Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994)

"To me, the best music is a sort of impassioned argument... passionately intellectual and intellectually passionate discourse is what I seek, however inadequately, to express in music." - Elizabeth Maconchy

When fellow composer Cecil Armstrong Gibbs heard Maconchy’s songs, he wrote to express his admiration for her music. ‘Three qualities in it struck me most forcibly,’ he told her: ‘its vitality, its sincerity & a certain quality of “wild” beauty that I found deeply moving.’

It was an astute summary. These qualities were central to Maconchy’s style, whether she was writing for full orchestra or solo viola. Her bold, searing music was uncompromising, and it divided opinion. Her friend Grace Williams summed it up well when she said that Maconchy ‘is misunderstood by some people — one hears her described as cerebral & un-lyrical, which is rubbish. For those of us who really know her stuff, there is more sense of beauty in her little finger than there is in lots & lots of contemporary composers put together.’
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Maconchy was the second woman after Ethel Smyth to be made a Dame for her services to composition, and she additionally helped to promote the music of others in her positions as Chair of the Composers Guild of Great Britain, and President of the Society for the Promotion of New Music. Her extensive output encompasses operas, ballets, orchestral and choral works, songs, solo instrumental pieces, and chamber works including thirteen string quartets. Our forthcoming premiere recording of Life Story (1985) is her final work for strings.

Discover Elizabeth Maconchy

'Hers is a unique voice, and an under appreciated force in twentieth-century music history. When Maconchy was going through a particularly low ebb of interest in her work, her tutor and lifelong supporter Ralph Vaughan Williams encouraged her to ‘push on’, because ‘one day perhaps the key will turn in the lock.’ It may have taken longer than Maconchy hoped, but with the increased recordings and performances of her music, it may be that Maconchy’s key is finally starting to turn.'
Read about Maconchy's choral music in Choir & Organ here.

'When Elizabeth Maconchy came to assess her own situation in the 1970s, she found herself struggling with many of the same issues that had plagued Smyth. Maconchy was among the most extraordinary composers this country had ever produced, and indeed would follow Smyth to be honoured as a Dame for composition in 1987. Yet she was still, in the eyes of so many others, a woman composer.'
Read about Maconchy's relationship to Ethel Smyth here.

Maconchy 'remains a cautionary tale of the uphill battle facing women in male-dominated professions: regarded as one of the most brilliant students at the Royal College of Music (RCM) in the late 1920s, she rose to great acclaim in the early 1930s. The première of her orchestral suite, The Land, conducted by Sir Henry Wood at the Proms in 1930, was a smashing success and seemed destined to catapult her to stardom. But instead of opening further doors, what she encountered was discouraging in the extreme: no publisher was willing to consider publishing orchestral music by a woman composer; they would only consider songs, as the composition of miniatures better befitted her gender.'
Buy Erica Siegel's biography of Maconchy here.

'Maconchy’s career is a story of two halves. Despite these laurels, her music was never quite given the recognition it deserved. Throughout her life she was constantly frustrated by a lack of performances, particularly on the BBC which was so important for building composers’ reputations. In the 1950s she received very few broadcasts at all, and even at the peak of her career her BBC presence was paltry when compared to composers of a similar stature. In the 1960s, she had around six works broadcasts a year — Benjamin Britten had one hundred and fifty-two in 1961 alone.'
Read about Maconchy's life and work in BBC Music Magazine.

'To be remembered, a composer has to be in the right place at the right time with the right style, right personality, a particular identity, and access to a network of supporters with money and contacts. Britten was that one composer in mid-twentieth-century Britain, but the reality of musical life in that period was so much richer and varied than is allowed by narratives that reduce British music-making to a neat line leading from Vaughan Williams to Britten alone. When we accept this story and flatten complexity, we miss out on a lot of fantastic music and also make it harder to learn anything from the past.'
Read about Maconchy's place in British music history here.

'It was like turning on a light to come and study with Vaughan Williams. It was the beginning of everything...'
Listen to Leah's documentary about Maconchy as a student of Vaughan Williams here.

'She established a clear musical identity, in part drawn from her Irish-British roots, which had little to do with her gender. Maconchy made the point several times that, for one thing, there was no such thing as "women's music" as differentiated from men's.'
Buy Elizabeth Maconchy in Context here.

'You mustn’t bother your head any more, my girl, about writing safe scores. It doesn’t become you. Besides it isn’t necessary: your difficult things always come off best...'
Buy Sophie Fuller & Jenny Doctor's edited correspondence between Elizabeth Maconchy and Grace Williams here.

'At the beginning of her career, she had been at the very centre of the contemporary music scene, enjoying a position of considerable status in Britain and on the Continent, but during the war years performances and broadcasts of her music went into sharp decline. These were years spent in the wilderness for Maconchy.'
Buy Rhiannon Mathias' group biography of Maconchy, Williams and Lutyens here.

Scores and other recordings

Many of Maconchy's works, including Life Story, are available via Wise Music. Boosey & Hawkes publish ​The Birds. If you are interested in unpublished works and other primary source materials relating to Maconchy's life, her archive is held at St Hilda's College, University of Oxford. The archive catalogue and finding aid is available online here.

Maconchy has a growing discography. Some select recordings include: