Two Uncommon Women: Tracing the Evidence of a Female Compositional Tradition in the Lives and Music of Grażyna Bacewicz and Rebecca Clarke

As an undergraduate student in the midst of a particularly enchanting music history lecture, music history was allegorized as a sort of pendulum: my teacher postured that, throughout Western history, musical styles and ideas tend to “swing” from one extreme to the next, until chance rediscovery or revival reignites within a culture that particular subtext of musical fervor. Yet in my mind, there is one trend throughout history’s rich musical tapestry which the standard curriculum continues to overlook: the musical contributions and compositions of women. In this endeavor, history’s eyes rarely shone fondly upon the female composer— until the pendulum swung into the 20th century. Suddenly, changing societal attitudes complimented by surges in women’s rights made the female composer permissible, allowing their creative works to appear at the forefront. Still, to truly blaze a trail for other women to follow was no easy task. A brave woman must first fulfill her roles as wife, mother, and a respectable woman of society before she could pursue her art, which was often unduly influenced by global unrest in her country. After that, her work must successfully withstand political restrictions and criticism, and be established as mature and creative as her male contemporaries’. This paper thus considers two such trailblazers from this time period: Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) and Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). It provides a thorough overview of each composer’s life, while also discussing individual style through analysis of representative works. By considering their personal characteristics, attitudes, and response to social and political pressures occurring around them, it seeks understanding of each woman’s compositional style and identity, including factors contributing to establishment within a male-dominated Western canon. Finally, further analysis proposes trends of a compositional tradition that is entirely female by tracing the unique formational presence of Bacewicz’s and Clarke’s voices in pioneering compositions.