When Library of Congress music specialist Susan Clermont agreed to participate in a special event featuring works by women composers from the collections of the Library's Music Division, she volunteered to explore the division's holdings of women's music composed before 1800.
Antonio de Eximeno dedicated his 1774 music theory treatise to Maria Antonia Walpurgis, including in it one of her compositions—the earliest example of a woman's work appearing in an anthology of music.
"At that time, I was familiar with only one item that fell into that category," Clermont confessed, "so I knew that this would definitely be a learning experience for me."
Within days, she discovered far more treasures than she had ever anticipated. What surprised her most was learning that all of the early manuscripts and imprints she found were specifically selected and purchased for the Music Division's collections more than 80 years ago. Former Music Division chiefs Oscar Sonneck and, later, Carl Engel, collected the work of women composers long before studies in women's music were fashionable.
Clermont's discoveries include two of the earliest works by women to be found in the Music Division's collections: Barbara Strozzi's "Diporti di Euterpe Overo—Cantate & Ariette a Voce Sola" (1659) and Isabella Leonarda's "Motteti a Voce Sola" (1676). They were among nearly 60 items documenting the work of women composers that were showcased in the Whittall Pavilion of the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building on March 22, in celebration of Women's History Month. The display included first editions, original copyright deposits, music manuscripts, photographs and letters. The display was accompanied by presentations by Library music specialists on women composers such as Marianne Martinez, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Cécile Chaminade, Amy Beach and Louise Talma.
According to Clermont's research, the little-known composer Marianne Martinez (1744–1812) presided over a popular musical salon in 18th century Vienna, where she once teamed up with Mozart to perform one of his four-hand sonatas. Martinez received her musical education from the poet Metastasio and the young Joseph Haydn, who was living in a rented room in the attic of her family's home. In 1773 Martinez was unanimously voted into the prestigious Accademia Filharmonica of Bologna, Italy, making her the first woman to be inscribed in the academy's rolls in the 108 years of its existence.
Amy Beach became the dean of American women composers in the early 20th century and mentored a generation of younger women composers. - George Grantham Bain Collection, Prints and Photographs Division
While researching Martinez, Clermont found a volume of miscellaneous pieces among the division's rare material dating from the mid- to late-18th century that contained Martinez' aria "Ah rammenta, o bella Irene." The volume [call number: M1528.A2A86 Case] is in manuscript form—written in an unidentified hand—and includes works by several composers, including Maria Antonia Walpurgis (1724–1780).
Clermont speculates that the copyist may have been the composer Fortunato Santini, an admirer of Martinez, whose works are also represented in the volume. The Library's copy of the Martinez aria is believed to be extremely rare and may be the only Martinez manuscript found outside of Europe.
The Music Division's vast holdings of American popular song inspired music specialist Denise Gallo's research and remarks on Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886–1939), the first major female interpreter of blues music. Known for her sassy onstage persona, Rainey spoke and sang liberally of subjects that would have been considered taboo by many. Scholars have considered her to be one of the earliest voices of black feminism. While many blues compositions reflect the total rejection and desolation of women, Rainey's works often expressed rage and violence, as can be seen in these lines from her "Broken-Hearted Blues" [call number: M1630.2.R Case]:
"Good morning Judge, mama Rainey's done raised sand.
Good morning Judge, mama Rainey's done raised sand.
She's killed everybody, judge she's even killed her man."
This Marianne Martinez aria, "Ah rammenta, o bella Irene," is a rare example of a Martinez manuscript outside of Europe. The Music Division's 1676 imprint of Isabella Leonarda's "Motteti a Voce Sola" is one of only two extant copies in the world.
Essentially an oral tradition, "the blues" are notoriously difficult to transcribe from old recordings. Gallo's interest in the lyrics of Rainey's songs as feminist statements led her to the Library's collection of unpublished copyright deposits of these works, many of which contain typed lyric sheets. Copyright deposits comprise the bulk of the Music Division's extensive collections of popular song. Blues songs by both Rainey and her protégé Bessie Smith are among the treasures to be found there.
In high school, music specialist Karen Moses played the flute. She vividly remembers playing Cécile Chaminade's Concertino for Flute and Orchestra, op. 107. "Even in my prepubescent state of feminism, I was amazed that I was playing music by a woman and trotted it out as often as I was allowed," Moses recalled.
A traditional class portrait at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau in the late 1930s. Nadia Boulanger is at the piano and Louise Talma is standing behind her dressed in white. - Louise Talma Collection, Music Division
According to Moses' research, French composer Cécile Chaminade (1857–1944) enjoyed great popularity in her day and in 1913 became the first woman to be awarded the Légion d'Honneur. She composed nearly 400 works and most of them were published—a noteworthy statistic for any composer, and particularly remarkable for a woman.
Moses observed that several of Chaminade's works are considered standard repertoire today, including the above-mentioned Concertino, her piano works "Pas de Echarpes" ("Scarf Dance") and "La Lisonjera" ("The Flatterer"), and her "Serenade Espagnole, op. 150," which was made famous by Fritz Kreisler's arrangement for violin and piano. The Music Division holds published editions of most of Chaminade's works, as well as holographs of two songs, "L'amour captif" and "L'absente" (Call number: ML96.C53 Case].
Louise Talma sitting on the steps of her studio at the MacDowell Colony, enjoying her lunch as she examines the score of her oratorio "The Divine Flame," circa 1948. - Louise Talma Collection, Music Division
This writer discussed the Arthur P. Schmidt Company Archive as a Library resource for information about women composers at the turn of the 20th century. The Library's collection of this German émigré, who started a music publishing company in Boston in 1876, includes photographs, manuscripts and correspondence of a number of women composers such as Marion Bauer (1887–1955), Gena Branscombe (1881–1977), Mabel Daniels (1878–1971) and Amy Beach (1867–1944).
Beach was the first American woman to enjoy success as a composer. During her lifetime, she was considered the "dean of American women composers." Her large-scale works in particular set her apart from other women composing in the early 20th century. Beach's "Gaelic Symphony, op. 32," premiered by the Boston Symphony in 1896 to great critical acclaim, is one of many original Beach manuscripts found in the Schmidt archives. The A.P. Schmidt Company Archive is one of several special collections in the Library's Music Division that contains letters of Amy Beach. The Music Division holds the largest number of Beach letters outside of her personal papers, which are held by the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
This autographed portrait of French composer Cécile Chaminade features the opening measures of her Concertino for Flute and Orchestra, a work that has become a standard in the flute repertoire. - Dayton C. Miller Collection, Music Division
Currently on a sabbatical break from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, music librarian Sarah Dorsey is processing the papers of composer, pianist and educator Louise Talma (1906–1996). At her bequest, the papers came to the Library upon her death. According to Dorsey, Talma taught music for more than 50 years at Hunter College in New York City and did most of her composing during summer breaks, many of them spent at the MacDowell artists' colony in Peterborough, N.H.
It was there she met Thornton Wilder, who became a close friend and convinced her to collaborate with him on an opera based on his play "The Alcestiad." It was produced in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1962, making Talma the first American woman to have an opera premiered at a major European opera house. Talma was also the first woman to win two Guggenheim awards (in 1946 and 1947) and the first woman composer to be elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, in 1974. She studied with the distinguished musical pedagogue Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau School of Music near Paris, and was the first American—male or female—to be invited by Boulanger to teach with her there. Dorsey noted that 2006 is the centennial of Talma's birth, a fitting time to bring attention to her work.
For further information on the Library's resources on women in music, see the Music Division chapter in "American Women: a Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States," available online at //memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awmusic8/. The guide is also available in bookstores nationwide and through the Library's Sales Shop (www.loc.gov/shop/).
