Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) was born in England to an American father and
German mother. After her musical studies with Charles Villiers Stanford
at the Royal College of Music (the first woman to do so), she pursued a career as performer on
both violin and viola. She was a prominent concert violist both at home and abroad, and highly active in chamber and symphonic ensembles. In fact, she became one of the first female musicians in a fully professional ensemble, Henry Wood's Halle orchestra.
In 1916 Clarke made her first trip to the United States. Here she met Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, the famous promoter and financier of "new music." Encouraged by Coolidge, Clarke wrote the piece "Morpheus for viola and piano" in 1919. That same year she entered the Coolidge Competition with her Sonata for Viola and Piano, winning second prize (the composer Ernest Bloch won first prize). The sonata proved to be a great success.
This was followed in the productive 1920s by a piano trio (1920), which again won second prize in the Coolidge Competition, as well as other interesting pieces of chamber music. In the 1930s, however, Clarke barely wrote any music, as she was involved in an affair with a married man, who was using up all her energy (as she divulged later).
When WWII broke out while Clarke was again visiting the United States, she remained in America, in fact for the rest of her life. She also started composing again, such as the Dumka for violin, viola, and piano, and Passacaglia on an Old English Tune for viola and piano.
However, in 1944 she married James Friskin, who was teaching at the Juilliard School in New York. Unfortunately, Clarke's marriage marked an end to her creativity. She devoted herself to her husband's career and wrote little music herself. Rebecca Clarke wrote music in a late romantic, rather chromatic style. Her Sonata for Viola and Piano has been discussed in my blog post The Best Works for Viola.
Here I'd like to introduce one her earliest works, the short "Morpheus for Viola and Piano," named after the Greek god
of sleep and dreams. "Morpheus" uniquely develops a
single melody through coloristic devices such as pentatonic glissandos
on the piano and artificial harmonics on the violin. Below is a fantastic rendering by Jeremy Berry, viola & Michael Refvem, piano.
Women Composers Index