1987 Casavant at Jack Springer Concert Hall
1991 Reuter organ at the University of the Ozarks, AR.

Women’s Work

They’ve come a long way, from motherhood and home life to professions and entrepreneurial adventures. This week’s broadcast celebrates the contributions of women as composers for the organ. From modern day talents such as Libby Larsen, Margaret Sandresky and Emma Lou Diemer, to the once neglected pioneering energies of Maria Theresa von Paradies, Gracia Baptista and Fanny Mendelssohn, we’ll enjoy a variety of styles and textures including thoughtful chorale-preludes, graceful dances, and vigorous toccatas.

Christa Rakich provides anecdotal introductions and performances recorded at Columbia University Chapel in New York City on Women’s Work and the ‘better half’ of organ music.

Listen to the program

Program Broadcast dates:

March 03, 2003

Featured Organs:

Schlicker-Dobson at Valparaiso University
Reuter at University of the Ozarks
Aeolian-Skinner at Columbia University

Christa Rakich talks about

A Select Bibliography

Organ Music of Women Composers; Colette Schlegel Ripley American Guild of Organists Committee on Educational Resources

Organ and Harpsichord Music by Women Composers: An Annotated Catalog, Compiled by Adel Heinrich Greenwood Press, 1991

Women in Music: An Anthology of Source Readings from the Middle Ages to the Present, Edited by Carol Neuls-Bates Harper & Row, 1986

Feminine Endings: Music, Gender and Sexuality; Susan McClary University of Minnesota Press, 1991

Gender and the Musical Canon; Marcia J. Citron Cambridge University Press, 1993

The Memoirs of Ethel Smyth, Abridged and Introduced by Ronald Crichton Viking Press, 1987

Women Organ Composers from the Middle Ages to the Present: with Performance Suggestions for Selected Works; Lyn Helen Huber (Loewi), DMA dissertation Stanford University 1983

International Encyclopedia of Women

Music played in the program

LIBBY LARSEN: Tambourines, from Aspects of Glory -Ji-Yoen Choi (1959 Schlicker-1999 Dobson/Chapel of the Resurrection, Valparaiso University, IN) Naxos CD-8.555367

GRACIA BAPTISTA: Conditor alme siderum Organ Music by Women Composers before 1800, Vivace Press.

MARIA THERESIA von PARADIES: Sicilienne Maria Theresia von Paradis/Charles Callahan - 10-903, MorningStar Music Publishers

FANNY MENDELSSOHN: Prelude in F*

LILI WIERUSZOWSKI: 2 Chorale-preludes (Morgenglanz der Ewigkeit; Nun jauchzet dem Herren*) Choralvorspiele von Reger-Schülern Schott ED 7769

JOHANNA SENFTER: 2 Chorale-preludes (Vom Himmel hoch; Wer nur den lieben Gott)

MARGARET SANDRESKY: Credo, from L’homme armé Organ Mass Organ Music, Volume 1, Wayne Leupold Editions WL 600031

JEANNE DEMESSIEUX: Hosanna filio David*

EMMA LOU DIEMER: Psalm 151 –Emma Lou Diemer (1991 Reuter/Munger Chapel, University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, AR) RBW CD-13

EMMA LOU DIEMER: All things bright and beautiful

ETHEL SMYTH: O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid

Ms. Rakich performed on the 1938-1962 Aeolian-Skinner organ at the chapel of Columbia University, New York, NY (MPR recording 7/10/96) and (*) on the 1932 Kilgen organ at the Church of Saint Justin, Hartford, CT (AFKA CD-527).