Voting Station

Ethel Smyth

Please vote to return to collections.

Composer

The Resume

    (April 22, 1858-May 8, 1944)
    Born in London, Kansas
    Composer and suffragette
    Composed the operas 'Der Wald' ('The Forest,' 1902) and 'The Wreckers' (1904)
    Also composed 'Mass in D' (1891), 'Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra' (1926) and 'The Prison' (1930)
    Member of the Women's Social and Political Union
    Named a Dame Commander of the British Empire (1922)

Why he might be annoying:

    She celebrated her birthday a day after the actual date so she could claim she shared a birthday with Shakespeare.
    Contemporary critics often complained that her compositions were 'too masculine.'
    She had a falling out with suffrage leader Emmeline Pankhurst over Pankhurst's decision to suspend protesting for the duration of World War I.
    Virginia Woolf described being embraced by her as 'like being caught by a giant crab.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    'Der Wald' was the only opera by a female composer staged by the Metropolitan Opera for more than a century.
    Her 'March of the Women' became the anthem of the British suffrage movement.
    She continued composing and conducting after going deaf.
    She was the first female composer to be named a Dame.
    George Bernard Shaw told her, 'It was your music that cured me forever of the old delusion that women could not do man's work in art and all other things.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying