Blog Posts by Christopher Reynolds
Women's Song Forum, 2025
A couple of years ago, in two blog posts, I raised the possibility that a woman composer’s decisi... more A couple of years ago, in two blog posts, I raised the possibility that a woman composer’s decision to set poems by a woman poet had several implications, including their choice of musical style and the stage of their career. In this post I review some of my findings and then expand the circle to include German-speaking women composers for the same decades. When I started down this new path, I anticipated finding that male poets would play a larger role – this is, after all, the culture of Goethe, Heine, Rückert, Tieck, and many other revered poets. Yet German-speaking feminists also asserted themselves in the decades before and after 1900, and women poets inspired at least a few women composers. While my opening assumptions were not completely wrong, there were some surprises, especially the realization that the women who set a significant percentage of poems by German-speaking women were actually not from Germany, but rather Luxembourg, Croatia, and most of all, Austria.
Women's Song Forum, 2025
It has never been so easy for singers to hunt for new songs to sing. By far the largest source is... more It has never been so easy for singers to hunt for new songs to sing. By far the largest source is the Internet Music Score Library Project, aka the Petrucci Music Library, most often identified simply by its acronym, IMSLP. Launched in 2006, it now stores 800,000 scans of scores, primarily scores out of copyright. Long known as a source for old editions of Bach, Beethoven, and a full range of lesser-known male composers, it also provides an impressive number of scores by thousands of women composers, including women who wrote in popular styles for Tin Pan Alley publishers.
This post presents a targeted list of significant women composers contained in IMSLP, focusing on women who were active in English-speaking countries and whose lives spanned the turn of the 20th century. Although this list is limited to English speaking countries, the resources of IMSLP span the globe. Because this is also a playlist, there are 14 memorable performances of songs whose scores can be downloaded from IMSLP.
Women's Song Forum, 2025
In the years before and after 1900, gender bias made it far more difficult than it is today for w... more In the years before and after 1900, gender bias made it far more difficult than it is today for women to be taken seriously as composers. In order to break into the then thriving market for new songs, many female songwriters and composers achieved success by resorting to one of two gender-obscuring strategies: choosing a man’s name as a pseudonym or replacing their first names with initials. After quoting contemporary accounts that confirm men generally assumed initialed names belonged to men, and identifying 16 very successful British, Irish and North American women who published with their initials, I examine five of them who were particularly noteworthy, women whose songs were often performed and recorded. One of them was a song-shark who managed to avoid prison. Finally, I ask why the practice died out for composers more than a century ago, while it lives on for women writers.
Women's Song Forum, 2024
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many women made careers by resorting to one of two gender-o... more In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many women made careers by resorting to one of two gender-obscuring strategies: choosing a man’s name or replacing their first names with initials. Some women attached themselves to one pseudonym for their entire compositional careers. In this post, the first of two, I examine four particularly successful women who adopted a male pseudonym for all or most of their careers as composers: May Brahe (Stanley Dickson and others), Helen Guy / Helen Rhodes (Guy d’Hardelot), Amanda Ira Aldridge (Montague Ring), and Irène Régine Wieniawski / Lady Dean Paul (Poldowski).
Women songwriters who chose one male name and stuck with it through their careers are eventually unmasked. Sooner or later, as with J. K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith, the ruse is detected. From that point on, do we read – or hear – a woman writing/composing as a man? Or is the feigned gender identity irrelevant to our perceptions of style and meaning? The three most prominent examples of such women songwriters are all British, but unusually so: two were culturally mixed (French, English, Irish; and Polish, Belgian, English), and one was racially and culturally mixed (Black American, Swedish). Could these multi-cultural similarities in their immediate family backgrounds have contributed to their decisions to assume a new identity?
Women's Song Forum, 2024
A century ago, 19th-century British poet Christina Georgina Rossetti was the woman poet that wome... more A century ago, 19th-century British poet Christina Georgina Rossetti was the woman poet that women composers set most frequently. Today her popularity not only endures, it spans the globe. Among the signs that Rossetti still attracts readers: publishers issue new editions of her poems; fans visit websites, listen to radio broadcasts and podcasts, and watch films that draw on her writings or tell the story of her life; scholars present conference papers and write books, steadily reinterpreting her work.
And musicians play a part. Amateur and professional singers program and record settings of her poems, often posting the results on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify. But most indicative of the vitality of Rossetti's appeal to musicians -- evidence that more than merely attracting readers, she inspires them -- composers continue to set her verses to their music. With one exception, the playlist that follows presents songs and choral works by a selection of eminent women composers active today. Here are eleven poems set by thirteen composers from eleven countries.
Women's Song Forum, 2024
J. K. Rowling, Dan Brown, Mary Ann Evans and Louisa May Alcott have one authorial trick in common... more J. K. Rowling, Dan Brown, Mary Ann Evans and Louisa May Alcott have one authorial trick in common: they are among many writers who have assumed a fictitious identity in order to switch genders, in their cases becoming, respectively, Robert Galbraith, Danielle Brown, George Eliot, and A. M. Barnard. The reasons authors have for this strategic literary subterfuge vary. Some have perceived a commercial advantage to writing as a man or woman and targeting a male or female audience; others sought anonymity, either to avoid censorship, or to avoid unwanted associations with their primary identity, or because they wanted cover to express thoughts society deemed feminine or masculine. For writers this practice became common in the 19th century and has continued to the present day.
Not so for songwriters, male and female. Gender shifts began later and then disappeared, undermined in part by television and the rise in the mid-20th century of singer-songwriters who performed their own material. In this post I discuss five extremely successful songs by four men posing as women, songs published between 1913 and 1925. They wrote in a sentimental style to express thoughts they considered more appropriate for women. It is no coincidence that the central decades of women as publishing songwriters were also the peak years of men adopting women’s names. The four composers highlighted here are John Neat and Kennedy Russell from London; J. S. Zámecnik from Cleveland and Los Angeles; and Robert Adolph Keiser / Robert A. King from New York.
Women's Song Forum, 2024
Though today virtually unknown, Vivien Lambelet (1903-63) had a successful musical career in Lond... more Though today virtually unknown, Vivien Lambelet (1903-63) had a successful musical career in London as a singer and composer that moved between two worlds, popular and classical. To navigate these different worlds, she identified herself variously as Vivienne (her given name) and for her musical publications as Vivien; but as a popular singer she also employed the pseudonym Eileen Hillyer, and as a writer, Raife Growenor. This essay begins with a widely distributed photo of her seated at the piano, smoking a cigar, composing, and wearing men’s clothing. I explore what it might say about her professional aspirations and personal life. For someone who published as many songs as Lambelet did, who also wrote scripts and music for radio plays, and who was a radio celebrity, it has been unexpectedly challenging to piece together her career.
Women's Song Forum, 2023
In this post I pursue the parallels between covering and translating to discuss a particular sub-... more In this post I pursue the parallels between covering and translating to discuss a particular sub-category of covers; that is, covers that are original enough to generate their own covers, comparing them to the practice of translations of translations. I examine several covers by women of songs by The Rolling Stones, as well as Aretha Franklin’s version of Otis Redding’s “Respect,” as well as Otis Reddding’s cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” both of which demonstrate the ability of a cover song to reshape the live performances of the original performers – the performances of the original songwriters. Other performers discussed include Tina Turner, P. J. Harvey and Björk, and Kim Carnes.
Covers of covers might be compared to paintings based on prints or photographs, or indeed, on other paintings (Picasso from Velazquez, Roy Lichtenstein from Picasso, numerous pop artists from Lichtenstein). They are interpretations of interpretations, translations of translations, an age-old phenomenon. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Russian translations of English and Spanish novels were made not from English and Spanish, but from French. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and Cervantes’ Don Quixote all followed this path. An artistic response capable of generating its own cover(s) changes the original in some significant way, creating a new message. Ultimately, the transformations of Franklin, Turner and others succeed as much for ideological reasons as musical.
Women's Song Forum, 2023
Translations have long been classed as either literal or free (“word for word” or “sense by sense... more Translations have long been classed as either literal or free (“word for word” or “sense by sense”). Anne Dacier formulated a classic statement of this opposition in 1699, contrasting “servile” (literal) translations with those that took liberties. Theories of translation have long ago moved on to other issues about what it means to take a text from one language and render it in another. Translations and cover songs raise many of the same questions: in this case, how do meanings change with gender? The examples I discuss each show change occurring simply because they are voiced by women. Race and vocal timbre also help create new meanings, independently of whatever impact the change in musical styles might be. The number of Black women who chose to cover Beatles songs stands out.
The playlist presented in this post focuses on women who covered a Beatles song on their debut albums. In the nine covers presented here, recorded between 1965 and 1978, the singers range in age from eleven to twenty-six. The two other covers included are by Amy Winehouse and Tina Turner.
Because Beatles songs are so well known, one might question whether “translation” is the proper analogy for these covers. Most people who listen to a Beatles cover will have already heard and understood the original directly. And yet translation also occurs within, and not simply between, languages.
Women's Song Forum, 2023
Stories that begin with a mother dying in childbirth or succumbing soon after, leaving a father a... more Stories that begin with a mother dying in childbirth or succumbing soon after, leaving a father and child to fend for themselves, have a heritage that reaches back centuries. This is part of the context for one of Carrie Jacobs-Bond’s most successful songs, “His Lullaby,” from 1907. Setting a poem about a father comforting his motherless baby, Bond composed “His Lullaby” expressly for Ernestine Schumann-Heink, then the pre-eminent contralto in the United States and Europe. Schumann-Heink made “His Lullaby” a regular, and culminating, part of her recital program for most of her American touring career, from late 1907 into 1923. She routinely reduced her audiences to tears. In this post I examine the reasons why.
Women's Song Forum, 2023
In the decades before and after 1900, did it matter to women who composed songs whether the poems... more In the decades before and after 1900, did it matter to women who composed songs whether the poems they set were written by a man or a woman? Are there links between the gender of the poet and the style of the composer’s music? In other words, did women composers who frequently chose to set women poets differ in their musical styles from those who preferred poetry by men?
Women's Song Forum, 2021
Black singers and churchgoers have a long and deep tie to Carrie Jacobs Bond’s “I’ve Done My Work... more Black singers and churchgoers have a long and deep tie to Carrie Jacobs Bond’s “I’ve Done My Work” (1920). Why this song?
Women's Song Forum (womensongforum.org), 2020
Long overlooked, Carrie Jacobs Bond’s world-wide hit, “A Perfect Day” (1910), was one of the most... more Long overlooked, Carrie Jacobs Bond’s world-wide hit, “A Perfect Day” (1910), was one of the most purchased, most sung, and most parodied songs for decades. This is Part 1 of 2.
Women's Song Forum (womensongforum.org), 2021
During WWI, no song was more beloved of Allied troops than Carrie Jacobs Bond's "A Perfect Day," ... more During WWI, no song was more beloved of Allied troops than Carrie Jacobs Bond's "A Perfect Day," no song was more ingrained in the popular cultures of the U.S. and U.K. And yet, in discussions of WWI-era songs, it has been completely overlooked.
Women's Song Forum (womensongforum.org), 2021
Liza Lehmann (1862–1918), the most prolific and distinguished woman song composer of her generati... more Liza Lehmann (1862–1918), the most prolific and distinguished woman song composer of her generation, published approximately 370 songs. Because she published “Evensong” in 1916, we interpret this extraordinary song as an expression of World War I imagery. But far more personally, we suggest that this song responds to the death of her son Rudolf Ellis David (“Rudie”) Bedford while training at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Both of us were independently struck by the beauty of this song. Together we explore its power.
Women's Song Forum (womensongforum.org), 2021
The music of Emma Louise Ashford has been performed regularly ever since it was published. One of... more The music of Emma Louise Ashford has been performed regularly ever since it was published. One of the most prolific church composers (male or female) between the years 1890 and 1925, she was the only child of a British musician and his musical wife. Emma Louise Hindle was born in Delaware in 1850. By the age of twelve she was organist of her family church in Kewanee, Illinois. After they moved to Massachusetts, she met John Ashford, a musical, British-born mechanical engineer; they married when she was seventeen and he thirty. For his work they moved first to Chicago, where she sang with Dudley Buck, and then to Nashville, where she became organist at a series of churches and, for many years, also for the Jewish Temple choir of the Congregation Ohabai Sholom. Among his other musical achievements, John Ashford founded and directed the Vanderbilt Glee Club. Emma Louise Ashford died in Nashville, a pillar of the local musical world and known internationally, on 22 September 1930. John Ashford died exactly one month later.
Women's Song Forum (womensongforum.org), 2021
Twenty-five years ago I began my database of songs composed by women and published between roughl... more Twenty-five years ago I began my database of songs composed by women and published between roughly 1890 and 1930 in the United States and the far-flung countries of the British Commonwealth. It has now reached the point that I can declare it done (I think!). A few days ago, I posted the tenth version of this database. After beginning with 2700 titles in 1996, the database has reached almost 24,800 entries of songs and song publications by 5148 women songwriters, nearly twice the number of women included in the previous database I posted only three years ago. Since the last update in June 2018, I have added approximately 5000 songs and over 2400 women, the vast majority of whom published just a few songs. Of these women, more than 4000, approximately 80%, published just one, two, or three songs. This post also discusses my collection of 6900 songs and song publications by women, some 5100 of which are housed in Special Collections of Shields Library at the University of California, Davis.
Musicology Now (blog of the American Musicological Society), 2015
In 2013 I published an article in Notes: “Documenting the Zenith of Women Song Composers: A Datab... more In 2013 I published an article in Notes: “Documenting the Zenith of Women Song Composers: A Database of Songs Published in the United States and the British Commonwealth, ca. 1890-1930.” My intention was to call attention to my database of women song composers who published at least one song between the years 1890 and 1930 in the United States, Great Britain, and the countries of the British Empire. I also wanted to demonstrate some of the questions it could both raise and help answer. At the time it contained 15,400 songs and song publications by about 1600 women. I recently updated that database, recently updated to 19,000 titles by 2500 women, which alters some of my earlier conclusions.
Musicology Now (blog of the American Musicological Society), 2016
Studies of cover songs have deservedly proliferated in the last decade. Singers and groups are un... more Studies of cover songs have deservedly proliferated in the last decade. Singers and groups are understood to shape their musical identities in their treatment of an earlier song, indeed, even in their choices of which songs to cover. For years I have found in my teaching, first in a rock history class, now in one on the music of The Beatles, that the comparison of an original song with a good cover provides a chance to talk about how music, words, and performance work together to create artistic meanings, at times diametrically opposed meanings. Now, thanks to a wonderful database devoted to covers, Secondhandsongs.com, it is possible to use cover songs to measure the artistic impact of a singer, songwriter, or rock group. There is no better demonstration of what this data opens up for study than measuring the legacies of songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney against those of other groups that competed with them week by week through the 1960s.
Musicology Now (blog of the American Musicological Society), 2015
In recent years the possibility has arisen to ask about a connection between political views and ... more In recent years the possibility has arisen to ask about a connection between political views and musical taste in light of an active avenue of research among neuroscientists and political scientists, one occasionally discussed in the popular press: evidence that there are links between political views, a range of psychological and behavioral preferences, and the physiology of brains. That late Beethoven string quartets have long appealed to people regardless of their political beliefs is self-evident. But the possibility that we prize them for different reasons is not. Among other questions asked in this blog post is: Can some shifts in artistic styles be understood as conservative responses to cultural trauma?
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Blog Posts by Christopher Reynolds
This post presents a targeted list of significant women composers contained in IMSLP, focusing on women who were active in English-speaking countries and whose lives spanned the turn of the 20th century. Although this list is limited to English speaking countries, the resources of IMSLP span the globe. Because this is also a playlist, there are 14 memorable performances of songs whose scores can be downloaded from IMSLP.
Women songwriters who chose one male name and stuck with it through their careers are eventually unmasked. Sooner or later, as with J. K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith, the ruse is detected. From that point on, do we read – or hear – a woman writing/composing as a man? Or is the feigned gender identity irrelevant to our perceptions of style and meaning? The three most prominent examples of such women songwriters are all British, but unusually so: two were culturally mixed (French, English, Irish; and Polish, Belgian, English), and one was racially and culturally mixed (Black American, Swedish). Could these multi-cultural similarities in their immediate family backgrounds have contributed to their decisions to assume a new identity?
And musicians play a part. Amateur and professional singers program and record settings of her poems, often posting the results on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify. But most indicative of the vitality of Rossetti's appeal to musicians -- evidence that more than merely attracting readers, she inspires them -- composers continue to set her verses to their music. With one exception, the playlist that follows presents songs and choral works by a selection of eminent women composers active today. Here are eleven poems set by thirteen composers from eleven countries.
Not so for songwriters, male and female. Gender shifts began later and then disappeared, undermined in part by television and the rise in the mid-20th century of singer-songwriters who performed their own material. In this post I discuss five extremely successful songs by four men posing as women, songs published between 1913 and 1925. They wrote in a sentimental style to express thoughts they considered more appropriate for women. It is no coincidence that the central decades of women as publishing songwriters were also the peak years of men adopting women’s names. The four composers highlighted here are John Neat and Kennedy Russell from London; J. S. Zámecnik from Cleveland and Los Angeles; and Robert Adolph Keiser / Robert A. King from New York.
Covers of covers might be compared to paintings based on prints or photographs, or indeed, on other paintings (Picasso from Velazquez, Roy Lichtenstein from Picasso, numerous pop artists from Lichtenstein). They are interpretations of interpretations, translations of translations, an age-old phenomenon. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Russian translations of English and Spanish novels were made not from English and Spanish, but from French. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and Cervantes’ Don Quixote all followed this path. An artistic response capable of generating its own cover(s) changes the original in some significant way, creating a new message. Ultimately, the transformations of Franklin, Turner and others succeed as much for ideological reasons as musical.
The playlist presented in this post focuses on women who covered a Beatles song on their debut albums. In the nine covers presented here, recorded between 1965 and 1978, the singers range in age from eleven to twenty-six. The two other covers included are by Amy Winehouse and Tina Turner.
Because Beatles songs are so well known, one might question whether “translation” is the proper analogy for these covers. Most people who listen to a Beatles cover will have already heard and understood the original directly. And yet translation also occurs within, and not simply between, languages.