September Songs at Conway Hall
26th September 2024
7pm – 8.30pm Thurs 26th September
CONWAY HALL Library
25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL
Join ELECTRIC VOICE THEATRE and Music Historian Oskar Jensen
in Conway Hall’s historic Grade II listed Library
for a fascinating insight into our research on the pioneering radical feminist songwriter
Tickets: £14 including a drink (concs. £8)
We will be launching a new website dedicated to her work with the help of our
EVT Flower Quartet
Frances M Lynch, Maxence Marmy – Sopranos
Samantha Houston – Mezzo
Aris Nadirian – Baritone
who will sing a new set of her songs
as yet un-performed live for 200 years including
September Song of the Month “An Autumn Song”
Text by Mary Howitt (1799-1888) poet and author
Autumn – “Tis a dull sight to see the year dying.”
from Songs of the Seasons 1832
Text by an unknown author (possibly Sarah Flower Adams)
Song of the Polish Exiles by the Siberian Sea (1833)
Text by Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
with some dramatic & modern settings of her work including
Death of Madge Wildfire
from “Musical Illustrations of the Waverley Novels” Text by Sir Walter Scott
and the premiere of
“Disenchanted Floriography or How to Disarrange a Flower”
for vocal quartet & fixed media
by Frances M Lynch
a potpourri of Eliza’s music.
There will be time for you to browse the exhibitions in this fascinating library and a viewing of the shimmering oil painting commissioned for the project from a young artist – Elspeth Manders.
Bring your phone (free wi-fi available) for an interactive insight into the resources available on the website including recordings, videos, articles, blogs, Flower history, composer profiles, interviews, reviews and information on the various strands of the projects. Downloadable and freely available modern versions of the original scores with flexible arrangements will enable wider performances of Flower’s music by choirs and singers. It promises to be a fantastic living resource for researchers, teachers, students, performers and the public.
Presented by Electric Voice Theatre:
Frances M Lynch – Artistic Director, Soprano, Composer
Oskar Jensen – Music Historian
Maxence Marmy – Soprano
Samantha Houston – Mezzo
Aris Nadirian – Bass Baritone & Piano
Dee Simpson – BSL interpreter
Herbie Clarke – Production Manager
Composer Eliza Flower was born on the 19th April 1803 in Cambridge and moved to No. 2 High Street, (Old) Harlow in Essex (see photo) when she was 1 year old, where she spent her childhood. She is buried near Harlow beside her sister, mother and father. They both worked and sang together at South Place Unitarian Chapel, in Finsbury in London. Their contributions to cultural and political life were so important that when the chapel closed down, their portraits and archive were moved to Conway Hall in London.
Eliza was a prolific composer of vocal music for church services – including arrangements of tunes by Mozart, Bach, Handel and Beethoven – concerts, political events and soirees. Despite being one of the first composers published by the new publishing house of Novello and lauded by many in her day including Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Browning, Flower’s music is now unknown, quite possibly because she fell out of favour when she took up an unusual living arrangement with a clergyman!
“For me, I never had another feeling other than entire admiration for your music-entire admiration-I put it apart from all other English music I know, and fully believe in it as the music we all waited for.” A letter from Robert Browning to Eliza Flower
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