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Dame Ethel Smyth

The remarkable English composer who refused to submit to Victorian expectations

The story of the remarkable English composer who refused to submit to Victorian expectations, and who, although praised by Thomas Beecham and George Bernard Shaw, remains largely forgotten today.

"It is absolutely impossible in this country for a woman composer to get and keep her head above water," she said. "I believe Englishmen to be congenitally incapable of judging a woman's work at all!"

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43 minutes

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Archive

This programme was restored as part of the World Service archive project