# A rare Vogon Clerical error wipes out all music composed by men...



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

So, an exceedingly rare Vogon clerical error wipes out all music-written, recorded or otherwise stored in any format whatsoever-by men.

After you've raged and grieved, and after you've written the Vogon subcommittee on sending complaints to the office of the Secondary Subcomplaint Committee, how will you rebuild your library with female composers? Who will be your top women composers from each era? What woman's works will you request whilst trapped on your desert island? What woman composer's work will you not be able to live without? What symphonies? What Miss Frankencycles?

As for me: Fanny Mendelssohn, Louise Farrenc. Love her nonnet. Clara Schumann. Barbara Strozzi.






And in lieu of my beloved keyboard concerti by Bach, a concerto by King Frederick the Great's Sister!






Or some flute sonatas by his other sister:






What woman would I take with me to my desert island? I admit, I'm stumped, unless it's the Six Cello Suites [cough] by Anne Magdelena Bach.


----------



## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

For the desert island, I'd go with Bacewicz's chamber music.


----------



## Eclectic Al (Apr 23, 2020)

I did encounter a piece called Fantaisie Variee by Nadia Boulanger. Thought that was good.

But why are the Vogons so sexist?


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Bulldog said:


> For the desert island, I'd go with Bacewicz's chamber music.


Nice. I'm listening to her string quartets right now, on Spotify.


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Do we get to keep any Felix Mendelssohn compositions that were really from Fanny? So I gather that some of her stuff had to be sneaked past dad in that way.


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Eclectic Al said:


> But why are the Vogons so sexist?


They're not. The error was purely bureaucratic. As an apology, they would be glad to read you epic poetry by their finest male poets.


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

SixFootScowl said:


> Do we get to keep any Felix Mendelssohn compositions that were really from Fanny? So I gather that some of her stuff had to be sneaked past dad in that way.


A desperately important question. Yes. "His" songs, for sure, and there must be some "Songs without Words" that were really by her.


----------



## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Women composers is another topic that resurfaces on this site with some regularity. What would be my choices for best women composers?

Farenc, Baczewicz, Kaprálová, Pejačevič, Strozzi, Jacquet de La Guerre, Garuta, Emilie Mayer, Gubaidulina, Saariho, Beach, Ustvolskaya ...

Bulldog has run a game where we collected a pretty large selection of works by women composers


----------



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Yeah, they've been playing Emilie Mayer's symphonies on NPR Classical lately.


----------



## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Jacck said:


> Bulldog has run a game where we collected a pretty large selection of works by women composers


That wasn't me; it was Art Rock's game.

The final standings:

01 Beach - Piano Concerto
02 Garūta - Piano Concerto in F sharp minor
03 Bacewicz - Piano Quintet no. 1
03 Farrenc - Symphony no. 3 in G minor, op. 36

05 Hildegard von Bingen - Ordo Virtutum
05 Jacquet de La Guerre - Harpsichord Suites
07 Tailleferre - Concertino for Harp and Orchestra
08 Clarke - Viola Sonata
09 Gubaidulina - Canticle of the Sun
10 Pejačević - Symphony in F-sharp minor, op. 41


----------



## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

There would be a great rush to reconstruct all the lost music from memory. It would be quite an adventure. PhDs, conductors, and scores of amateurs working together to resurrect the lost glory.

Imagine all those scholars finally finding a purpose in life... Imagine the feuds about errors of memory!

And of course the most hummable music would live on as folk music.


----------

