Four Centuries of Great Music March 17, 2024 Music of Women Composers Episode 3

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music we are continuing our salute to women composers as part of Women’s History month.  Of course I include women  composers and performers in all of my programming on a regular basis even when it isn’t women’s history month.

Anna Bon: Keyboard Sonata in B Minor, Op. 2 No. 5
We open with Anna Bon. Anna Bon (di Venezia) was one of the few women in the 18th century whose music was published during her lifetime. She received her musical education at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, and began composing at a young age.

When she moved with her parents to Prussia, she was encouraged and supported by Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia, and it was under Princess Wilhelmine’s patronage that Anna Bon composed and published her Six Keyboard Sonatas, Op. 2 at the age of 18, as court-appointed ‘virtuoso of chamber music’.

In 1762, she moved with her family to the court of Prince Nikolaus von Esterházy, where she sang in Joseph Haydn’s ensemble.

After her marriage to an Italian singer, she vanishes from the historical record, and that is why 1767, the year of her marriage, is often mistakenly given as her death date.

Today we will be playing Anna Bon’s Keyboard Sonata in B Minor, Op. 2 No. 5 which is in 3 movements: I. Allegro moderato; II. Adagio non molto and III. Allegro in a performance by Sarah Cahill, piano from the album The Future is Female, Volume 1    First Hand Records

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music we are continuing our salute to women composers as part of Women’s History month.  We add a letter to the name and jump from the 18th to the 21st century for the music of Victoria Bond and her art song cycle called Molly ManyBloom.  This work takes Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy which is the last part of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” and divides it into a prologue and sixteen episodes.  The character was a singer so the soliloquy mentions several popular songs of the 1920s which Bond incorporates into her songs.

Here is a performance of Victoria Bond’s Molly ManyBloom by Carol Meyer, soprano; Shem Guibbory, violin; Renee Jolles, violin; Ronald Carbone, viola and Maxine Neumann, cello   From the album Yes     Albany Records

Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Prologue
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 1 - Mrs. Riordan
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 2 - Confession
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 3 - Big Red Brute
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 4 - Diet
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 5 - Breasts
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 6 - Love's Old Sweet Song
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 7 - Kathleen Kearney
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 8 - Burglers
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 9 - Milly
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 10 - Paddy Dignam
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 11- Stephen Dedalus
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 12 - Tarifa
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 13 - Leopold Bloom
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 14 - Women
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 15 - Flowers
Victoria Bond:  Molly ManyBloom- Episode 16 - Gibraltar

Let’s open this second hour of today’s Four Centuries of Great Music with Louise Farrenc’s Symphony No. 3 in G Minor, Op. 36

Farrenc was a piano prodigy who became one of the first female professors at the Paris Conservatoire, Farrenc could easily have stuck to being a performer and piano professor. However, composition lessons with Anton Reicha, a close friend of Beethoven’s, opened other doors. In particular, he taught her to write for wind instruments, which were often seen as masculine at the time.

It is in 4 movements: I. Adagio - Allegro; II. Adagio cantabile; III. Scherzo. Vivace; IV. Finale. Allegro

The intensity of the symphony is palpable from the start. After an oboe ushers in a slow introduction, tinged with dark melancholy, the ensemble delves into a swirling triple meter for a robust statement of the main theme in unison strings. The movement develops energetically, picking up the pace even more with a final burst of energy in the coda.

In contrast, the second movement Adagio opens with a smooth, lyrical clarinet melody, supported by horns, bassoon, and timpani. This movement provides a simple and elegant interlude, building gradually but overall remaining serene and unruffled.

The third movement Scherzo begins with quiet tiptoeing in the strings but has a forward momentum and excitement constantly bubbling below the surface, paused only during the central woodwind trio.

The decisive unison strings that open the final movement signal a return to a darker, bold energy. The ensemble pursues the twists and turns of thematic development with a vigor worthy of this Romantic-inflected symphony, ending with three triumphant final chords.

Here is a performance of Louise Farrenc: Symphony No. 3 in G Minor, Op. 36 by Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est conducted by David Reiland from the album Compositrices: New Light on French Romantic Women Composers
Palazzetto Bru Zane



Next is a work by Melanie (Mel) Bonis, her Six pièces à quatre mains, Op. 130

Born in 1858 this late romantic French composer, trained at the Paris conservatoire and composed more than 300 works.  

Her Six pièces à quatre mains, Op. 130 written in 1930, is basically a set of etudes for piano four hands players.   The aim here is to teach individual playing, with each piece offering a new technical difficulty, and at the same time enable the player to learn the basic principles of playing with a partner: how to listen to the other player and how to keep to the same rhythm. For each piece, Mel Bonis indicates the parts for “l’élève” which, as the title states, are the easier parts, and those for “le maître”, which are much more elaborate. This approach ensures that the beginner is not confined to works that are too basic and is able to hear the subtleties offered by the instrument while participating. Whether playing at the lower end of the piano (Caravane, Habanera, Minuit sonne à la Grosse Horloge) or the higher end, the student is given a single formula which is repeated ostinato throughout the piece. As their titles indicate, the pieces are alternately “exotic” or religious in mood.

Six pièces à quatre mains, Op. 130_ No. 1, Caravane
Six pièces à quatre mains, Op. 130_ No. 2, Andante religioso
Six pièces à quatre mains, Op. 130_ No. 3, Carillon de fête
Six pièces à quatre mains, Op. 130_ No. 4, À matines
Six pièces à quatre mains, Op. 130_ No. 5, Habanera
Six pièces à quatre mains, Op. 130_ No. 6, Minuit sonne à la grosse horloge

Here performed by Roberto Prosseda & Alessandra Ammara from the album Compositrices: New Light on French Romantic Women Composers  Palazzetto Bru Zane

Thank you for listening to today’s Four Centuries of Great Music.  We have a few minutes left on today’s episode so I will end with a taste of next week’s continuation of our salute to women composers with the prelude and gigue from Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: Les Pièces de Clavecin: Suite No. 1 in D minor from 1687 a performed by Sarah Cahill from the album The Future is Female, Vol. 2: The Dance First Hand Records