Ethel Smyth

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Ethel Smyth.jpg
Composer, Suffragette: Ethel Smyth (1858 - 1944)
Image source

At the age of 10, Ethel Smyth began composing hymns and chants and learnt how to play the piano. In 1877, she left home to study music at the conservatory in Leipzig, Germany. Disillusioned with tuition at the conservatory, she left after a year to study with Heinrich von Herzogenberg. Through him she met Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Dvorak and Clara Schumann: in particular, Brahms and Dvorak encouraged her in composition. 

In the 1890s, she returned to England and in 1910, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union.

Meet the composer who was also a suffragette: Ethel Smyth ...
Ethel Smyth at a WSPU meeting, 1912.
From The Womens' Library Collection, LSE Library. 

 Her song The March of the Women was sung by suffragettes throughout London. 
Listen to it here:


In 1912, following a large-scale Suffragette protest, she was sentenced to two months in Holloway prison for smashing a window of a politician's residence with her friend Emmeline Pankhurst. Whilst in prison, the conductor Thomas Beecham went to visit Smyth, where he witnessed her conducting her fellow prisoners performing The March of the Women with a toothbrush through the cell window. Smyth's output also includes a concerto for violin & horn, six operas and a series of orchestral, choral and chamber works. 

Concerto for Violin, Horn & Orchestra:

By the 1930s, Smyth had been made a Dame, the first female composer to be so honoured. She became so well-regarded that Beecham conducted a concert to celebrate her 75th birthday at the Royal Albert Hall, where royalty was in attendance. 

"Sanctus" from Smyth's Mass in D:

This blog is intended to be educational and to share knowledge about music. Daily Hit of Music does not claim to own anything contained in this post and declares its sources openly. 
The following sources were used for this blog post: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Classic fM, Drama Musica.
Image sources can be found in the image captions. 
Recordings can be found on YouTube by clicking the 'DHM YouTube Playlist' links.


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