From June 1909 to April 1910, the journal Musical America published a series of forty-five illustrated articles entitled, “Women Composers of America”. This series, well in advance of its time, serves as an excellent resource for research on the presence, impact, and advocacy of American women in music during the early 20th century. Today, we spotlight five composers of particular interest, whose works range from parlor songs to large-form European concert music.

Vol. 10 No. 17 (4 September 1909): 15.

Listen to Helen Hopekirk's Konzertstück in D minor by clicking here!

Vol. 10 No. 8 (3 July 1909): 15.

Vol. 10 No. 7 (26 June 1909): 15.

Interestingly, one of Anita Owen's most popular songs, "Sweet Bunch of Daisies", has over time become a standard of the bluegrass genre, so much so, that many enthusiasts are unaware of its parlor song origins.

Vol. 10 No. 21 (2 October 1909): 17.

Vol. 11 No. 6 (18 December 1909): 21.

Remember, these are just five of the forty-five women featured in this remarkable series!

RIPM search tip: To read all forty-five articles in the series, “Women Composers of America”, access RIPM’s Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals, and in “Advanced Search”, fill in the following fields: Periodical = Musical America (New York, 1898-1899, 1905-1922 [-1964]); Keyword = women composers of america; Year = 1909 to 1910.

*** RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).WWW.RIPM.ORG

Emil Stumpp, Porträt des Musikers Alban Berg, Deutsches Historisches Museum (1927), above leftB. F. Dolbin, Alban Berg (1935), Modern Music, Vol. 8 No. 3 (March-April 1936): [31], above right

This week, we celebrate the influential Austrian composer, Alban Berg, born 9 February 1885. A longtime student of Arnold Schoenberg, Berg’s compositional style blended modernist twelve-tone and serial techniques—hallmark characteristics of the so-called Second Viennese School—with late 19th-century Romanticism. His first major success was the 1925 opera, Wozzeck, derived from an unfinished play by German dramatist Georg Büchner, which told the story of an impoverished soldier’s descent into madness and murder. To commemorate Berg's birth, we present several reflections on Wozzeck written by the composer himself—translated and published in an issue [Vol. 5 No. 1 (Nov. - Dec. 1927): 22-24.] of the journal Modern Music—accompanied by video excerpts of several memorable scenes from Act III of a 1987 production by the Vienna State Opera, the late Claudio Abbado conducting.

I wanted to compose good music; to develop musically the contents of Buechner's immortal drama; to translate his poetic language into music; but other than that, when I decided to write an opera, my only intention, as related to the technique of composition, was to give the theatre what belongs to the theatre.

Berg's commitment to writing music in service of the opera's action is reflected in the so-called "drowning music" of Act III Scene IV. Having returned to the pond where he killed his wife Marie, Wozzeck fears that his murder weapon will be discovered, and soon after, drowns. Though Wozzeck is no longer visible to the audience, Berg's use of overlapping ascending chromatic patterns of increasing duration signifies Wozzeck's continued subjective experience of rising water and gradual loss of consciousness.

Act III Scene IV (Invention on a Six-Note Chord)

I obeyed the necessity of giving each scene and each accompanying piece of entr'acte music, whether prelude, postlude, connecting link or interlude, an unmistakable aspect, a rounded off and finished character. It was therefore imperative to use everything warranted to create individualizing characteristics on the one hand, and coherence on the other; thus the much discussed utilization of old and new musical forms and their application in an absolute music.

Rather than adopting more traditional operatic forms in Wozzeck, Berg designed each scene and interlude using instrumental, or "absolute", forms (fantasia and fugue, suite, passacaglia, invention, etc.). While predominantly atonal, the interlude that follows Wozzeck's drowning is closely tied to D minor, a Romantic afterword to the tragic character's demise, and further evidence of Berg's desire to "use everything warranted" to create his opera.

Interlude (Invention on a Key [D minor])

No matter how cognizant any particular individual may be of the musical forms contained in the framework of this opera, of the precision and logic with which everything is worked out and the skill manifested in every detail, from the moment the curtain parts until it closes for the last time, there is no one in the audience who pays any attention to the various fugues, inventions, suites, sonata movements, variations and passacaglias... no one who heeds anything but the social problems of this opera which by far transcend the personal destiny of Wozzeck. This I believe to be my achievement.

Berg's unflinching depiction of poverty, militarism, and sadism in Wozzeck--no doubt inspired by the composer's own military service during World War I--is of paramount importance. Perhaps the most chilling scene is the opera's last; a group of children are told Marie's body has been discovered and hurry to the scene, while Marie and Wozzeck's little boy continues to play, before joining the others.

Act III Scene V (Invention on an Eighth-Note Moto Perpetuo)

RIPM search tip: To read more about Wozzeck in the musical press, search “Wozzeck” as a keyword in RIPM’s Retrospective Index and Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals.

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).WWW.RIPM.ORG

The Baton (1922-32) was published by the Institute of Musical Art in New York City. In 1924, the Juilliard Graduate School opened, with its facilities directly adjacent to the Institute. By 1926 the two music schools merged although both continued to maintain their own administrations until 1946, when they officially unified as the Juilliard School of Music.

A charming feature of The Baton from 1923 to 1928 is a number of drawings by pianist, writer, and artist Leslie Fairchild. Particularly interested in depicting circus life, Fairchild’s sketches were displayed in several locations including the Ringling Museum of the American Circus in Sarasota, FL, the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI, and the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, CT. As a piano student, Fairchild incorporated musical symbols into a style of simple lines and shapes, adding a touch of whimsy to the journal’s written material. In 1928, he combined his drawing skills and musical training to write a children's piano method book entitled, A Jolly Trip to Music Land (Chicago: Forster Music Publisher Inc., 1928).

This week, we present seven of Fairchild’s delightful little drawings of well-known opera characters published in The Baton.

Canio, from Ruggero Leoncavallo’s PagliacciVol. 3 No. 1 (October 1923): 13.

Cio-Cio-san, from Giacomo Puccini’s Madama ButterflyVol. 3 No. 2 (November 1923): 13.

Wotan, from Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des NibelungenVol. 3 No. 4 (January 1924): 13.

Carmen, from Georges Bizet’s opera of the same title Vol. 3 No. 5 (February 1924): 7.

Romeo and Juliet, from Charles Gounod’s opera of the same title Vol. 3 No. 7 (April 1924): 11.

The Chief of Police, Baron Scarpia, and his men (below) from Puccini’s ToscaVol. 3 No. 8 (May 1924): 12-13.

RIPM search tip: To view more of Leslie Fairchild’s drawings, access RIPM’s Retrospective Index and Online Archive, and fill in the following fields: Keyword = Leslie Fairchild; Periodical = The Baton [1922-1932]; Type = Illustration. For more information on The Baton, click here!

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).WWW.RIPM.ORG

From 1933 to 1945, the period of Nazi Germany, a number of prominent European composers fled their homelands and sought refuge in the United States. Many were subjects of interest in the American journal Modern Music (New York, 1924-1946). Sketches by Viennese artist Benedikt Fred Dolbin (a pen name for Fred Pollack), a composition student of Arnold Schoenberg, include some of the most well-known composers of the period. After establishing a successful career drawing for a number of Austrian and German publications--including Der Wiener Tag, Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, and Berliner Tageblatt--Dolbin, of Jewish descent, received a Berufsverbot order, which prohibited his artwork from appearing in the German press. Soon after, Dolbin, like the composers he sketched below, emigrated to America.

Modern Music, Vol. XVIII No. 2 (January-February 1941): [104-105].

RIPM search tip: To view more illustrations in Modern Music, access RIPM’s Retrospective Index and Online Archive, and fill in the following fields: Periodical = Modern Music [1924-1946]; Type = Illustration. For more information on Modern Music, click here.

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).WWW.RIPM.ORG

The Parisian journal L’Illustration was the first illustrated newsweekly in France. Between 1843 and 1899, the journal published over 3,350 engravings of musical interest, offering an expansive visual account of contemporary musical life. The journal's focus on French culture included that of musical life in the French colonies. We bring the following images to your attention not only because of their historical importance, but also because the illustrated press is an excellent, though neglected source for the study of (post)colonialism, race, diaspora, and ethnomusicology.

A Buddhist ceremony, first published in Charles Lemire’s L’Indochine (1884)L’Illustration, Vol. LXXXIV (25 October 1884): 276.

Trumpeters of the King of Boussa, in NigerL’Illustration, Vol. CIX (9 January 1897): 17.

Chinese musiciansL’Illustration, Vol. LXII (20 September 1873): 197.

A trio of musicians from MadagascarL’Illustration, Vol. CVI (9 November 1895): 379.

Musicians in performance from Tétouan, MoroccoL’Illustration, Vol. VII (18 April 1846): 104.

Guinean King Dinah-Salifou, his Queen, and their retinue, including musiciansL’Illustration, Vol. XCIV (6 July 1889): 12.

RIPM search tip: To access more on non-Western musics, search the name of a country as a keyword. For example, a search for “Madagascar” as a keyword in RIPM’s Retrospective Index and Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals reveals 180 records in German, English, French, and Italian journals.

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (also Preservation Series, forthcoming). WWW.RIPM.ORG