ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I look back over 30 years of campaigning for neglected music created by women to be heard. What impact did the flurry of publications from the mid-1990s, including my own Pandora Guide to Women Composers (1994), have on concert programming, BBC broadcasts or CD releases? Focusing on the changing reception of three British composers – Grace Williams (1906–77), Elizabeth Maconchy (1907–94) and Maude Valérie White (1855–1937) – I explore the ways in which their music has begun to be heard again. It has not all been easy going. 12 years after the Pandora Guide, the BBC Proms programmed a summer season without a note of music written by a woman. 20 years after the Pandora Guide, a new A-level syllabus was produced with no music created by women deemed worthy of study.
However, the value of rediscovering female composers from the past as well as nurturing those working today is at the forefront of many people’s minds. On the back of the European Keychange initiative, the PRS Foundation announced in 2017 that 45 music festivals (including the Proms) had pledged to ensure a 50/50 gender split in their programming of new music by 2022. My own institution, Trinity Laban Conservatoire, announced its Venus Blazing initiative for the academic year 2018–19, during which half of all performances given by our large ensembles consisted of music created by women. There is much to celebrate, but the fight continues.
