Love in a life: the art songs of Gena Branscombe

Gena Branscombe (1881–1977) was a Canadian American pianist, composer, conductor, educator, and advocate for music by women and American composers. In her day, she was well-known as a conductor of her own works and regularly performed the music of her contemporaries with her all-women’s chorus, the Branscombe Choral. Although she published hundreds of pieces for piano, voice, violin, orchestra, and mixed voices—among them the 1929 choral drama Pilgrims of Destiny—Branscombe’s music was largely forgotten in the mid- to late-twentieth century amidst a cultural moment in the arts that was dominated by men, those of European descent or training, and post-tonal compositional trends. This research project aims to revive Branscombe’s life, legacy, and music by examining her songs for voice and piano, both tracing their compositional development and suggesting song sets appropriate for recital performance. The paper analyzes dozens of original manuscripts, describes connections between texts and their musical settings, and explores Branscombe’s artistic purpose through her own words, from speeches given at various club meetings to letters written to her publishers. In these materials is revealed an incredible woman who was wrongfully lost to American classical music, a woman who deserves to be reintroduced to the music classroom and to the performance stage.

Author dc:creator

• Russell, Regan Heather

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Vajjhala, Rachana

• Music
• Music theory
• Music history

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2144/45380

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.bu.edu:2144/45380