Page 674 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK
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Her 1911 song, ‘The March of the Women’, which had lyrics by Cicely
Hamilton, was dedicated to movement leader Emmeline Pankhurst –
documented to have been a lover of Smyth’s – and became the official
anthem of the Women’s Social and Political Union and women’s suffrage
activism around the world.
At the age of 71 Smyth, by all accounts, met and fell in love with Virginia
Woolf (who would have been in her 40s at the time). Woolf described it as
“like being caught by a giant crab”, for better or worse...
Dame Ethel Smyth. Picture: Getty
3. Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
As well as being one of the first openly gay composers full
stop, Poulenc also didn’t eschew his sexuality in the context of his
religious faith.
His compositions spanned from intimate chamber sonatas with sublime,
twisting melodies and delicate impressionist harmonies (think the 1957
Flute Sonata), to his Piano Concerto and epic one-act opera for soprano
and orchestra, La voix humaine.
Music scholars continue to debate whether or not the diverse range of
styles in his music serve as an outward representation of an inner moral
conflict in Poulenc.
4. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
