Ethel Smyth

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 310, 1 June 1945, Page 8

Ethel Smyth

FoR every. woman composer it is possible to name half-a-dozen executants. Such names as Clara Schumann, Teresa Careno, Eileen Joyce, spring immediately to mind; but the only name to which I would give a firm place in the ranks of composers is that of Dame Ethel Smyth. She is the only woman whose work I find free of that indefinable something called femininity, the only one who cannot be dismissed as a woman musician but must be listened to, and criticised as, a composer along

with other composers, men or women. And as a composer she ranks not among the least, as is proved by the virile overture to "The Wreckers," heard recently from 4YO. Listening to this spirited work, I defy anyone to say that it betrays its composer’s sex. It is perhaps unfortunate «for Ethel Smyth's music that her personality seems so strong, as revealed in her racy reminiscences; the facts of her amazing career reveal a zest for life and all possible experiences which could not fail to infuse her music with fire and joy. But

so vigorous a personality must overshadow her musical attainments, and we remember mainly her militant attitude as a suffragette, her long fight to gain her rights in the mari-controlled world of musical attainment; and although the story of her life would make a stirring radio play, the performance of more of her music would be a still better way of telling listeners more about one of the most remarkable of British composers.