Lullaby for Viola and Piano (1909)

Composer: CLARKE, Rebecca
  • Rebecca Clarke actually wrote several Lullabies: for viola and piano, one for violin and piano. She composed this one in 1909, and it remained unpublished during her lifetime.1
  • This is one of Clarke’s earliest compositions, written while she was still a composition student of Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal Academy of Music.2
    • In 1910, Clarke’s father withdrew financial support, and she had to leave the program and pursue a career as a violist to earn a living. They quarreled because Clarke was frustrated that her father was conducting affairs with young women in their family home. 
    • Clarke was the first woman Stanford ever accepted as a composition student in his class at the RAM. 

Sources

  1. Liane Curtis, “Clarke [Friskin], Rebecca,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 16, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000044728. 
  2. Michael Ponder, liner notes to Rebecca Clarke: Midsummer Moon et al, Lorraine McAslan, Michael Ponder, Justin Pearson, Julian Farrell, Ian Jones, Epoch 7105, CD, 2000.

Cut IDs

24037