Page 22 - CJAug25

Almost Lost to History: Ethel Smyth’s Extraordinary Mass in D

was one of the few venues in Britain championing or- says in Musical Analysis, 236, calls the vocal writing “some-
chestral masses at the time. See Jeremy Dibble, Charles what difficult.”
Villiers Stanford: Man and Musician, rev. ed., Irish Musical 32 St. John, Ethel Smyth, 152.
Studies 15 (The Boydell Press, 2024), 278. 33 The score can be found in the Choral Public Domain Li-
17 Smyth, Streaks of Life, 102. brary.
18 Ibid. 34 Elizabeth Wood, “Sapphonics,” in Queering the Pitch: The New
19 Collis, Impetuous Heart, 60. Gay and Lesbian Musicology, ed. by Philip Brett, Elizabeth
20 Smyth, Streaks of Life, 90–102. Wood, and Gary C. Thomas, 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2006),
21 St. John, Ethel Smyth, 87. 45.
22 James Garratt, “Britain and Ireland,” in Nineteenth-Century 35 Conductors contemplating performance are encouraged to
Choral Music, ed. Donna M. Di Grazia (Routledge, 2013), follow the score online; see note 15. Practice tracks for parts
357. of the Mass are now beginning to appear online; for ex-
23 St. John, Ethel Smyth, 91. ample, see www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4NCPtmQreM.
24 Ibid. 36 I am grateful to Dr. William Weinert for providing informa-
25 Smyth, As Time Went On, 172–173. tion about the orchestral parts.
26 Smyth, A Final Burning of Boats Etc., 17–18. 37 Ethel Smyth, Mass in D for Soli, Chorus, and Orchestra, revised
27 Smyth, As Time Went On, 173. The original autographed edition (Novello, 1925). All references are to this score.
full score was thought to have been lost again after 1924 38 That number does not include the few instances where the
but was located by Dr. Lisa Colton in March 2025; see music splits into four parts.
www.womensongforum.org/2025/04/30/discovering- 39 Parts designated “altus” or “contra” in Renaissance music
the-original-manuscript-of-ethel-smyths-mass-in-d/ frequently have a low tessitura, but they were sung by
The full manuscript has now been digitized at https:// men. Perhaps anticipating vocal difficulties for the choir,
digitalheritagelab.liverpool.ac.uk/ethel-smyth-mass-in-d. Smyth writes in the Benedictus score “Can be sung as
A new edition to be published by Breitkopf und Härtel Solo, without Chorus” (p. 88).
is underway. 40 Earlier choral works, all unpublished, are unaccompanied.
28 A partial list of recent performances (since 2008) is found 41 John Adams, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life
at www.wisemusicclassical.com/performances/search/ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), 114–15. .
work/10017/. Probably because Smyth was famed as a 42 Adams, Hallelujah Junction, 115.
suffragist, the most performances took place in 2018, the 43 Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis, 236.
centennial of the Act of Parliament that first granted the 44 Smyth, Streaks of Life, 103.
vote to British women, though only propertied ones over 45 St. John, Ethel Smyth, 58.
the age of thirty. 46 Smyth, Streaks of Life, 103.
29 Dennis Shrock, Choral Repertoire (Oxford University Press,
2009; rev. ed. 2022); Chester L. Alwes, A History of West-
ern Choral Music, 2 vols. (Oxford University Press, 2015–
2016); Stephen Town, An Imperishable Heritage: British Cho-
ral Music from Parry to Dyson (Ashgate, 2012).
30 See, for example, the pathbreaking Historical Anthology of
Music by Women, ed. James R. Briscoe (Indiana University
Press, 1986) and the essay collection Women Making Music:
The Western Art Tradition, 1150–1950, ed. Jane Bowers and
Judith Tick (University of Illinois Press, 1987).
31 St. John, Ethel Smyth, 85, wrote that for the premiere, “Cho-
rus and orchestra were intensively rehearsed, and they
needed to be, as Ethel’s score made demands on their
technique to which they were unaccustomed.” Tovey, Es-

20 CHORAL JOURNAL August 2025 Volume 66 Number 1