Quartet

How Four Women Challenged the Musical World

Leah Broad

$24.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Faber & Faber
21 May 2024

Music; 20th century & contemporary classical music; Individual composers & musicians, bands & groups; String instruments; Biography: arts & entertainment; Feminism & feminist theory

The lives, loves, adventures and trailblazing musical careers of four extraordinary women from a stunning debut biographer.'Fabulous.' Sunday Times 'A rare gift.' Financial Times 'Passionate ... Vivid ... Timely.' Telegraph 'Readable and inspiring.' Guardian 'Compelling ... Ambitious ... Poignant.' Spectator 'Magnificent.' Kate Mosse 'Riveting.' Antonia Fraser 'A breath of fresh air.' Kate Molleson 'Fascinating.' Alexandra Harris 'Wonderful.' Claire Tomalin 'Splendid.' Miranda Seymour 'Remarkable.' Fiona Maddocks 'Pioneering.' Andrew Motion 'Brilliant' Helen PankhurstEthel Smyth (b.1858): Famed for her operas, this trailblazing queer Victorian composer was a larger-than-life socialite, intrepid traveller and committed Suffragette.

Rebecca Clarke (b.1886): This talented violist and Pre-Raphaelite beauty was one of the first women ever hired by a professional orchestra, later celebrated for her modernist experimentation.

Dorothy Howell (b.1898): A prodigy who shot to fame at the 1919 Proms, her reputation as the 'English Strauss' never dented her modesty; on retirement, she tended Elgar's grave alone.

Doreen Carwithen (b.1922): One of Britain's first woman film composers who scored Elizabeth II's coronation film, her success hid a 20-year affair with her married composition tutor.

In their time, these women were celebrities. They composed some of the century's most popular music and pioneered creative careers; but today, they are ghostly presences, surviving only as muses and footnotes to male contemporaries like Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten - until now.

Leah Broad's magnificent group biography resurrects these forgotten voices, recounting lives of rebellion, heartbreak and ambition, and celebrating their musical masterpieces. Lighting up a panoramic sweep of British history over two World Wars, Quartet revolutionises the canon forever.

By: Leah Broad
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Main
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 386g
ISBN: 9780571366118
ISBN 10: 0571366112
Pages: 480
Publication Date: 21 May 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Leah Broadis a Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford University, specialising in twentieth-century music. She was one of 2016's BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers and in 2015 won the Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism. She writes and speaks for organisations including Glyndebourne, London Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Proms. Quartet is her first book.