Reflections

Rebecca Clarke was an English violist and composer. She was a pioneer of women in music, graduating from the Royal College of Music in London as one of the first female composition students of Sir Charles Stanford’s. As a young woman she supported herself as a musician in London, playing in orchestras and chamber ensembles where she worked with musicians such as Casals, Heifetz, and Rubinstein. In 1913 Clarke was hired by the Queen’s Hall Orchestra, making her one of the first women to gain regular employment in a professional London orchestra.

Clarke’s viola sonata, written in 1919, is considered a staple in the viola literature and is what launched her international success. When it was entered into a competition, the judges were so taken with it they thought it was a submission by Ravel. To their shock it was revealed to be a woman composer. By 1925, Clarke was so highly regarded that she could prepare a concert of her own compositions and sell out London’s Wigmore Hall.

Dumka, in Ukrainian, means “thought.” Musically, a dumka is a dreamlike, melancholy dance. Listen for a quote of the gypsy-rondo from Brahms’s Piano Quartet Op. 25 in the opening and again at the conclusion of Dumka!

Read more about Rebecca Clarke and listen to her music

In the composer’s own words:
“The viola is an exhausting instrument at the best of times”

Gerardo Matos Rodriguez
La Cumparsita “The Little Street Procession” (1916)

Uruguayan composer Gerardo Matgos Rodriguez’s “La Cumparsita” is widely considered one of the most famous tangos of all time.

Ferdinand Sorenson
Tango in G Minor (1930s)

Danish-born American musician, composer, conductor and prominent music educator, Ferdinand Sorensen spent most of his career in Portland, Oregon playing with the Portland Symphony and many popular bands in the area.

Dana Carlile
Tango in G Minor

Composer Dana Carlile is the grandson of Ferdinand Sorensen and has written over 80 compositions for the piano.

Jose Padilla
El Relicario (1914)

Known as Maestro Padilla, composer and pianist Jose Padilla composed songs for the Moulin Rouge.

Brahms’ Piano Quartet Op. 25, was composed in the late 1850s. The premier was heard in Hamburg in 1861 with Clara Schumann as the pianist. Brahms visited Vienna in the early 1860s and eventually settled in that city. The musical people of Vienna were introduced to this young composer through this piano quartet. Brahms read the work (with himself at the piano) with members of the Hellmesberger Quartet, one of Vienna’s most prominent chamber ensembles of the era. The violinist, Joseph Hellmesberger, leapt from his chair at the conclusion, exclaiming “This is the heir of Beethoven!”.