FLINDERS QUARTET
Elizabeth Sellars • violin
Wilma Smith • violin
Helen Ireland • viola
Zoe Knighton • cello

AGATHA YIM, POLYPHONIC PICTURES filming and editing
THOMAS GRUBB, MANO MUSICA sound engineering, editing and mastering

Filmed March 2024 in the Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, Wurundjeri Country/Southbank

This project was made possible through support from Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne, Creative Australia, and Robert Salzer Foundation

ETHEL SMYTH  1858-1944
String Quartet in C minor  (composed 1881) 

I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Scherzo. Allegro - Trio. Molto vivace
IV. Allegro 

Ethel Smyth is perhaps best remembered for her composition of “The March of the Women”, the anthem for the suffragette movement as they fought for the right to vote. A copy of the manuscript for this piece is housed by the NGV. 

In 1910, the same year she composed the suffrage anthem, she was one of just three women in England to hold a music doctorate. It is plainly clear that one didn’t mess with Ethel: she bricked the window of a politician’s house because he made “the most objectionable remark about Women’s Suffrage she had ever heard.” What she achieved in the suffrage movement would have been enough for one lifetime, but Ethel was unstoppable. She was the first woman to receive a Damehood for composition. She was also the first woman to have a work played by the New York Metropolitan Opera. (And the only woman to have a work performed there until 2016.)

Ethel was determined to be a composer on her own terms. She distanced herself from her family and England by going to Leipzig, because Germany was in many ways “less hospitable to women” and because it was considered Europe’s musical capital. She thought she would be taken more seriously if she could succeed there. She didn’t want to be associated with the other English female composers such as Rosalind Ellicott (born 1857) and Dora Bright (born 1862). She wanted to be seen as an honorary man.

Ethel had numerous affairs with both men and women. The closest she came to marriage was with Oscar Wilde’s brother, William, but the impassioned romance ignited on a boat trip from Ireland to England was short lived. Her one true companion was a dog called Marco, admired by Tchaikovsky with whom she embarked into a spirited debate on the worth of Brahms’ music. Ethel became quite friendly with Brahms although she assured her family, “if he were to propose to me, I would refuse.” Brahms and Ethel developed a strong mutual respect, and he even gave the occasional compliment about her music (not knowing it was hers). She wrote a rather scathing poem which Brahms was said to have quoted at dinner parties, the last stanza of which is: “The great Brahms is forever declaring that a clever woman is a nuisance. So, let us diligently cultivate stupidity by way of qualifying as thorough-paced Brahmsites.”

Ethel’s C minor quartet was written in Leipzig, most likely under the tutelage of Reinecke with whom she studied. The original manuscript shows much of the tell-tale corrections for which she became famous. Apparently, musicians began to resent her appearing with a paste pot and scissors as it indicated they were in for a very quick relearning of their parts.

Ethel had been studying Beethoven at the time of writing this piece. There is a nod to his fifth symphony (the progression of C minor to C major) and an almost direct quotation of his String Quartet Op. 59 No. 2 in the second movement, but her individual voice is clear and unmistakable. We are flung back in our seats with the opening C minor outcry that melts into a heart-warming second theme. There is a searching quality to the music that lends itself to a constant reinvention of themes before a resigned coda. The second movement was originally to be an E flat Andante in ¾ but it seems her teacher suggested an Adagio in C may be a better idea. This correction resulted in a movement rich in a depth of emotion that belies her 23 years. A frollicking and highly intelligent two-part fugue that begins the Scherzo third movement gives way to a trio that creates great hijinx caused by asymmetrical phrases and bouncing bows. The coda is what sets this movement apart, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats right to the very end. This grand piece needs a suitable finale and the ensuing triumph into C major is well worth the wait. This is highly idiomatic, beautifully crafted writing that deserves far more attention.

Ethel ranked the string quartet highest above any other chamber music. She famously compared it to “an exquisite omelette”. Whereas orchestral pieces could have “so many ingredients a rotten egg can pass undetected”, a string quartet required each note to be perfect. The multitude of quartets in her sketchbooks attest to the fact that it was the genre she was most determined to conquer.