudes were a reflection of the society in which
she lived, which questioned women's ability to produce works of art
or intellect. Clara composed little after marriage. She wrote piano
works, songs, a piano concerto and three chamber works.
Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821-1910) (Spain/France)
and her sister Maria Malibran were the reigning divas of their day.
Daughter of Manuel Garcia, a Rossini expert and famous voice pedagogue,
Pauline studied piano with Liszt and composition with Reicha. A very
intelligent woman, she was always in the company of artists and intellectuals,
and she aided the careers of Gounod, Massenet, Saint-Säens, and
Fauré, while Chopin and Liszt apparently admired her music. Pauline's
own operatic career began in 1839 and lasted until 1862. From 1861 to
1872 she made most of her appearances on the recital stage, and in her
later years taught at the Paris Conservatoire. Her little-known compositions
include piano pieces, about 100 songs, and three operettas.ontinue
to Ins