Alice Mary Smith facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alice Mary Smith
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 19 May 1839 London, England
|
| Died | 4 December 1884 (aged 45) London, England
|
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Composer |
Alice Mary Smith (born 19 May 1839 – died 4 December 1884) was a talented English composer. She wrote many different kinds of music, including two big orchestral pieces called symphonies. She also created a lot of music for choirs, both for church and for general performances.
Contents
About Alice Mary Smith
Alice Mary Smith was born in London. Her family was quite well-off, and she was the third child. From a young age, it was clear she had a special talent for music.
She took private music lessons from famous teachers like William Sterndale Bennett and George Alexander Macfarren. She even published her very first song in 1857 when she was just 18 years old!
In 1867, she married a lawyer named Frederick Meadows White. That same year, she became a "Female Professional Associate" of the Royal Philharmonic Society. This was a big deal, showing how respected she was in the music world.
Later, in 1884, she was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music. Sadly, she became ill and passed away in London that same year from typhoid fever.
Her Musical Works
Alice Mary Smith was a very busy composer. She wrote music for many different groups of instruments and voices.
Orchestral and Chamber Music
She wrote several pieces for orchestras, including six concert overtures and two symphonies. Her first symphony, in C minor, was written when she was only 24. It was performed by the Musical Society of London in 1863. Her second symphony, in A minor, was written for a competition in 1876, but it was never officially entered.
For smaller groups of instruments, called chamber music, she composed:
- four piano quartets (for piano and three other instruments)
- three string quartets (for four string instruments)
- a clarinet sonata (a piece for clarinet and piano)
Music for the Stage
Alice Mary Smith also wrote two larger pieces for the stage:
- Gisela of Rüdesheim: This was an operetta (a light opera) for choir, orchestra, and solo singers. It was performed in Cambridge in 1865.
- The Masque of Pandora: She started this in 1875, but she never finished writing the music for the orchestra.
Choral and Sacred Music
Alice Mary Smith created one of the largest collections of sacred (church) choral music by a woman composer. Her works include:
- six anthems (short choral pieces)
- three canticles (songs from the Bible)
- a short Sacred Cantata called Exile, based on a story from the Bible.
Two of her anthems were performed in a church service at St Andrew's, Wells Street, in 1864. This was a very important moment because it was the first time music by a woman composer was used in the regular church services of the Church of England.
Later Cantatas and Songs
In 1880, she started writing large-scale cantatas. These are like mini-oratorios, with singing and orchestral music. Some of her famous cantatas include:
- Ode to the North-East Wind for choir and orchestra.
- Ode to The Passions (1882): This was her longest work and was performed at a big music festival.
She also wrote two cantatas for male voices in the last two years of her life. Out of her forty songs, her most popular was a vocal duet (a song for two singers) called O that we two were maying.
Her Legacy
Today, Alice Mary Smith's original music papers are kept at the Royal Academy of Music Library. Some of her symphonies and overtures have been published, so more people can study and perform them.
Her music has also been recorded by musicians like Howard Shelley and the London Mozart Players. This means you can listen to her beautiful compositions today!
An old newspaper article from 1884 described her music as "elegant and graceful" and also full of "power and energy." It said her ideas were clear and not strange, and that she preferred the classic style of music.
See also
In Spanish: Alice Mary Smith para niños
