Elgar...RETIRED?

Apparently, poor Edward Elgar is no longer on the 20 pound bank note in England. This is the note mentioned in Sophie Fuller's article, Elgar and the Salons: The Significance of a Private Musical World. The note was no longer considered legal tender at midnight on June 30, 2010.

An article I found in relation to this was on The Telegraph website. Musicians in England called this a "low regard" for music in England. He also stated:

"Dropping Elgar tells us much about the way in which the arts is now viewed in England. Bank notes should applaud the greatest aspects of England and English culture."

He was replaced by economist Adam Smith. ...Who?

Ethel Smyth!

This image is from the cover of the music composed by Ethel Smyth for the women's suffrage movement, mentioned in a previous post on this blog. I found this picture in an article by BBC News commemorating 150 years since the birth of Smyth, one of Surrey, England's most distinguished citizens. One part of the article talks about how Smyth once conducted her tune, The March of the Women, with a toothbrush while hanging out of a window in the Holloway Prison. It doesn't say why she was imprisoned, but I have a feeling it had something to do with being a feminist.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/surrey/7370044.stm

Rare recording of Florence Nightingale

This youtube clip is taken from a 1890 voice recording of Florence Nightingale. I thought it was worth sharing because Florence Nightingale was mentioned in Solie's book as someone who enjoyed the "girling" process, but grew up to have a unconventional life for a woman in the Victorian times. I also wanted to share this because it was recorded with Thomas Edison's paraffin wax cylinder phonograph, an invention of the Victorian times. Florence Nightingales words are:

"When I am no longer even a memory- just a name, I hope my voice may perpetuate the great work of my life. God bless my dear old comrades of Balaclava and bring them safe to shore."

The March of the Women!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCtGkCg7trY

This video is of the anthem of the women's suffrage movement, with music by Dame Ethel Smyth (also a notable opera composer). Smyth was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union, the leading group for women's suffrage in Britain. This performance was done in 2009 by the Rainbow Chorus.

The pictures included in the video are of Dame Ethel Smyth, along with photos of the suffrage movement.

Dame Ethel Smyth is mentioned in Christina Bashford's article, "Historiography and Invisible Musics: Domestic Chamber Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain."

Female Composer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BXLMIZ2sqM

This is one of the pieces from the song cycle, "In a Persian Garden" by Liza Lehmann. We discussed her today in class. Victorian Britain was really NOT "Das Land ohne Musik" - Lehmann is one of three female composers mentioned in Christina Bashford's article.

This cycle is interesting to me because it uses Edward Fitzgerald's versions of Persian poetry, similar to a song cycle I'm performing on my graduate recital. The Mirabai Songs by John Harbison use English versions of the Hindi poet-saint Mirabai's ecstatic poetry to the god Krishna. It seems that Harbison was the not the first composer with this sort of idea!

I was also interested to find that Lehmann wrote a voice pedagogy text - Practical Hints for Students of Singing. It would be interesting to compare some of her pedagogical ideas with those immortalized in Berton Coffin's Historical Vocal Pedagogy Classics, especially those of female pedagogues like Mathilde Marchesi and Lilli Lehmann.

These are postage stamps from America and England at just about the same time. While England's depicts the queen and has a classy, urban look. America's shows a rider for the highly-romanticized pony express (1860-1861).

In all fairness, I probably can't count this as one of my graded posts for this blog, but a few years ago, when I didn't know much about the Victorian era or authors, it taught me a lot.