A Review of: "Ethel Smyth a Biography"

The book, Ethel Smyth a Biography, by Christopher St. John has become one of my most beloved sources in writing my paper on Ethel Smyth and her involvement with the Women’s Suffrage Movement in England. Smyth wrote many autobiographies over the course of her life, but Christopher St. John’s biography has proven to be more helpful than any of Smyth’s memoires.

St. John had an enormous amount of information at her fingertips. As I mentioned above, Smyth for whatever reason felt compelled to write several memoires. And St. John was able to condense all of that information as well as her own research on Smyth into 308 pages; and this is including three different appendices.

I think one of the most valuable aspects of this book is that it isn’t written by Smyth. I realize that must sound strange, but Smyth has written so much about her own life that it is actually incredibly helpful to gain some perspective from an outside source. Not that Smyth isn’t incredibly candid in her autobiographies, but I think when writing about yourself it can often times be difficult to step outside of your own thoughts and memories and see the big picture; St. John helps to paint this big picture. Not being intimately involved in the material can help narrow down a person’s focus, I suspect this is why Ethel Smyth wrote many memoires and St. John wrote one very condensed, yet very informative biography.

St. John begins the book as one would expect, there are several chapters on her family, her early studies and trip to Leipzig to study composition. All of the famous tales of Smyth’s stubbornness and arguments with her father over her studies are included in this book; even though it is rather concise, it still includes all of the important material on who Ethel Smyth was and how she lived. The book continues on with a discussion of her time in Europe, the people she met, her teachers, and her compositions.

Especially useful for me was the section in which St. John addresses Smyth’s part in the Women’s Suffrage Movement in England. This was the first book I read that actually discusses how Smyth became so deeply involved with this cause, how she met and befriended Emmiline Pankhurst, and how her life changed during the two years she was a member of the W.S.P.U. Even though Smyth was thought to have put her composing on hold for those two years, which she did to a degree, this chapter shows that she did continue to compose music for the suffrage movement. It is during this time that we get her Songs of Sunrise featuring “The March of the Women,” and another song “Hey Nonny No.”

St. John included several other items in this book that have set it apart from many others. There are numerous photographs included that were wonderful to examine. After she completed her biography on Smyth, she included three additional and very short chapters. The first was in regard to Ethel Smyth as a writer, a second career Smyth pursued with much success, written by V. Sackveille-West. The next chapter was by Edward Sackville-West entitled “Ethel Smyth as I Knew Her.” Edward’s words help to show who Ethel Smyth was aside from being a composer, writer or suffragette, but as a person. He touches on her little idiosyncrasies and how she dressed and carried herself, she was never afraid to speak her mind and had a wonderful sense of humor. The last of these short chapters, “A Personal Recollection,” was written by Kathleen Dale, a women who came to know Smyth later in her life, but deeply cherished the short amount of time they were able to know one another. This chapter, like the one proceeding it, helped to show a softer more intimate side of Ethel Smyth.

Following the three chapters I mentioned above are the Appendices. The first is a collection of letters to Ethel Smyth, they’re not particularly useful for my paper but interesting none the less. The authors of some of these letters include Sir Arthur Sullivan, Bernard Shaw, and several from Maurice Baring. The next appendix instantly brought a smile to my face the moment I saw it, “Ethel Smyth’s Music: A Critical Study,” by Kathleen Dale. Although it is not as in depth of an analysis as I would have hoped for, there was still some very valuable insight and analysis into Smyth’s compositions. The most useful criticisms being those of “The March of the Women,” and “The Boatswain’s Mate.” The final appendix was a compilation of Ethel Smyth’s compositions. They were organized by those that were published and those that were unpublished. Within those two subgroups her works were further broken down and organized chronologically by operas, chorus pieces with orchestra, unaccompanied chorus works, chamber music, orchestra, etc…

All the while I was reading this book I got the sense that it was written by someone who thought very highly of Ethel Smyth. Not only from the manner in which the book was written, but also from all of the little extras the author included. The letters from her friends and colleagues were wonderful to read through and many of them were quite touching. However, it was the two chapters by Edward Sackville-West and Kathleen Dale on their personal interactions and feelings about the late composer that truly made me feel as though St. James was creating something of an homage to Ethel Smyth.

I did a little research on Christopher St. John and discovered that like Smyth, she too was a part of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in England and the W.S.P.U. This is probably why there was such a wealth of information on Smyth’s involvement with this cause. It is entirely possible that the two women knew one another or at the very least knew of one another, obviously St. John knew of Smyth. Therefore I look at this book as something of a tribute to Ethel Smyth, I think it is clear from the way in which the book was written that it comes from a place of deep respect and great care for the title character. Perhaps this is why I found this source particularly useful while researching my paper.

Advertisements from the Victorian Era.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUcfYCLd5RQ

This youtube link is a slideshow of advertisements from the Victorian Era. It's fascinating to me that most of the subjects of the ads are women, children, and baby animals. You will see ads for some companies that still exist today, such as Coca Cola and Campbell's.

Mudlarks

These are depictions of the mudlarks on the Thames river that Henry Mayhew came to research and share in his book series London Labour and London Poor. I found these on this website. Check it out- there are many more illustrations of different kinds of people Mayhew came across in his social research and surveys of the poor in London.

Marie Lloyd!

I found this clip of Marie Lloyd, the star of the Music Hall on youtube entitled, "Marie Lloyd. Film 18299." The quality is extremely poor but I still thought it was pretty cool to take a look at.



This video is from Youtube and was posted by HuntleyFilmArchives.
The link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBcq3l7cEAI

I also found a second video on youtube entitled, "That's how the little girl got on - Marie Lloyd." It's not a video of Marie Lloyd in action, but it is a collection of pictures of Marie Lloyd along with a recording of her singing "That's how the Little Girl got on." According to the comment on the video this was recorded on 4/5/1903.



This video is from Youtube and was posted by hawkmoon03111951.
The link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU_R9OWSFz8

Clips from Vaudeville

I found this on You-tube, it's entitled: Historic Footage- Vaudeville Acts 1898 to 1910 (Part 1 of 2). As the title suggests, this video is made up of clips from old Vaudeville Acts from 1898-1910. It shows footage of animals(I found this section fairly hard to watch, I'm sure PETA would have a field day), body builders and comedy routines.


Vaudeville shows descended from the Victorian Music Halls so I thought this was pretty relevant to our class.




The video is from You-tube and was posted by gallopingalligator.
The link is:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZo4imTt4Og&playnext=1&list=PL9A8E5796D4887086

Again, my idol

This is a recording of Nellie Melba singing the Lucia cadenza with flute. The recording was made in 1904 in London. She was not only a staple of Covent Garden (singing her farewell concert there in 1926), but also sung at the Metropolitan Opera House well into her mid-sixties.

This is via youtube.

My idol :)

This picture is actually a poster advertisement for the world renowned soprano, Dame Nellie Melba. As an Australian soprano she traveled to London in 1886 only to be turned down for work from Sir Arthur Sullivan. She then began to study with the famous pedagogue, Mathilde Marchesi. After making her debut in 1887 in Covent Garden in the role of Oscar she returned in 1888 to star as Lucia. Melba has been credited with actually being the first to sing the famous Lucia cadenza with flute. She was also one of the first women to be granted a dame-hood for her accomplishments in her career. This poster is advertising the new recording achievements that now make it possible to enjoy this incredible singer in your own home. Again, we see the movement of enjoying your life with the nuclear family in the home.

This poster was in The London Times via wikipedia, but the picture is now in public domain.