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celebrating three hundred years of music by women |
Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994)
Maconchy was regarded as one of the most individual composers of her generation. Her first big success was when Henry Wood conducted her orchestral Suite The
Land Lengnick at the 1930 Proms; the Daily Telegraph review had the headline Girl Composer's Triumph.
She went on to establish her reputation, composing in various genres - chamber, orchestral and choral, and writing for many of the leading performers of the day. Her uniqueness is seen in the variety, quantity and quality of her music for strings. During half a century, Maconchy wrote a long series of (thirteen) string quartets that, in scope, succinctness and power, has no equal; they illustrate her ideas of music as impassioned argument. She had a cosmopolitan musical education, studying at the Royal College of Music with Vaughan Williams, and later in European cities including Prague with K. B. Jirák. In 1932 she contracted tuberculosis and moved out of London, while keeping in touch with the musical fraternity. She won many Prizes for her work, including winning a London County Council competition for a coronation overture with Proud Thames in 1952. Her music was performed at the London Promenade concerts; she was frequently commissioned by performers, institutions, Festivals, and the BBC.Maconchy wrote a lot of vocal music, solo and choral, throughout her entire composing life. Her first major choral work, Hymn to God the Father, dates from 1931, whereas On Stephens's Day is her last work completed in 1989. Besides the a cappella works, she also composed several pieces with orchestral or ensemble support. While many works are unaccompanied, some of the shorter pieces are with the piano, such as The Voice of the City, The Armado and The Ribbon in her Hair. The most striking common feature is the great variety of the choral writing that perfectly responds to the wide literary sources chosen by the composer, including John Donne, William Blake, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Other important works include: Concertino for piano and chamber orchestra (1929); String Quartet No 5 (1948); Symphony for Double String Orchestra (1953); The Departure (chamber opera, 1961); Quintet for clarinet and strings (1963); 'Pied Beauty/Heaven Haven' - Hopkins settings for choir and brass (1975); 'My Dark Heart' for soprano and ensemble (1981); Music for Strings (1983). In 1959 she was the first woman to chair the Composers' Guild of Great Britain. In 1968 she was awarded the Cobbett Medal in recognition of her services to chamber music. Her great contribution to 20th century music was recognised when she was made a CBE in 1977, and a DBE in 1987. All her manuscripts are at St Hilda's College Oxford Maconchy archive. Click on these works for more details below:
Theme & Variations for Strings, 1942-3 Theme: Andante. V1: Allegro. V2: Allegro moderato. V3: Moderato. V4: Lento espressivo. V5: Presto. V6: Allegro molto. V7: Allegro. V8: Allegro scherzando. V9: Lento moderato. Theme: Molto lento This is one of the many works by Maconchy which illustrates Ethyl Smyth's view that music by women has a special quality: energy. While the theme itself is slowish, it is full of just the kind of tensions that composers of variations can exploit, and most of the nine variations are fast, with the exact tempo and pulse changing restlessly from one to the next. As in the famous variations of the classical period, the music has an underlying dramatic thrust which becomes explicit when the theme returns at the end: the often conflicting bass line finally settles its differences for two quiet final notes, just in the nick of time. After we played this a friend said to me "Maconchy looks you straight in the eye." BBC Radio 3 featured her on Composer of the Week, in May 2024. Back to Contents Concertino for Piano & Strings, 1948. 1. Allegro molto. 2. Lento serioso. 3. Allegro con brio. 14 mins. This is a strong work, illustrating Maconchy's appreciation of the astringencies of East European musical language. The first movement is vigorous and rhythmic, centered round an argument on a syncopated pattern. The beautiful Lento expresses tradegy in various ways, including piano writing with similarities to a Chopin Nocturne gone wrong; this is followed by a dolourous recitative idea. Nodding to her origins, the final Allegro has associations with an Irish Gigue, teasingly playing off 6/8 and 3/4 time. We gave the modern première in 2007. Several of the audience described it as a masterpiece. Back to Contents Music for Strings, 1983 1. Molto moderato - Allegro. 2. Scherzo: Vivo. 3. Mesto. 4. Allegro. 20 mins This piece was commissioned by the BBC, first performed at a Promenade Concert in July 1983, and has her characteristic intensity. Back to Contents Variazioni Concertante for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon & strings, 1985 This work was commissioned by the BBC for the 1965 Proms when it was played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with soloists from the orchestra, conducted by James Loughran. Theme: Lento. V1: Andante con moto. V2: Presto. V3: Molto moderato. V4: Allegro. V5 Andante, tempo libero. V6 Allegro molto. V7: Andante con moto. V8: Allegro vivo. 18 mins Back to Contents Romanza for Viola & Ensemble, 1979 Tranquillo. Solo viola; fl, ob, cl, bn, hn; 2 vn, va, vc, db. 10 mins A beautifully romantic piece, with a highly expressive solo part. Back to Contents Quintet for Oboe & Strings, 1932 1. Moderato. 2. Poco sostenuto. 3. Allegro non troppo. 18 mins This piece won Maconchy the Daily Telegraph Prize in 1933. While the oboe part has its kinship with English pastoral styles, though with a strong keening character of its own, the ensemble as a whole is a very different matter. Each part maintains its independence, especially in rhythm, and the repetative features in the melodic lines echo parts of Europe somewhat farther east. There is a short cadenza in the second movement; overall, it is an intensely expressive work. Back to Contents Quartet for Oboe & Strings, 1972 1. Poco lento, tempo libero. 2. Scherzo. 3. Poco lento, dolento. 4. Allegro molto. 16 mins This piece was written for the oboist Janet Craxton, and comes from the same period as Maconchy's powerful 10th String Quartet. The first movement includes some characteristic Maconchy linear counterpoint. The somewhat serious Scherzo could be seen as playful in its continual stopping and starting. While the dolente third movement expresses a good deal of impassioned anger, all is swept aside in the fast music to finish. Back to Contents Three Bagatelles for Oboe & Harpsichord or Piano, 1972 1. Allegro. 2. Poco lento, tempo libero. 3. Vivo. 10 mins Written for Evelyn Barbirolli and Valda Aveling, these three pieces are a succinct set of miniatures, with a particularly expressive slow one in the middle. Back to Contents Orchestral Music BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Conductor: Odaline de la Martinez; Piano: Clelia Iruzun; The Land, Suite for Orchestra; 1930. Concertino for Piano and Chamber Orchestra (14 mins) 1928 Symphony for Double String Orchestra (24 minutes) 1952/3 Music for Wind and Brass (9 minutes) 1966 Writings Elizabeth Maconchy, Music as Impassioned Argument, Danielle Sofer; Universal Edition 3702475621. Music, Life, and Changing Times: Selected Correspondence Between British Composers Elizabeth Maconchy and Grace Williams; Routledge; Sophie Fuller & Jenny Doctor, editors. Lutyens, Maconchy, Williams and Twentieth-Century British Music, A Blest Trio of Sirens; Rhiannon Mathias. The Life and Music of Elizabeth Maconchy; Erica Siegal; Boydell & Brewer. The Choral Music of Twentieth-Century Women Composers: Elisabeth Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy and Thea Musgrave; Catherine Roma, Scarecrow Press. Quartet: How Four Women Challenged the Musical World; Leah Broad. Faber. Sound and Sweet Airs; Anna Beer. One World. The Pandora Guide to Women Composers, Britain and the United States; Archive; Sophie Fuller. The Musical Times; June 1955, Anne Macnaghten, pp 298-302. Composer magazine No 42, 1971-72; A composer speaks, pp25-29. Composer No 83, 1987, pp 113-114, Nicola LeFanu. The Contemporary Music Centre Ireland; Intense but Disciplined, Chester Music, Anthony Burton, 2005. The Northeastern Dictionary of Women's Biography; Jennifer Uglow & Maggie Hendry; 1999. pp347- 348. Our Finest Lost Composer - article by Martin Anderson in the Independent newspaper, 2001. Scores Overture; Suite; Concertino; The Sofa; Héloïse and Abeland; etc; Wise Music Classical Various; British Music Collection Various; Boosey Recordings Back to Contents BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Odaline de la Martinez conductor; Clelia Iruzun piano; Lorelt; The Land, Suite for Orchestra. Four Shakespeare Songs, Jeremy Hugh Williams, Paula Fan; Lorelt; LNT143; 2020. Dialogue for Piano and Orchestra; BBC Concert Orchestra, Martin Jones; RES10315. Songs; James Geer, Ronald Woodley; RES10299. Violin Sonatas 1 & 2; Malu Lin, Giles Swayne; RES10271. Complete String Quartets, Hanson, Bingham & Mistry Quartets; MusicWeb International. British Women Composers; Clare Howick, Sophia Rahman; Naxos; Three Preludes. Héloïse & Abelard; Lyrita; English Symphont Orchestra, James Gaddarn. Symphony for Double String Orchestra; Lyrita. British Piano Concerto; Lyrita; BBC NOW, Martin Brabbins, Simon Callaghan. Three Donne Songs; Somm; James Gilchrist, Nathan Williamson. Oboe Quintet, George Caird; An English Renaissance Oboe Classics CC2009. Oboe Quartet, Janet Craxton; Oboe Classics CC2011. You can download and hear the first minute of the String Quartet No 12 by clicking here. Web information: MusicWeb International Maconchy notes, by her daughter.
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