Women composers?

[la_carrenio2003]

Let's put first, of course, Teresa Carreño. But it was interesting to read about women who were composers, specially before the 20th century.

[eddie92099]

Clara Schumann springs to mind. Sophie Menter? Amy Beach? There are many more modern ones of course (my favourite is Elena Alberga),
Ed

[BuyBuy]

Well, you have Cecile Chaminade, a composer of the XIX century. She composed several pieces for the piano, and they are nice to play.

A woman composer that's ignored is Rebecca Clarke (beginning of XX century). She composed mainly for viola (her instrument), but she has piano and viola pieces (a sonata and other pieces) that I find very interesting. I'm thinking of playing one of them in a concert with a friend violist, next year.

[tph]

From a 20th century Canadian perspective, there's Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatte, whose sonatas I find eccentric, but interesting.  Anyone hear these sonatas?

tph

[la_carrenio2003]

Not me...what do you mean with "eccentric"? You woke up my interest...

[rachfan]

One that I think  of was Mrs. H. H. A. (or Amy) Beach.  Her music has been highly regarded in the U.S. and Europe in particular over the decades.

[tph]

Not me...what do you mean with "eccentric"? You woke up my interest...

Eckhardt-Gramatte has a very unique harmonic language, I find, which is like a mix of late Romanticism and atonality.  Her sonatas can be a bit brusque in their transitions between very virtuosic passages (often tremendously complex in terms of polyphony and textures) and lyrical moments, but her imagery is always interesting.

There's one particularly striking sonata where the first two movements are played by one hand each, and then the third combines the two previous movements superimposed.

I'm probably not terribly clear about what I mean when I say "eccentric"!  Another vague and useless description might be "quirky, and/but compelling".  Sorry about the ambiguity!  The 6 sonatas (I think complete) were recorded adequately by Marc-Andre Hamelin for Altarus, but I don't know how easy these are to find anymore.

Regards,

tph

[la_carrenio2003]

You really interested me about this composer. I have a friend living in Canada, so maybe she can buy the score for me and even the record.  I'm not saying that I'm a feminist, I just would want to build my repertoire based on high quality but almost unknown music. I think sometimes going to concerts can be boring because of the eternal repetition of the repertoire. Of course that's not the case when you listen to the GREATESTS pianists, but not everyone of us belongs to that uncommon lineage...

[eddie92099]

La Carrenio, do you know Rautavaara's second sonata?
Ed

[la_carrenio2003]

No, enlight me about the composition and its author -where's she come from? Nice surname... or is it the name?-

[eddie92099]

You can find more about Einojuhani Rautavaara here:

https://www.warnerclassics.com/finlandia/ln/mtc/rautavaa.htm

Ed