10 (or so) favorite compositions by female composers

[kyjo]

I don't think this has been done yet! So, here goes:

Grazyna Bacewicz: Concerto for String Orchestra
Amy Beach: Gaelic Symphony (or Piano Concerto or Piano Quintet)
Lili Boulanger: Psalm 130 for chorus and orchestra
Nadia Boulanger: Fantaisie for piano and orchestra
Cécile Chaminade: Thème variée for piano
Lūcija Garūta: Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor
Ruth Gipps: Horn Concerto (even better than her symphonies IMO)
Zara Levina: Piano Concerto no. 2
Moryfdd Llwyn Owen (great name!): Nocturne for Orchestra in D-flat major
Dora Pejačević: Piano Quintet in B minor

You don't have to come up with 10, BTW.

[vandermolen]

Ruth Gipps: Symphony 4
Nina Makarova: Symphony in D Minor
Grace Williams: Symphony 2
Ina Boyle: Symphony No.1 'Glencree' (In the Wicklow Hills)
Dorothy Howell: Symphonic Poem, Lamia (I hope to see it performed at the Proms this year)
Elisabetta Brusa: 'Merlin' Symphonic Poem
Lili Boulanger: For the Funeral of a Soldier
Doreen Carwithen: Bishop Rock Overture
Judith Bailey: 'Havas - a period of summer'
Zara Levina: Piano Concerto No.2

[Florestan]

I can't even name 10 female composers, let alone their symphonies. 

[Brian]

alpha:

Lera Auerbach - 24 Preludes for cello and piano
Grazyna Bacewicz - Concerto for string orchestra (recently got to see this live)
Amy Beach - Suite francaise for solo piano
Louise Farrenc - Symphony No. 1
Gabriela Lena Frank - Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout for string quartet
Lillian Fuchs - Sixteen Fantasy Etudes for solo viola
Vivian Fung - Violin Concerto
Jennifer Higdon - Light Refracted for string quartet, clarinet, and piano
Elena Kats-Chernin - Ornamental Air, concerto for basset clarinet and orchestra
Caroline Shaw - Partita for eight voices

Can do a top 3 in order: 1. Shaw Partita 2. Auerbach preludes 3. Farrenc symphony

Just got the MDG recording of Chaminade's piano trios, eager to dive into that. Hon. mention to Farrenc's sextet.

I can't even name 10 female composers, let alone their symphonies. 

You need to start working to correct that wrong!

[PerfectWagnerite]

I listened to this yesterday:

Amy Beach: Gaelic Symphony

To me it sounds pretty tedious, as in there really isn't any individual voice in it, just sounds like any other late Romantic symphony.

2 of my favorite are

1) Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor (coincidence?) If you close your eyes it always sounds like Robert's PC.
2) Jennifer Higdon's new Harp Concerto. OK it is not THAT great but the bar isn't terribly high nowadays, male or female. Sorry.

[amw]

Maja S.K. Ratkje - Crepuscular Hour
Galina Ustvolskaya - Grand Duet
Rebecca Saunders - fletch
Éliane Radigue - Occam series
Liza Lim - Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus
Chaya Czernowin - Ayre "Towed Through Plumes, Thicket, Asphalt, Sawdust and Hazardous Air I Shall Not Forget The Sound Of"
Annea Lockwood - Thousand Year Dreaming
Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre - Pièces de clavecin 1687
Milica Djordjević - The Death of the Star-Knower
Rebecca Clarke - Viola Sonata
Olivia Block - 132 Ranks
Ruth Crawford Seeger - Quartet 1931

offhand anyway. 1 per composer to prevent list inflation

[Ken B]

I doubt I could name 10 "favorite " ones. I do like this Canadian Symphony though, http://kenblogic.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-canadian-symphony.html

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

My 10 favorite pieces by female composers are all by Bacewicz.

[schnittkease]

Chin: Violin Concerto
Clarke: Viola Sonata
Crawford Seeger: String Quartet (1931)
Gubaidulina: Offertorium
Gubaidulina: String Quartet No. 4
Gubaidulina: Viola Concerto
Saariaho: Lichtbogen
Saariaho: Sept papillons
Ustvolskaya: Piano Sonata No. 5
Ustvolskaya: Piano Sonata No. 6

[kyjo]

Ruth Gipps: Symphony 4
Nina Makarova: Symphony in D Minor
Grace Williams: Symphony 2
Ina Boyle: Symphony No.1 'Glencree' (In the Wicklow Hills)
Dorothy Howell: Symphonic Poem, Lamia (I hope to see it performed at the Proms this year)
Elisabetta Brusa: 'Merlin' Symphonic Poem
Lili Boulanger: For the Funeral of a Soldier
Doreen Carwithen: Bishop Rock Overture
Judith Bailey: 'Havas - a period of summer'
Zara Levina: Piano Concerto No.2

Great list, Jeffrey. I could've easily chosen Gipps' Symphony 4 or Makarova's Symphony, which gets off to a rather slow start but eventually becomes quite an impressive work.

[kyjo]

alpha:

Lera Auerbach - 24 Preludes for cello and piano
Grazyna Bacewicz - Concerto for string orchestra (recently got to see this live)
Amy Beach - Suite francaise for solo piano
Louise Farrenc - Symphony No. 1
Gabriela Lena Frank - Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout for string quartet
Lillian Fuchs - Sixteen Fantasy Etudes for solo viola
Vivian Fung - Violin Concerto
Jennifer Higdon - Light Refracted for string quartet, clarinet, and piano
Elena Kats-Chernin - Ornamental Air, concerto for basset clarinet and orchestra
Caroline Shaw - Partita for eight voices

Can do a top 3 in order: 1. Shaw Partita 2. Auerbach preludes 3. Farrenc symphony

Just got the MDG recording of Chaminade's piano trios, eager to dive into that. Hon. mention to Farrenc's sextet.

Great list, Brian! Some new composers for me to explore there.

[kyjo]

I listened to this yesterday:

Amy Beach: Gaelic Symphony

To me it sounds pretty tedious, as in there really isn't any individual voice in it, just sounds like any other late Romantic symphony.

Sure, it's no masterpiece, and is influenced by Dvorak and (to a lesser extent) Brahms, but I find it a very enjoyable work. It's one of those rare symphonies where the first movement is actually the weakest (IMO) - I find the subsequent three movements more engaging.

[kyjo]

Maja S.K. Ratkje - Crepuscular Hour
Galina Ustvolskaya - Grand Duet
Rebecca Saunders - fletch
Éliane Radigue - Occam series
Liza Lim - Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus
Chaya Czernowin - Ayre "Towed Through Plumes, Thicket, Asphalt, Sawdust and Hazardous Air I Shall Not Forget The Sound Of"
Annea Lockwood - Thousand Year Dreaming
Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre - Pièces de clavecin 1687
Milica Djordjević - The Death of the Star-Knower
Rebecca Clarke - Viola Sonata
Olivia Block - 132 Ranks
Ruth Crawford Seeger - Quartet 1931

offhand anyway. 1 per composer to prevent list inflation

I could've easily chosen Clarke's Viola Sonata as well. Great piece.

[kyjo]

Without wishing to turn this thread down a pessimistic route, it seems that Lili Boulanger's premature death was a double blow. Not only did it mean we'd have no more music from her, but it also apparently discouraged her sister Nadia from pursuing composition any further - and she was a very talented composer as well on the basis of her beautiful Fantaisie for piano and orchestra. How very sad! Well, at least she went on to become one of the most influential teachers of the 20th century.

[relm1]

Hannah Lash: Music for Loss
Ruth Gipps: Symphony 4
Grace Williams: Symphony 2
Anna Clyne: Abstractions (Seascape)
Kaija Saariaho: Chateau de l'ame
Kaija Saariaho: Orion
Elisabetta Brusa: "Florestan" per grande orchestra
Lili Boulanger: Faust et Helene
Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo Virtutum
Amy Beach: Gaelic Symphony

These are works any man would be deeply honored to have composed.

[PerfectWagnerite]

Sure, it's no masterpiece, and is influenced by Dvorak and (to a lesser extent) Brahms, but I find it a very enjoyable work. It's one of those rare symphonies where the first movement is actually the weakest (IMO) - I find the subsequent three movements more engaging.

Could have been influenced by Dvorak's 9th if you really listen to it. Anyway nothing that stamps "American" on it, which is the reason I don't enjoy music by American composers from this era. The so-called Boston Six more or less sound like each other and can easily be mistaken for some second-rate Austro-German late Romantic music.

[schnittkease]

Could have been influenced by Dvorak's 9th if you really listen to it. Anyway nothing that stamps "American" on it, which is the reason I don't enjoy music by American composers from this era. The so-called Boston Six more or less sound like each other and can easily be mistaken for some second-rate Austro-German late Romantic music.

Completely agree. The obvious exceptions are Ives and perhaps Gottschalk.

[vandermolen]

Without wishing to turn this thread down a pessimistic route, it seems that Lili Boulanger's premature death was a double blow. Not only did it mean we'd have no more music from her, but it also apparently discouraged her sister Nadia from pursuing composition any further - and she was a very talented composer as well on the basis of her beautiful Fantaisie for piano and orchestra. How very sad! Well, at least she went on to become one of the most influential teachers of the 20th century.

Yes, her premature death was such a loss to music. I could also have selected her 'Psalm 130' but was trying not to replicate too many of your choices Kyle. Also I'd actually heard the work I selected in concert - very moving in the context of the centenary of the end of World War One last year.

[vandermolen]

Hannah Lash: Music for Loss
Ruth Gipps: Symphony 4
Grace Williams: Symphony 2
Anna Clyne: Abstractions (Seascape)
Kaija Saariaho: Chateau de l'ame
Kaija Saariaho: Orion
Elisabetta Brusa: "Florestan" per grande orchestra
Lili Boulanger: Faust et Helene
Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo Virtutum
Amy Beach: Gaelic Symphony

These are works any man would be deeply honored to have composed.

Nice choices, not that I know them all. I must listen to 'Florestan' by Elisabetta Brusa. I've enjoyed everything I've heard by her.
Am currently enjoying this CD:

[Daverz]

Farrenc: Symphonies
Zara Levina: Piano Concertos
Bacewicz: VC 1; Piano Quintet 1
Judith Lang Zaimont: Symphony No. 1
Rebecca Clarke: Viola Sonata
Pejačević: Piano Concerto