#ClassicsaDay #WomensHistoryMonth 2019 Week 1
By Ralph Graves
For the third year in a row, the #ClassicsaDay theme for March is women composers. As I’ve done before, my post includes not just contemporary composers, but creative women from the Middle Ages on up.
As an additional challenge, I made sure I hadn’t duplicated any of my selections from previous years.
Below are my posts for the first full week of #WomensHistoryMonth
3/1 Alamanda de Castelnau (1160-1223) – Ensenhas
Alamanda was a trobairitz – a female French troubadour. Trobairitz were noblewomen, capable of both playing instruments and singing. They enjoyed prestige and power in medieval Occitan.
3/4 Lucia Quinciani (c.1566, fl.1611) – Udite lagrimosi spirti d’Averno udite
Quinciani is only known for this one work, published in Marcantonio Negri’s Affetti amorosi (1611). Virtually nothing else is known of her.
3/5 Mlle Bocquet (early 17th C.-after 1660) – Allemande in D minor
Bocquet was a lutenist and ran a salon with writer Mlle de a Mlle de Scudéry. Although well-respected in Paris and at court, her music remained in manuscript until the 20th Century.
3/6 Harriett Abrams (c. 1758-1821) The Emigrant
Abrams was one of the most popular English sopranos, especially noted for her performances of Handel. Several collections of her original songs were published in the early 1800s.
3/7 Johanna Kinkel (1810-1858) – Die Lorelei
Kinkel was an author, composer — and participant in the failed 1848 Revolutions. She wrote extensively about music. All of her published compositions (at least 19 volumes) are for voice and piano.
3/8 Shulamit Ran (1949 – ) – Concerto for Orchestra
Israeli-born composer Ran spent most her career at the University of Chicago. Her Symphony won the Pulitzer in 1991.
