IWD: DAME ETHEL SMYTH - THE MUSICIAN AND THE MILITANT
For Women’s History Month we remember feminist icon and classical composer, Dame Ethel Smyth.
Have a listen while you read!
Ethel Smyth once believed that activism was “incompatible with artistic creation” - to be involved in politics would be to distract from her career. However, a change of heart saw her become not only a remarkable classical composer but a committed Suffragette, as well as an advocate for sexual equality in music.
By the age of nineteen, Ethel was already defying conventions: refusing to have the typical ‘Bridgerton-esque’ coming out, she moved from Kent to Germany to study at the Leipzig Conservatory. From there she built a career that spanned Europe and North America, including six operas and a debut at Crystal Palace. She formed friendships with fellow composers as well as aristocrats, and was open about her attraction to women, which included the Empress Eugénie and Virginia Woolf.
Image Credit: @PRITHANDPEN
After meeting Emmeline Pankhurst in 1910 and establishing a close friendship, Ethel decided to dedicate two years to the Suffragettes. She composed ‘The March of the Women’, which was adopted as their anthem and sung at marches and rallies across the country. She later taught Pankhurst how to throw rocks ahead of a 1912 window smashing campaign; both women were arrested in the aftermath and spent two months in neighbouring cells at Holloway prison. It was there that Ethel’s friend, Thomas Beecham, found her conducting a rendition of ‘The March of the Women’ using her toothbrush!
During the war, with her hearing beginning to fail, Ethel worked as a radiologist in France (is there anything this woman couldn’t do!). When she became too deaf to continue composing music she turned to writing, publishing ten books that combined memoirs, private letters and feminist thinking. The latter was most significant in her essay, ‘Female Pipings in Eden’, where she addressed the sexual inequality that existed in music. Women were shut out from the ‘lads club’ of committees and conductors, meaning that their work was performed infrequently and to limited acclaim. As a result, women could very rarely make a living in the industry. Ethel also observed how differently the press treated female musicians compared to men - something that still rings true a century later.
“I want women to turn their minds to big and difficult jobs; not just to go on hugging the shore, afraid to put out to sea.” - Dame Ethel Smyth
Ethel Smyth made a remarkable contribution to music, and was among the most successful female composers of her time. A reflection on her personality, her music does not content itself with being modest or delicate; it is as loud, boisterous, and energetic as she was. The most significant part of her legacy, though, was in her feminism. Establishing herself in a male dominated field, she openly criticised the prejudice she found there, where simply being a man could take precedent over being talented. She encouraged female musicians to continue producing their original works, and called on their fans to organise and boycott concerts until equality was achieved. Her writing remains just as relevant today, and highlights the continual need to call out sexism within the industry.
