Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1998 Dame Ethel Smyth's Concerto for Violin, Horn, and Orchestra: A Performance Guide for the Hornist. Janiece Marie Luedeke Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Luedeke, Janiece Marie, "Dame Ethel Smyth's Concerto for Violin, Horn, and Orchestra: A Performance Guide for the Hornist. LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6747 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons.
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DAME ETHEL SMYTH’S CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN, HORN, AND ORCHESTRA: A PERFORMANCE GUIDE FOR THE HORNIST A Monograph Subm itted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and A gricultural and M echanical College in partial fulfillm ent of the requirem ents for the degree of D octor o f M usical Arts in The School o f Music by Janiece Marie Luedeke B., U niversity o f Akron, 1989 August, 1998 R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout perm ission. UMI Number: 9902649 Copyright 1998 by Luedeke, Janiece Marie All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9902649 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company.
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© Copyright 1998 Janiece Marie Luedeke All rights reserved ii R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited without p erm ission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my professors, friends, and family for all their support throughout the course of this degree. I have had the fortunate pleasure of working with an exceptional committee.
I would especially like to thank Professors Bruce Heim, Jennifer Brown, and Richard Kaplan for sharing their insight as well as providing me with hours of help. My gratitude also extends to my friends who have helped me maintain my perspective and have encouraged me to be persistent. Through the years, my greatest source of support has come from my family. They are my foundation and have given me more love than I could have ever dreamed of receiving.
I would especially like to thank my parents, Carlton and Elizabeth and my sisters, Mary, Beverly, and Laura. This monograph is dedicated to the loving memory of Jacek Ilnicki. iii R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission.
NOTATIONAL CONVENTIONS The octave designation system used in this monograph is U. Standard notation, the octave notation system adopted by the Acoustical Society of America. Young, ‘Terminology for Logarithmic Frequency Units,” Journal o f the Acoustical Society o f America 11 (1939): 134-139. It is as follows: S 30— i ;t>: „ i — — t ^ s*—* Ci C2 C3 C4 C5 Cg C7 In the Smyth Double Concerto, measure numbers were not provided by the publishers.
This author has chosen to begin with the first complete measure. R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout perm ission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.iii NOTATIONAL CONVENTIONS.
iv LIST OF EXAMPLES.1 CHAPTER 1 IMPRESSIONS OF ETHEL SMYTH. 5 2 ANALYTICAL OBSERVATIONS ONTHE CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN, HORN, AND ORCHESTRA. 24 First M ovem ent. 24 Second M ovem ent.
28 Third M ovem ent.32 3 A TEACHING GUIDE FOR THE HORNIST. 56 APPENDIX A: REHEARSAL NUMBERS CORRESPONDING TO MEASURE NUMBERS OF SMYTH’S CONCERTO. 61 APPENDIX B: CONSENT FORMS. 68 v R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f th e copyright ow ner.
Further reproduction prohibited w ithout perm ission. LIST OF EXAMPLES 2. Brahms and Smyth Comparison. Transitional Figure in Smyth’s Concerto.
B-flat Harmonic Series Notated for Horn in F. The Horn Chords Found in Smyth’s Concerto. Pitches Played and Sung Simultaneously. Pitches Played at Different Dynamics.
Moving by Half Steps. Vocalizing Above the Sustaining Note. Vocalizing Below the Sustaining Note. Other Combinations of Pitches.
Passages in the Third Movement of Bart6k’s Concertofor Orchestra 51 3. Passage in Second Movement of Smyth’s Concerto. Passage in Third Movement of Smyth’s Concerto.52 vi R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission.
ABSTRACT Dame Ethel Smyth’s Concerto for Violin, Horn, and Orchestra (1927) is a welcome addition to the hom concerto repertory. Moreover, Smyth’s “Double Concerto” has the added distinction of being the first significant piece for hom by a female composer. The Double Concerto was first performed May 5,1927, in the Queens Hall, London by the renowned Aubrey Brain, hom, and Jelly d’Aranyi, violin, with Sir Henry Wood conducting. The Concerto consists of three movements, each featuring beautiful thematic material that is expanded and exchanged between the two soloists and within the orchestra.
The Finale is a heroic movement that makes use of hunting motives, a style of hom writing popular since at least the time of Georg Philipp Telemann. This monograph will focus on preparation strategies for performing the hom part of Smyth’s Concerto. The first chapter will provide biographical and historical information on Ethel Smyth and her Double Concerto. The second chapter will provide an analysis to help assist the performer in understanding the piece.
It will include a discussion of topics such as form, harmony, motives, and rhythms. The third chapter will be a practical guide for the hom player. It will provide teaching methods and exercises for developing multiphonic techniques, suggestions for coping with the awkward passages marked con sordino, as well as a variety of alternate fingerings for stopping. A description of Aubrey Brain’s instrument and sound will suggest an appropriate timbre for this piece and a discussion of seating arrangements will address issues of balance.
vii R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission. INTRODUCTION Despite the fact that the hom is prominently featured in countless nineteenth and twentieth century orchestral works, relatively few concerti for hom have been written during this period; those of Carl Maria von Weber, Franz Strauss, and Richard Strauss are the most obvious exceptions. Thus, Dame Ethel Smyth’s Concerto for Violin, Hom, and Orchestra (1927) is a welcome addition to the hom concerto repertory.
Moreover, Smyth’s “Double Concerto” has the added distinction of being the first significant piece for hom by a female composer. Throughout the history of music, works by women composers have generally been ignored by performers and audiences alike; consequently Smyth's Concerto has long languished in oblivion. In the last few years, however, interest in Ethel Smyth’s Concerto has grown, resulting in two recordings: the 1992 issue of the piano reduction featuring Renate Eggebrecht-Kupsa, violin, Franz Draxinger, hom, and Celine Dutilly, piano; and the 1995 issue of the orchestral version by Sophie Langdon, violin, Richard Watkins, hom, and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Odaline de la Martinez. Yet the Concerto has received only cursory attention in the scholarly press.
The purpose of this study is to present performing strategies for the hom player after providing historical and analytical background for this work. Ethel Smyth was bom in Marylebone, England, on April 22, 1858, and died in Woking, May 9,1944. Bom into a prosperous military family, she defied convention and fought hard to achieve her musical ambitions. At the age of 17, she began her formal musical training with Alexander Ewing.
In 1877 she entered the Leipzig Conservatory where she studied with Carl Reinecke, Salomon Jadassohn, and Louis Maas. She was, however, dissatisfied and left after one year to study privately with the Austrian composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg. Through him she met Brahms, Clara Schumann, Grieg, 1 R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission.
2 Tchaikovsky, and Dvorak. Her first major success as a serious composer was the performance of her Mass in D for Solo Voices, Chorus, and Orchestra at the Albert Hall, January 18, 1893. The German conductor Hermann Levi, impressed with her dramatic ability, insisted that she write an opera. From that time forward most of her energy was devoted to dramatic musical works.
Unfortunately, there was little opportunity for performance of new operas in England. Consequently, her first opera, Fantasio, was performed in Weimar in 1898 and revived at Karlsruhe in 1901. Her second opera, Der Wald, a one-act work, was produced in Berlin on April 21,1902. Three months later at Covent Garden, it became the first opera performance in her native country.
The following year on March 11 Der Wald made history as the first opera by a female composer to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Her most successful work, The Wreckers, was originally written in French with the title Les Naufrageurs. However, the French version was never presented to the public; the opera was premiered in German at Leipzig and Prague (1906) under the title Strandrecht. Smyth then translated the libretto into English.
On June 22,1909, this version was presented at Her Majesty’s Theater under the baton of Thomas Beecham. It was during the following years, 1910-1912 that Smyth became a militant leader for women's suffrage in England. She is perhaps best remembered today for the anthem “The March of the Women,” the battle song of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Hints of her political feelings appear in her next opera, The Boatswain’s Mate, a comedy after W.
Jacobs, produced by Beecham in 1916. In 1922 she was honored by King George VI with the title Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.