Composer Study - Ethel Smyth

This is the final year of Olivia's homeschooling and we are listening to the works of nine composers this year. The first one who we read about and listened to three works of is Ethel Smyth. 

According to Wikipedia, Dame Ethel Mary Smyth was born on April 22, 1858, and died on May 8, 1944. She was an English composer and member of the women's suffrage movement. Smyth's compositions included works for piano, songs, orchestral works, chamber music, and operas. 

Smyth was marginalized as a "woman composer," as though her work could not be accepted as mainstream. Yet when she wrote more delicate compositions, they were criticized for not measuring up to the standard of male composers. Nevertheless, she was granted a damehood, the first female composer to be honored in this manner.

When she was 17 years old, Smyth first studied privately with Alexander Ewing. He introduced her to the music of Wagner and Berlioz.  After a major battle with her father about her plans to devote her life to music, Smyth was allowed to study at the Leipzig Conservatory. However, she left after a year because she was disillusioned with the low standard of teaching. While she was at the Leipzig Conservatory, she met Tchaikovksy, Grieg, and Dvorak.  

Her final major work was the hour-long vocal symphony The Prison that was first performed in 1931. In addition to composing, she was a writer and, between 1919 and 1940, she published ten highly-successful, mostly autobiographical, books.

In 1910, Smyth joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU) which advocated for women's suffrage. She gave up music for two years to devote herself to this cause. Her "The March of the Women" that was written in 1911 became the anthem of the suffragette movement.

In 1912, WPSU members went to break a window of the house of any politician who opposed votes for women. As one of the 109 members who responded to this call, Smyth attacked the home of Colonial Secretary Lewis Harcourt. Harcourt said that if his wife's wisdom and beauty had been present in all women, they would have already won the vote. 

During the stone-throwing, Smyth and 100 other women were arrested and served two months in Holloway Prison. She said, in her book, Female Pipings in Eden, that her prison experience was of being "in good company" of united women "old, young, rich, poor, strong, delicate." They were putting the cause they were imprisoned for before their personal needs. 

Smyth said that the prison - including the hospital ward - was infested with cockroaches. She was released early, due to a medical assessment that she was mentally unstable and hysterical.

Below are the three songs Olivia and I listened to, and her reaction to them:

The March of the Women - YouTube

- Very upbeat with the fast pace.

- The lyrics were good. Even without the pictures (on YouTube), you could figure out what she was fighting for. 

- It sounds like something you would hear in church with the choir singing. It sounds like a hymn with the lyrics and melody. 

- I liked it. It was nice. Very different from some of the other pieces we've heard.

Dame Ethel Mary Smyth: The Wreckers Overture - YouTube

- Feels like music during a fight scene in a movie. 

- There was a part (early on - around :33) that sounded like a dance.

- It sounds like someone is trying to sneak around and things are going badly (at 1:20).

- Feels like it is music from the Wizard of Oz...especially when they were sneaking around the witch's castle. 

- Or it sounds like music from a play or a ballet recital. The whole piece would be played for the entire ballet. It has different feelings throughout it. 

- It's like it is telling a story. 

- There's a lot of variety in it. It makes it interesting. It keeps you on your toes because of how much it changes. There's no pattern to it. 

- If you were going to play this on the piano, it would be challenging because there doesn't seem to be no repetition. You would have to learn the whole piece. It would be extremely hard to memorize this piece.

- It was a nice ending with the drums in it. 

Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello in D Minor: I. Allegro non troppo - YouTube

-     - This seems kind of sad and depressing…maybe more melancholy.

-    - This is more of a soothing piece than the overture.

-    - This seems less dramatic than the last piece.

-    - I can hear the strings better, but I can hear where the piano is playing solo.

-    - I don’t think they have the violin or cello playing by themselves – it’s just the piano.

-    - The ending just kind of softly went out versus the last one that went out with a bang.

-    - It’s a beautiful piece.

Street Craft - Book Notes

 Something that has been piquing my attention lately is guerrilla art or street art. There's a book called Street Craft - Guerrilla Gardening, Yarnbombing, Light Graffiti, Street Sculpture, and More by Riikka Kuittinen that I recently read. 

Some of the things that stood out for me were:

- Craftivist Collective in the UK. It's a social enterprise that uses craft as a method of political activism. The Collective has promoted the role of craft in prisons and participated in campaigns against sweatshops and child hunger. 

Sarah Corbett, the person behind the Collective, is passionate about empowering and encouraging people to use their hobbies, talents, and influence to be part of the solution, not the problem. She works in embroidery and cross stitch because she can reflect while making the pieces. 

Source

Anna Garforth - She is an artist who is based in the UK. She works in the medium of moss graffiti, creating living typography through commissions and self-initiated projects. So, her work has words like "Grow" or geometric designs on public walls throughout London. 

Mark Jenkins - is an artist in the United States who creates tape sculptures. The sculptures that caught my eyes are of people or parts of people in unexpected positions or places. 

Source

Mademoiselle Maurice - is a French artist who creates street installations and commissioned pieces from fragile materials (e.g., paper, ribbon, lace). Her work is colorful and draws on the origami crane she saw often in Japan. Not all components of her installations are cranes. Some are simply origami shapes. 

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Mosstika - is an art collective based in New York City that focused on eco-spirited graffiti. These installations are related to animals, fish, and other wildlife or natural images. 

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NeSpoon - is a Polish street artist who does work in lace, stenciling, and ceramics. I especially liked the ceramic pieces that were attached to various buildings. There is an unexpected element of art where you least expect it. 

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The Pansy Project - this project was created by Paul Harfleet which stems from his personal experience where there has been homophobic abuse. He plants pansies and documents them. 

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The Pothole Gardener - is based in the UK. Steve Wheen creates small gardening installations public spaces, usually in potholes and cracks in the pavement. 

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Becoming an American Citizen - Sophia's and Olivia's Final Leg of the Journey

Last year in the Families with Children from China Facebook group there was a lot of discussion about the importance of getting the Certificate of Citizenship for children who were adopted.

The political climate and some of the decisions that were being made about immigrants were rather frightening - particularly for parents of children who were born in another country, adopted, and were legal U.S. citizens.

The consensus was that every parent should do the paperwork and ensure that her/his child has the Certificate of Citizenship (CoC) so there would never be any question about their status as a legal, U.S. citizen.

For several weeks during November and December 2016, I compiled all the documents needed for both Sophia and Olivia. It was a rather thick packet of paperwork that eventually was sent to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services before the deadline when prices would double from $550 per child to over $1,000 per child.

In January 2017, we received a letter in the mail telling us that the paperwork had been received. It wasn't until September 2017 that we received another letter telling us that Olivia had an appointment with the U.S. CIS to get her CoC.

So, on September 21st, we went to downtown Minneapolis to the U.S. CIS office. Once we went through security and had our bags and shoes checked (just like going through security at an airport), we went to the desk to present the letter.

We received a number and waited. As a side note, the U.S. CIS doesn't go in numerical order when calling numbers. It's a random thing. The number order would be like 20, 21, 25, 19, 28, 32, 24...and so forth. It was one of the most peculiar things we have ever experienced with a number system like this.

Anyway, sometimes the waiting area was relatively empty and other times it filled up with people. There were a variety of clothes worn, languages spoken, and levels of excitement as people got ready to do either paperwork or participate in an oath ceremony.

Some people took pictures by the U.S. CIS sign...like us...to document the special day.

We watched the monitor and answered questions about citizenship and government. These were the test questions that people had to learn when they applied to be a U.S. citizen. This wasn't the case with the girls. They didn't have to take a test - only do the oath ceremony.

Over an hour later, we were called into a room where Olivia took an oath.

After the oath ceremony, we went to the lobby and took a picture with Olivia's CoC by the image of the Statue of Liberty. It was such a relief to have Olivia's CoC.

The next step was to figure out why there was a delay with the review of Sophia's paperwork and assignment of a oath ceremony.

After contacting Senator Amy Klobuchar's office and having them contact the U.S. CIS office in Arizona where Sophia's paperwork was being reviewed, we were told that the next day that they were assigning times was on October 26th. They weren't clear whether that meant that Sophia would be going in on that or that they would assign her a time later in the year.

A couple weeks before October 26th, we received a letter in the mail letting us know that Sophia's oath ceremony would be on the 26th.

That day, we drove to the U.S. CIS office in Minneapolis again. We took a picture of Sophia by the sign while we waited.

This time there was an oath ceremony going on for people from Wisconsin. There were packets with American flags, books, and citizenship information for those going through the ceremony. They gave one to Sophia even though she was going through her own personal oath ceremony (rather than a group ceremony). We asked if Olivia could get a packet too since she didn't received one in September. So, she got one too.

Sophia's oath ceremony was at a desk off the lobby area rather than in an office.

When it came time to review the CoC, we noticed that a letter had been left off her name. So, we were able to take the certificate and have her take a photo by the Statute of Liberty.

Olivia brought her CoC, so we were able to take a photo of both of the girls together with their CoCs and American flags.

We went back to the desk and they took Sophia's CoC so they could correct it. A couple weeks later, we received it. It wasn't signed - so it wasn't yet a valid CoC. So, it had to be sent back so it could be signed by the director.

A couple weeks after that, Sophia finally received her signed, official CoC. Now both girls have their certificates which is a huge relief! I am so happy that we went through this process - especially now that they are older and can remember this special day.

The last step of this process is to contact the Social Security Administration and ensure that the are correctly listed as American citizens. It's a detail that we want to address so that they don't have any challenges down the line. It's easier for us to take care of this now than later.