Gender, Song and the City
Re-sounding the Music of Eliza Flower (1803-1846)
A performance paper on composer Eliza Flower for the Performance Studies Network Conference at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, July 11th-14th 2025
Left to right: Katherine Fry, Louise Cournarie, Frances M Lynch (photo Rachel Becker)
We were delighted to be asked to present a performance paper with music historian Katherine Fry for the 7th Performance Studies Network International Conference at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. We enjoyed the whole conference – particularly the performance aspects – and meeting many new people with interesting ideas and research – there were 115 delegates from nearly 20 countries. Throughout the four days there were regular plenary sessions, a host of parallel sessions on highly diverse topics, and innumerable opportunities for informal discussion during the breaks and into the evening.
We were lucky too that the conference manager, Eliza Robey, arranged for the wonderful pianist, Louise Cournarie, to be our accompanist for the event.
Katherine’s paper gave a fresh perspective on the Flower story – looking at the context of the rise of sheet music and periodicals at the time and how women writers in London made their voices heard in this period. We will bring you more on the paper in due course on our Eliza Flower website where you can find out more about this fascinating composer.
Frances M Lynch sang 5 of Flower’s works:
“Spring – The Descent of the Lark” from Free Trade Songs of the Seasons 1845, Text: Sarah Flower Adams (1805 – 1848)
Death of Madge Wildfire 1831, arranged for 2 voices & fixed media by FM Lynch: Text – Sir Walter Scott from The Heart of Midlothian
August “The Harvests of Time” from Songs of the Months: 1834 and “The Gathering of the Unions – March & Song” 1832: both with text by Harriet Martineau (1802 – 1876)
There were also two examples from Eliza Flower’s largest collection of music – “Hymns & Anthems” – published in 1841. The first, “Whether Men Reap or Sow the Fields”, was sung live with a choral response, and like the second “Once in the Busy Streets” was recorded especially for this event by Frances with Tenor/Baritone Julian Stocker. You can listen to them below:-
“Whether Men Reap or Sow the Fields” is a cross between an art song and hymn, perhaps designed also to be sung at home. It is a simple setting with Eliza’s flair for melody to the fore for either one voice or a unison chorus (she doesn’t specify). The song then has an SATB Response and Chorus – repeating the last 4 lines. This recording places the performers inside the chapel at South Place, although it no longer exists, with the response coming from a quartet and the chorus from the choir stalls above the congregation (see the picture above courtesy of Conway Hall).
The text is by William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) from Devotional Incitements – “Not to the earth confined, Ascend to heaven”, written in 1832 but not published until 1835 which means the hymn was certainly written either that year or later. Flower chooses to set the last 8 lines of this long poem and intriguingly swaps round the words “reap” & “sow” in the first line – presumably because it works better that way round when sung. The original reads – “Whether men sow or reap the fields”. If you look for the full poem you may find a different version of line 2 – “Divine monition Nature yields” but this is not a change made by Flower, it was a change perhaps in the specific edition she had seen and is clearly an alternative offered by Wordsworth which is definitely more singable!
Whether men reap or sow the fields
Her admonitions Nature yields:
That not by bread alone we live,
Or what a hand of flesh can give.
That every day, should leave some part
Free for a Sabbath of the heart:
So shall the seventh be truly blest
From morn to eve with hallowed rest.
“Once in the Busy Streets” is an arrangement of music by Michael Arne (c. 1740 – 1786), an example of the many arrangements Flower made of music by composers she admired like Beethoven and Mozart. Ostensibly it is a simple hymn setting for SATB with piano/organ clearly meant to be easy for the choir at South Place to deal with perhaps very much on the day. She was writing on demand for weekly services so this kind of arrangement must have been helpful.
The text is by W. J. Fox (1786 – 1864) and is in turn adapted from an earlier hymn by someone we’ve not yet clearly identified – signed as S. M. Although it is a hymn the subject suggests a leaning towards a more secular approach to spirituality.
Once in the busy streets
Did Wisdom cry aloud
And then she perish’d mid the scoffs
Of the misguided crowd.
Once in the quiet grove
Did Wisdom’s accents charm
And then she perish’d by the blows
Of Conquests iron arm
Of Conquests iron arm
In Palestine and Greece
Thus wisdom’s voice was hush’d
Yet Echo oft the sound renew’d
Tho’ Wisdom’s sons were crush’d
But ever in the skies
In earth and sea and air
Does Wisdom teach the human heart
And none can crush her there
And none can crush her there
