Elizabeth Maconchy in Context

Justin Vickers is Distinguished Professor of Music at Illinois State University. He is the author of The Aldeburgh Festival: A History of the Britten and Pears Era, 1948–1986 (forthcoming), the co-editor of Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary since 1900 (2026) with Joy H. Calico, and Benjamin Britten in Context (2022) and Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art (2017), both with Vicki P. Stroeher. Lucy Walker is an independent scholar, speaker, and writer on classical music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her recent research activities have focussed on the cultural representation of all-female communities in a variety of historical contexts. Walker has written programme essays for the Salzburg Festival, London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Opera, English National Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the BBC Proms, among many more.

• List of figures; List of tables; Permissions and publications; Notes on contributors; Acknowledgements; List of bibliographic and in-text abbreviations; Editors' preface; Part I. Environments: 1. 'Difficult for a woman': the many twentieth-century contexts of Elizabeth Maconchy Justin Vickers and Lucy Walker; 2. Elizabeth Maconchy – personal recollections of my mother Anna Dunlop; 3. Elizabeth Maconchy (1907–1994): a chronology Philip Reed; 4. Ireland: revival and revolution Maria McHale; 5. 'Let us start with our own': Maconchy as Irish composer and the negotiation of national identity Laura Watson; 6. Teachers, colleagues, and friends: Maconchy's 'circle' and influential teachers while at the Royal College of Music Rhiannon Mathias; 7. Studying in Prague and Europe in the 1930s Meredith C. Graham; 8. Facing tuberculosis during the interwar years Michael Hutcheon, M.D.; 9. The Composers' Guild of Great Britain Joanna Bullivant; 10. Maconchy's predecessors Leah Broad; 11. A supportive sisterhood Lucy Walker; Part II. Intersections: 12. The Mercury Theatre Philip Reed; 13. Members only: Censorship and 'The Sofa' Lucy Walker; 14. 'I am writing to you on behalf of my string quartets': Elizabeth Maconchy and the BBC Carola Darwin; 15. Maconchy, Vaughan Williams, and British pastoralism Eric Saylor; 16. Irish and British music of the interwar era Thornton Miller; 17. Elizabeth Maconchy and Béla Bartók: in search of a 'modern style' Christa Brüstle; 18. Elizabeth Maconchy and European modernism Vicki P. Stroeher; 19. Gendered reception Katy Hamilton; 20. Elizabeth Maconchy and changing festival cultures Nicholas Clark; 21. Audiences and concertgoing Natasha Loges; Part III. Works and Legacy: 22. Elizabeth Maconchy's genres in context Guido Heldt; 23. 'Vital aspects of the complete composer': Elizabeth Maconchy's commissioned works, 1960–82 Hilary Seraph Donaldson; 24. Place and genre in Maconchy's choral music Meredith C. Graham; 25. Situating Maconchy's songs and poetic tastes among her contemporaries Natalie Burch; 26. Operatic transformations Daniele Sofer; 27. Elizabeth Maconchy's operas for children Justin Vickers; 28. Counterpoints and arguments in Maconchy's string quartets: developmental phases Rhiannon Mathias; 29. The orchestral music: theme(s) and variations on European modernism Jonathan Clinch; 30. Maconchy's chamber music Natasha Loges; 31. Feeling the fever: the archives of Elizabeth Maconchy Oliver Mahony; 32. Curating my mother's legacy: Elizabeth Maconchy since 1994 Nicola LeFanu; Coda: 33. 'We carry these legacies' Héloïse Werner; Further reading; Index.

'In these 33 meditations on Elizabeth Maconchy's extraordinary life and works, her music is given the space it has always deserved but has rarely been afforded. Her cultural, social, aesthetic, gendered, political, and medical environments are drawn upon in fascinating detail to shine a light on her iron will to be a composer against all the odds. This book forms an ideal introduction to Maconchy and her relevance then and – most importantly – now.' Annika Forkert, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester