About Ethel Smyth

Country of Birth

England

Industry

Music

Top achievements

Dame Ethel Smyth was a talented British composer known as the first female composer granted Damehood for her contributions to the industry. She composed songs, operas, chamber music, piano, choral, and orchestral works. Despite being marginalized as a “woman composer” and not receiving the acknowledgment she deserved, Dame Ethel enjoyed considerable success.

Early life

Dame Ethel was born Ethel Mary Smyth on April 22, 1858, in London, England. She studied music briefly with Alexander Ewing when she was 17. Berlioz and Wagner were two of her early musical influences at the time. As Smyth’s interest in music grew, her father, a major general in the military, made it clear that he disapproved of her pursuing a music career. 

Despite the opposition to her dreams, the young Ethel Smyth was relentless in her pursuit and was eventually allowed to study at the Leipzig Conservancy, where she studied with Carl Reinecke and was encouraged by Antonín Dvořák and Johannes Brahms. After a year of studying, Smyth left the conservatory and continued her studies privately with Heinrich von Herzogenberg. 

Career

Smyth’s first significant achievement in music was in 1893 with her sweeping Mass in D. In the early 1900s; she composed “The Wreckers,” which became the top English opera of the time, and “March of the Women,” which reflected her deep involvement in the suffrage movement. Smyth also composed “The Boatswain’s Mate,” a comic opera, and wrote a multivolume autobiography, “Impressions That Remained.”

Activism 

Ethel Smyth was an active member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), known for its strong stance on women’s suffrage. She stepped away from her career in music for two years to devote her time to the cause and composed “The March of The Women,” which became the anthem of the suffrage movement. 

As a result of her activism, Smyth was arrested. She was jailed along with 109 other members who responded to a call to break a window at a politician’s house. He was known for opposing the women’s vote and for making misogynistic comments. During Smyth’s incarceration, friends, and fellow suffragettes visited, marched, and sang outside in support of her as she leaned out of a window conducting with a toothbrush.

Achievements

Smyth’s opera, “Der Wald,” remained the only opera by a female composer ever produced at the New York Metropolitan Opera for over a century. 

Recognition

Despite her incredible talent, Smyth did not receive much recognition throughout her life, and her music practically vanished when she died. However, there was a recent welcome revival of her work and an interest in her life. 

In 2018, there were two performances of “The March of the Women, Smyth’s suffragette anthem, to mark the centenary anniversary of women winning the right to vote. This was followed by a Grammy-award-winning recording of “The Prison,” Smyth’s 1930 opera. Soon after, her opera, “The Wreckers,” opened the prestigious Glyndebourne Opera Festival, receiving glowing reviews.

Additional facts

• Dame Ethel was a member of the women’s suffrage movement.
• The Times gave Dame Ethel’s opera “The Wreckers” glowing reviews, stating the opera caused “wild waves of passion” in the audience. 
• In her book, “Female Pipings in Eden,” Smyth described her time in prison as being in good company but in poor cockroach-infested conditions.