Channeling my inner musician

Last night I went to a classical concert for the first time since I've been in Sweden. I went by myself. Malmö Opera was doing a program out here about female composers. That intrigued me because I couldn't even think of one female composer. The performers were a pianist, a violinist, a cellist, and a soprano. They were all women, but only the soprano was a Swede. They were also very good! I don't know why my expectations were lower, but they really were first rate.

They started the program with a baroque piece by Francesca Caccini (1587-1640). She was actually a successful professional musician and part of her father, Guilo Caccini's, touring company. Later, she was employed by the royal family in Florence. Besides playing the music, the also told about the composer's life. After the baroque era, things got much tougher for women. Music was considered an appropriate pass time for an upper class woman, and a useful skill for attracting a good husband, but it was not a woman's place to perform in public or compose, especially after she was married.

We also heard pieces by Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896, wife of Robert Schumann) and Alma Schindler Mahler (1879-1964, wife of Gustav). Both were talented musicians who were married young to their much older composer husbands. Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847) was Felix's older sister. Her father disapproved of her composing, but both her husband and brother supported her, and Felix even published some of her work under his name.

My favorite piece of the evening was a piano trio by Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944), a comparatively well known French composer. Here's a clip of it performed by another group.



I also really enjoyed Villanelle by Eva Dell'Acqua (1856-1930). Again, this clip is performed by somebody else.



I haven't listed all the pieces or composers, but they ended the evening after only an hour with a song by Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944), a largely self-taught American composer and musician who became quite successful after her husband's death.