Alice Mary Smith

A major female composer of the 19th century, composer Alice Mary Smith wrote works in larger genres, such as symphonies and substantial choral works, in addition to vocal pieces and chamber music. She was largely forgotten after her death, and it took until the 21st century for her music to be rediscovered. Smith was born on May 19, 1839, in London. Her family was well-off, and they were able to afford a top-notch musical education for their talented daughter; she studied with William Sterndale Bennett and George Alexander Macfarren, two of the leading English composers of the day. By 1857, she had published a song, and her Symphony in C minor, written when she was 24, was performed by the Musical Society of London. In 1865, she wrote an operetta, Gisela of Rüdesheim, for chorus, orchestra, and soloists, and it was performed at the Fitzwilliam Music Society, Cambridge. Smith wrote a substantial body of orchestral music, including a second Symphony in A minor, that was intended for a competition but not submitted. She also wrote six orchestral overtures and a second operetta, The Masque of Pandora, left unfinished. Among her most celebrated works were large-scale anthems (her Whoso hath this world's goods and By the waters of Babylon were the first works by a female composer performed liturgically in the Church of England), canticles, and large-scale secular cantatas, including Ode to the Passions, performed at the Hereford Festival in 1882. She also wrote a clarinet sonata (probably the first one in England by a composer of any gender), various other pieces of chamber music, and songs, some of which, such as the duet O that we two were maying, achieved popularity. Smith died on December 4, 1884, of typhoid fever in London. Even with the ongoing rediscovery of music by women, her works were slow to find performance, but the London Mozart Players recorded her symphonies for the Chandos label in 2005, and several other works have appeared. The large cantatas await their first recordings as of the early 2020s. She is the subject of a biography, The Life and Music of Alice Mary Smith, by Ian Graham-Jones (2010).
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