The subtitle for this book is: The true story of Ethel Smyth, Suffragette and Composer
From a young age Ethel Smyth loved music. She was a forthright girl, brave and daring. When she was twelve the family employed a new governess - a graduate of the Leipzig Music Conservatory.
"From that moment, Ethel's desire burned. She spent hours each day writing music to accompany her favourite poems."
It seemed certain that Ethel will follow a career path into music but her father said NO. It took her five years to convince him to let her attend the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany.
"People said she wouldn't succeed as a composer because she was a woman."
This meant she had to publish her music with only her initials - E. Smyth. She composed operas, symphonies, and choral works and yes, they were performed. At first no one knew this music came from a woman but then it became popular and she no longer had to pretend to be a man. Of course, there were still some orchestras who would not perform music by a woman especially back in England.
In 1910 other women were also demanding to be noticed - the suffragettes. Ethel joined the movement and followed the creed of Emeline Pankhurst - deeds not words. She wrote music for the protesters to use as a battle cry. Ethel Smyth was becoming famous.
Perhaps if she did something illegal and went to jail their cause would gain attention. Ethel hurled a rock straight into the window of a cabinet minister. (This is the opening scene from the BBC television series I mention later in this post). She served two months in Holloway prison. While in prison she went on hunger strike.
Thomas Beecham visited the composer in Holloway Prison in 1912 and found her conducting her fellow inmates with a toothbrush. “I arrived in the main courtyard of the prison to find the noble company of martyrs marching round it and singing lustily their war-chant while the composer, beaming approbation from an overlooking upper window, beat time in almost Bacchic frenzy with a toothbrush”.
Ethel Smyth was born one hundred years before me. She lived until 1944 and was able to vote in eight general elections. I wonder if you have ever heard of her?
In spite of challenging the government through her activism, and her groundbreaking, unconventional life, Dame Ethel Smyth was knighted as a Commander of the British Empire in 1922. She became the first woman to be granted the damehood for her contributions to composition and publication. London Museum
Further reading:
Rise up with a Song is published by the wonderfully named Bushel and Peck. On the final pages there is a timeline of her life; a selected list of her music; and some further reading. See inside this book here. In Australia this book is distributed by NewSouth Books.
Publisher blurb: In 1867 England, a girl learned to be proper and speak when spoken to. But one girl marched to a different beat. Ethel Smyth climbed fences, explored graveyards, and yearned to become a famous composer at a time when only men could publish their music. But become a composer she did, first signing her music as E. Smyth so people couldn't guess her gender, then eventually writing openly as a woman (but still sometimes not getting paid!). Ethel had had enough. She joined the suffragette movement, marching in the streets and fighting for the right to vote. She even composed the famous "March of the Women" battle cry—and directed it from her cell window with a toothbrush when she was put into prison.
The music to her suffragette anthem - The March of the Women - is presented on the end papers of Rise up with a Song.
Verse 1
Shout, shout, up with your song!
Cry with the wind, for the dawn is breaking;
March, march, swing you along,
Wide blows our banner, and hope is waking.
Song with its story, dreams with their glory
Lo! they call, and glad is their word!
Loud and louder it swells,
Thunder of freedom, the voice of the Lord!
Verse 2
Long, long—we in the past
Cowered in dread from the light of heaven,
Strong, strong—stand we at last,
Fearless in faith and with sight new given.
Strength with its beauty, Life with its duty,
(Hear the voice, oh hear and obey!)
These, these—beckon us on!
Open your eyes to the blaze of day.
Verse 3
Comrades—ye who have dared
First in the battle to strive and sorrow!
Scorned, spurned—nought have ye cared,
Raising your eyes to a wider morrow,
Ways that are weary, days that are dreary,
Toil and pain by faith ye have borne;
Hail, hail—victors ye stand,
Wearing the wreath that the brave have worn!
Verse 4
Life, strife—those two are one,
Naught can ye win but by faith and daring.
On, on—that ye have done
But for the work of today preparing.
Firm in reliance, laugh a defiance,
(Laugh in hope, for sure is the end)
March, march—many as one,
Shoulder to shoulder and friend to friend.
Helena Perez Garcia is the illustrator of these books:
I first heard about Ethel Smyth on the 1990s BBC television series called A Skirt Through History. There were six episodes and the stories of Ethel Smyth and another suffragette Sarah Benett were told in the episode entitled The Wreckers which is the name of an opera composed by Ethel Smyth. I think you may be able to find this program on Amazon Prime.
I did once have a VHS video of this episode and I regularly used it with my Grade 6 classes in the library as a part of their unit of work on democracy and voting and suffragettes. Sarah Benett is not part of this book but a few years ago I travelled to Lyme Regis because her diary, which forms the basis of much of this show, was found in the Lyme Regis museum. Unfortunately no one there knew anything about this and my email to the museum curator yielded no answer.
Here's a summary of this program: "The fight for women's voting rights is told through the writings of two turn-of-the-century British suffragettes - Ethel Smyth and Sarah Benett. Composer and writer Smyth comments on her libertarian life, and her promotion of women's rights through her highly praised opera, The Wreckers. Based on the 1910 window-breaking campaign launched by the Suffragette movement to further their cause, the opera is her most famous work. Also quoting from Benett's diaries, an actor provides a first-person account of the campaign and the hardships suffered by jailed Suffragettes, who were often beaten, raped, and subjected to psychological torture."
The National Portrait Gallery in London have several paintings (including a pencil sketch by John Singer Sargent) and many photographs of Ethel Smyth. Here is a her statue:
Statue in Woking UK
