Carrie Jacobs-Bond was one of the greatest songwriters of her generation. She was born in Janesville in either 1861 or 1862, her father lost their family fortune and died while Carrie was still a child and her marriage at 18 years old only lasted seven years before she remarried. Within seven years of her second marriage she began to suffer from terrible rheumatism and then her husband lost his job and in 1894 died leaving her a single mother of a five year old son. "It was the necessity of supporting myself and my little son that made me a writer of songs. It is true that even as a little girl, when I thought of the future, I always thought of myself as a songwriter."
She was immensely generous to the extent that she invited a homeless family to live with her even though she was having to sell her possessions just to make ends meet and then a fortunate accidental meeting with a neighbour's friend who saw the manuscripts and the piano in her room and started playing her song 'I Love You Truly' with which he was very impressed and promised to help her. Her first songs published became extremely successful and she decided to start her own publishing company with her son. Because Carrie Jacobs-Bond published her own work and wrote her own lyrics she was one of just a handful of composers that personally owned every word and every note of her compositions. Carrie Jacobs-Bond died in 1946 of a brain haemorrhage and is honoured by Los Angeles City Council as "one of America's greatest women". 3 Songs as Unpretentious as The Wild Rose are beautiful miniatures dedicated to three sopranos Jennie Osborne Hannah who was well know in Michigan in oratorio and song, Clara Henley Bussing from Chicago and known throughout America in opera and concert, and Mary Peck Thompson who played both Siebel and Marthe in a concert performance whilst a student and performed in the closing concert of the formal dedication of the Eliza Fowler Hall at Purdue University. The first song considers the frailty of a plucked flower comparing it to a friendship that doesn't last yet leaves good memories. The second song tells of a young woman hopelessly in love and pondering the faithfulness of her lover ending with 'He loves me, he loves me not, loves me!'. The third song begins with a slowly descending chromatic bass highlighting loss and sadness whilst the only diatonic final four bars attempt to make us believe her hopes are fulfilled. The score can be found below, please sing and play through it and leave your comments below. https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/a/af/IMSLP196066-SIBLEY1802.10653.a41d-39087011999754three_songs.pdf
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Ann Mounsey was born in Soho, London in 1811. Ann composed for piano, organ, choirs and the solo voice as well as many cantatas and an oratorio (The Nativity). She was an outstanding organist for well over fifty years famously accompanying the world premiere of Hear My Prayer by Mendelssohn, a piece that was written specially for her concert series as well as being a founder member of the Society of Female Musicians.
Her Six Songs were reviewed in 1882 These Six Songs are a worthy contribution to the somewhat limited store of high-class vocal music by modern composer, for not only has Mrs. Bartholomew given an exquisite colouring to the words she has chosen, but the words are those which can only be fitly treated by a kindred artist. In No. 1 Shakespeare’s verses are set with a truly sympathetic feeling to a quaint subject in A minor, the modulations in the course of the song growing up naturally with the text, and the accompaniment forming so integral a portion of the composition as to demand something more than the average accompanist at the pianoforte.’ [...] No. 6, from the 'Percy Relics,’ effectively terminates a series of songs standing so completely apart from our fashionable works of the day as to make us believe that they must command the attention of all real artists." Ann died in 1891 and left an enormous legacy as a musician and educator. I first performed the Six Songs with the fabulous pianist Yoshie Kawamura at the Literary & Philosophical Society Recital Series in 2023. The score can be found here https://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/f/f1/IMSLP723081-PMLP1151613-D1477-27.pdf |
AuthorOver the past five years I have been exploring more repertoire by women and as I learn and expand my repertoire I thought it would be a good idea to share. ArchivesCategories |