Abstract:
The music of Alice Mary Smith (1839-1884) was mostly forgotten within a decade following her death. During her lifetime, she gained a favorable reputation as a composer and challenged the contemporary notion that women were incapable of composing large-scale works. She was among the first English women to have written a symphony that was performed publicly. In the last four years of her life, Smith wrote some secular choral-orchestral music, which became popular and was published by Novello in London. Thus Smith also became one of the first English women to have large-scale music published. Her output included five sacred choral pieces that were never published. Only two of them have any record of performance.
This document investigates some of Smith’s unpublished and forgotten choral music and demonstrates its worthiness for inclusion in the repertoire of modern church choirs. The study includes three of the five unpublished anthems, transcribed into modern performing editions from the manuscript images. These three anthems by Smith belong to a larger collection of sacred music written as part of the English church music reformation, in which church leaders placed more emphasis on choral singing and more elaborate choral music in the service than had been common in the first half of the nineteenth century. The study also considers Smith’s
compositions in the context of the Victorian era, in the context of the composer’s legacy, and in the context of the anthem genre. Analysis and critical apparatus are included for each selected anthem. This study concludes that Smith’s anthems bear historic interest because of the pioneering career of the composer; they also bear musical interest, and would be worthy additions to the repertoire of modern church choirs. The music contains a balance of challenge and accessibility that would suit them to average or advanced singers.
