Smyth, Dame Ethel (1858-1944), was one of the first English women to distinguish herself as a composer. Her best-known works include Mass in D major (1893, revised 1925) and the operas The Wreckers (1906) and The Boatswain’s Mate (1916). Her one-act opera Der Wald (1902) became in 1903 the first opera by a woman composer to be presented by the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She also wrote orchestral and chamber works and vocal music.
Ethel Mary Smyth was born on April 22, 1858, in London. She studied in Leipzig and Berlin, Germany, beginning in 1877. She spent much of her life in Germany until the early 1900’s. On her return to England, she actively supported the emancipation of women. She went to jail in 1911 for her activities for woman suffrage. In jail, she composed “The March of the Women,” which became the battle song of the movement.
Smyth was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1922. In the 1930’s, she became deaf. Her autobiography, Impressions That Remained (1919), is highly praised. She later wrote eight more books, all heavily autobiographical. Smyth died on May 9, 1944.
