It’s no surprise that women often go unrecognized in the history of classical music. Yet, throughout the centuries, women have brought their unique talents and brilliance to the evolution of this cherished art form. This holiday season, we at The Classical Station are taking the opportunity to celebrate and honor these trailblazers—giants of their craft—whose contributions as musicians, composers, and creative visionaries have left an indelible mark on the world of music.

Francesca Caccini (1587-1645)

Francesca Caccini was surrounded by music from a young age and took to it like a fish to water. Both her father and mother were prominent musicians of the day and by the time she was thirteen Francesca had sung in a number of prestigious performances in and around the royal French court. So great was her vocal control that, before she was ten, she had been invited to perform in a grueling five-hour opera for a royal wedding. Francesca rose to these challenges. At seventeen, her family toured Italy, showcasing the talents of their young genius. While performing in Florence Francesca’s obvious skill came to the attention of the Medici family who became her patrons, encouraging her to pursue both composition and performance without concern for making money. Under the Medici family’s patronage she composed Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina , the first opera ever composed by a woman. Liberazione is a fascinating piece that stands as a paradigm of contemporary Italian composition but, crucially, breaks the mold by toying with intentional dissonance, leaving a piece that feels dramatic and intense.

Between her vocal talents and compositional notoriety Francesca rose to the level of a minor celebrity in Florence with all the attendant lavish gifts and noteworthy associations. In spite of her obvious excellence Francesca won her fair share of critics and her career was never entirely free from detractors claiming that her prestige had less to do with her talent than her beauty. Perhaps the most enduring contribution Francesca made to the musical world was her book Il Primo Libro della Musica which contains not only a number of original compositions but vocal exercises, experiments in ornamentation, and advice of all kinds for women singers. Il Primo Libro stands today as an essential artifact in the story of women breaking through social barriers and handing down a ladder to the women that follow them.

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729)

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre also grew up surrounded by music, though her family were harpsichord craftsmen rather than performers. Elisabeth grew up in 17th century France in a society that was, even by the standards of the age, extremely conservative and saw women as delicate and domestic before anything else. Nonetheless, Elisabeth was a musical prodigy in the classical tradition and her talents were undeniable. By the age of ten she’d performed multiple times for the French King Louis XIV and had composed an operatic ballet dedicated to the same. When Elisabeth was nineteen she married the organist Marin de la Guerre, and for many women in her position that would’ve been the end of her working period as French custom dictated that she should retreat to the home and focus on raising children. Elisabeth bucked this tradition; not only were the years following her marriage some of her most productive, spanning dozens of works across multiple forms and media, but she produced all of this under the name Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, affecting the modern hyphenation long before its modern instantiation. Elisabeth would go on to become one of the very few internationally famous female composers in France, gaining particular notoriety for her sonatas and her harpsichord pieces which, one imagines, she’d carried with her from workshops of her childhood. Elisabeth’s sonatas are beautiful examples of storytelling through music, dramatic and engaging; they showcase the sensibility of an artist who was not only a virtuosic composer but a genius-level performer as well.

Marie-Juliette Olga “Lili” Boulanger (1893-1918)

By two years old Lili Boulanger would be marked with the traits that would go onto define her entire life: she was already composing her own melodies and she suffered a terrible bout of childhood bronchitis. As she matured Lili would blossom into a remarkable, but chronically ill, young prodigy. Lili’s father was a voice teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris and her sister, Nadia Boulanger, was an immense musical talent in her own right. By the time she was nine Lili would accompany her sister to classes in Paris where she was taught by giants of the French musical scene. She took lessons in harp, piano, violin, and singing all while struggling under the persistent illness that was her constant bedfellow. At nineteen Lili won the Prix de Rome, the most prestigious honor that could be awarded to a young French composer, making her the first woman to achieve that lofty distinction. Her contata Faust et Helene not only won her this tremendous honor, it also won her a scholarship to study in Rome for three years in the Villa de Medici. It’s during this time in Rome that Lili grew into herself both as a composer and as a person. There are multiple accounts of her pranking the great and esteemed music teachers who she studied with, all while she produced some of the most beautiful and tragic music of the time. Lili’s compositions are remarkable for their depth of emotion and for their creativity, taking after such giants as Stravinski and Debussy, she pushed the limits of late romantic music and contributed essential building blocks towards the formation of what we now call modernism. Personally, Lili was known for her magnetism and wit, though accounts from the period always mention her sickliness in the background of her genius and spirit. Lili died in 1918 at the age of twenty-five.

Elizabeth Maconchy worked during some of the most difficult times in the 20th century, starting her career during the great depression and seeing some of her most productive years during World War II. Perhaps it is due to this background that she grew into such a rebellious and contentious figure. Elizabeth was born in England to Irish parents and was recognized as a musical talent almost immediately, she won several awards during school and was even played over the radio, a rarity for such a young composer. Off the back of these accomplishments she was awarded a scholarship to study music in Prague in the 1920s, an opportunity which she credited with forming her musical sensibilities and willingness to break with tradition in her composition. When World War II broke out Elizabeth became increasingly productive and increasingly avant garde producing a number of works for string, symphony and stage including a “comic erotic opera” called The Sofa which shocked audiences when it premiered in 1959. Elizabeth was a staunch feminist and worked with a wide variety of other women composers though she always hated the term “woman composer”. She’s quoted as saying that she thought of herself as a “wrestler composer” more than anything and that she saw herself as battling against the prevailing social and musical norms of the time to promote her unique artistic voice. By the end of her career Elizabeth had produced over 60 distinct works and has since come to be regarded as one of the finest composers that England has ever produced.

These women are just the tip of the iceberg. The history of classical music is filled with women whose creativity, intelligence, vision and bravery have contributed to the development of the art form we all love. The Classical Station invites you to investigate these and other women composers to give yourself a chance to hear some of the greatest music ever written.

-Matthew Young

Many of the composers referenced above, including Lili Boulanger, Elizabeth Maconchy, and Elisabeth de la Guerre, are featured this fall on TheClassicalStation.org. Please take a look at our Fall 2024 Highlights to see when to tune in, or request a piece directly via one of our Request Programs!