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Dame Ethel Smyth: Pioneer of English Opera Eugene Gates

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Dame Ethel Smyth: Pioneer of English Opera Eugene Gates Volume 11, Issue 1 The Kapralova Society Journal Spring 2013 A Journal of Women in Music Dame Ethel Smyth: Pioneer of English Opera Eugene Gates “I feel I must fight for [my music], because I lieved that her musical instincts were inher- want women to turn their minds to big and ited from her mother, whom she once de- difficult jobs; not just to go on hugging the scribed as “one of the most naturally musical shore, afraid to put out to sea.” 1 When Ethel people I have ever known.” 7 Smyth wrote these words in the early years of Ethel’s general education was typical of her career, she had little idea of the protracted that of a middle-class Victorian young lady. battle against prejudice that lay ahead of her. After private tutoring at home under the guid- Smyth was certainly not England’s first ance of a succession of governesses, she woman composer. But while most of her spent a few years in boarding school at Put- predecessors, because of social circumstances ney, where the prescribed curriculum in- and limited training, had been forced to con- cluded French, German, astronomy, chemis- fine their creative endeavours to the production try, mathematics, literature, history, drawing, of parlor music, she set her sights on the con- music, and home economics. 8 Very little is Special points of interest: quest of the opera house and concert stage. Her known about Smyth’s early musical training. published works include six operas, a concert In her memoirs, however, she mentions a mass, a double concerto, a choral symphony, governess who introduced her to classical • Ethel Smyth and English opera songs with piano and orchestral accompa- music, and inspired her to set her sights on a niment, organ pieces and chamber music. 2 Al- musical career. Here is her account of the though her compositions won the admiration experience which determined the course of of many of her fellow musicians—Tchai- her future life: kovsky, Debussy, Bruno Walter, Sir Thomas When I was twelve a new . Beecham, and Sir Donald Tovey, 3 to name but [governess] arrived who had a few—the record of her creative achievements studied music at the Leipzig has been swept into the dark corners of music Conservatorium, then in the history. This article discusses her life and hey-day of its reputation in Eng- works, the barriers she had to surmount in or- Inside this issue: land; for the first time I heard der to obtain a musical education, and her pro- classical music and a new world longed struggle to have her music accepted and Dame Ethel Smyth: Pioneer of 1 opened up before me. Shortly English Opera / by Eugene Gates critically evaluated on equal terms with that of after, a friend having given me men. Beethoven’s Sonatas, I began The fourth of a family of eight children, Publications and CD releases 6, 9–12 studying the easier of these and Ethel Mary Smyth was born in London on walked into the new world on April 23, 1858. Her parents were Major- my own feet. Thus was my true General J. H. Smyth, C.B., of the Royal Artil- bent suddenly revealed to me, lery, and Nina Struth Smyth, a descendent of and I conceived the plan, carried Sir Josias Stracey, the fourth baronet of Nor- out seven years later, of study- folk. 4 In 1867, Major-General Smyth was ap- ing at Leipzig and giving up my pointed to the command of the Artillery at Al- life to music. 9 dershot, and the family settled in the nearby village of Frimley. 5 Since her father had abso- Ethel immediately announced her plan to lutely no talent for music, 6 Ethel always be- everyone around her. The fact that no one The Kapralova Society Journal Page 2 Dame Ethel Smyth took it seriously—least of all, her father who muttered “damned she would encounter in overcoming her father’s stubborn re- nonsense!” whenever she raised the topic 10 —did not disturb her sistance to the plan that had dominated her thoughts since the in the least. She was confident that one day her ambition would age of twelve. 18 be realized. 11 Fortunately, Ethel was a born fighter and rebel, for Matters finally came to a head when Ethel was nineteen. her father was an arch conservative who held very traditional One night at dinner, when her parents were discussing which views about the place of women in society. Like most men (and drawing room she should be presented at, she announced that many women) of the time, he believed that the only appropriate it would be pointless to be presented at all, since she intended role for a woman was that of housewife and mother. 12 Moreover, to go to Leipzig. Her father was enraged, and shouted melo- although he knew no artists personally, he was convinced that dramatically: “I would sooner see you under the sod.” 19 After a they were people of low moral fibre, and the life that his daugh- period of vain attempts to win him over, Ethel felt she had no ter proposed to lead seemed to him “equivalent to going on the choice but to take drastic action. Recalling this period of her streets.” 13 life many years later, she wrote: Ethel always considered the arrival of the governess who I not only unfurled the red flag, but deter- played classical music to her when she was twelve as the first mined to make life at home so intolerable that milestone on her road. Five years later, when she was seventeen, they would have to let me go for their own the second milestone loomed into sight. The composer of the sakes. (I say ‘they,’ but . I felt that, what- well-known hymn Jerusalem the Golden , Alexander Ewing, an ever my mother might say in public, she was officer in the Army Service Corps, was stationed in Aldershot. secretly with me.) . Towards the end I Mrs. Ewing and Mrs. Smyth soon became close friends. In- struck altogether, refused to go to Church, . formed by his wife of Ethel’s musical ambitions, Ewing re- refused to speak to any one, and one day my quested the aspiring young composer to play some of the pieces father’s boot all but penetrated a panel of my she had recently written. To the great annoyance of Major- locked bedroom door! 20 General Smyth, Ewing proclaimed her a born musician who must begin her formal training at once. 14 In Ethel’s words, Despite his military training, when it came to warfare of this type, the Major-General proved no match for Ethel, and he My father was furious; he personally disliked eventually had to admit defeat. 21 my new friend, . and foresaw that the Leip- On July 26, 1877, with her father’s grudging consent, Ethel zig idea would now be endorsed warmly by set off for Leipzig. At the Leipzig Conservatory, she studied one who knew. The last straw was when Mr. composition with Carl Reinecke, counterpoint and other theo- Ewing proposed that he himself should begin retical subjects with Salomon Jadassohn, and piano with Jo- by teaching me harmony; but on this point my seph Maas. It did not take her long to discover that the Con- mother . came over definitely into my camp. servatory was no longer the great educational institution it So it was settled that twice a week I was to once had been. Disillusioned with the low standard of teach- drive myself to Aldershot and submit my exer- ing, she left after a year, and continued her studies privately cises to his inspection. 15 with the Austrian composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg, foun- This happy arrangement worked well for several months. Ew- der and conductor of the Bach-Verein in Leipzig. Through ing was a capable and conscientious teacher. In addition to giv- Herzogenberg and his wife Elisabeth (a fine musician in her ing his new pupil harmony lessons, he analyzed her compositions own right), Ethel met Brahms and Clara Schumann, and soon and introduced her to the music dramas of Wagner. Inspired by became part of their musical circle. While in Leipzig, she also Wagner’s music, Ethel confided to her diary that her greatest became acquainted with Grieg, Dvo řák, and Tchaikovsky. 22 desire was to have an opera of her own performed in Germany When Ethel arrived in Leipzig, she had with her several before she was forty—an ambition fated to be realized at Weimar songs she had composed to German texts. They immediately 16 in 1898. attracted favourable attention. 23 Encouraged by this recogni- Meanwhile, Major-General Smyth’s dislike of “that fellow,” as tion of her creative talent, she took the songs to the music pub- he now called Ewing, had become fanatical. Because of his low lishers Breitkopf & Härtel. Ethel’s account of her meeting with opinion of the moral standards of artists, he wrongly concluded Dr. Hase, the head of the firm, demonstrates the prejudice that that Ewing’s interest in his daughter was more amorous than professional women composers experienced at the time. In a 17 musical, and the harmony lessons were abruptly cancelled. letter to her mother, she wrote: Since the Ewings had already received orders to leave Aldershot, He began by telling me that . no compos- Ethel did not lose much in the way of harmony instruction. But eress had ever succeeded, barring Frau she did learn a great deal from this incident about the problems The Kapralova Society Journal Page 3 Pioneer of English Opera Schumann and Fräulein Mendelssohn, whose charm,” George Bernard Shaw, then music critic of the Star , songs had been published together with those of dismissed the Serenade for its “daintiness”—a supposedly their husband and brother respectively.
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