composers who followed after her. Although relatively open about her sexual desires towards women, it is through analyses of her autobiographies, letters, and compositions that the extent of these desires are exposed. In her essay, Lesbian Fugue: Ethel Smyth's Contrapuntal Arts, Elizabeth Wood explores the parallels between Smyth's life and her compositions. Unlike most female composers of her day, Ethyl Smyth, born in England in 1858, was a member of a middle-class Victorian family with little artistic background. Her non- conforming ways were apparent very early in her life. Despite objection from her father, and after a number of hunger strikes and arguments at home, Ethyl attended the Leipzig Conservatory in 1877 at age nineteen. She left after one year, feeling that she was not being taught properly and began private study with Heinrich Herzogenberg. During the time after leaving the conservatory, she decided to concentrate on opera composition, an area of composition unheard of for a woman. This was just the beginning of her independent and different lifestyle. Ethyl dressed with a masculine style, often wearing pant suits and was an important activist in the English suffragist movement, even composing The March of the Women, which, after the addition of lyrics, became the Suffragettes' battle hymn. She did not attempt to conceal her lesbianism or feminist views and was quite open in her writings about the obstacles women must overcome to achieve success in a man's world. What is spectacular about this woman is her invasion of the man's world of which she speaks. Her musical repertoire contains chamber music works, piano sonatas, Lieder, opera, and masses, including one of her best works, the Mass in D. Besides writing a large collection of compositions, she has also written eight books, the majority autobiographical works, outlining the events of her exceptional life. She was never afraid to ruffle some feathers and make a statem...
