Liza Lehmann


Liza Lehmann was an English operatic soprano and composer, known for her vocal compositions.
After vocal studies with Alberto Randegger and Jenny Lind, and composition studies with teachers including Hamish MacCunn, Lehmann made her singing debut in 1885 in London and pursued a concert career for nearly a decade. In 1894, she married and left the stage. She then concentrated on composing music, becoming known for song cycles, art songs, parlour songs and children's songs. She also composed several pieces for the stage and wrote a textbook on singing. In 1910, she toured the United States, where she accompanied her own songs in recitals. She was the first president of the Society of Women Musicians and became a professor of singing at the Guildhall School of Music in 1913.

Biography

She was born Elisabetha Nina Mary Frederica Lehmann in London. Her father was the German painter Rudolf Lehmann, and her mother was Amelia Chambers, a music teacher, composer and arranger. Lehmann "grew up in an intellectual and artistic atmosphere" and lived in Germany, France and Italy in her early years. She studied singing in London with both Alberto Randegger and Jenny Lind, and her composition teachers included Hamish MacCunn in London, Niels Raunkilde in Rome, and Wilhelm Freudenberg in Wiesbaden.
On 23 November 1885, she made her singing debut at a Monday Popular Concert at St James's Hall, and spent the next nine years performing many important concert engagements in England. She received encouragement from important European musicians such as Joseph Joachim and Clara Schumann. She retired from the stage after a final concert at St James's Hall on 14 July 1894, married the composer and painter Herbert Bedford and turned to composing music.
In 1910, Lehmann made a tour of the United States, where she accompanied her own songs in recitals. She became the first president of the Society of Women Musicians in 1911 and 1912. She was also a professor of singing at the Guildhall School of Music in 1913. The same year, she wrote a voice study text, Practical Hints for Students of Singing.
She had two sons; the older one died in training during the First World War, and the younger was the father of the conductor Steuart Bedford and the composer David Bedford. She completed her memoirs in 1918 and died, shortly after completing them, at Pinner, Middlesex, at the age of 56.

Music

After her performing career ended in 1894, Lehmann concentrated on composing music for the rest of her life. She completed one of her best known works two years later, in 1896, the song cycle for four voices and piano titled In a Persian Garden, settings of selected quatrains from Edward FitzGerald's version of the Rubāiyāt of Omar Khayyām. She composed many more song cycles including The Daisy Chain and an In Memoriam based on Alfred Lord Tennyson's love poem. She also became known for her art songs, parlour songs and other works in the following years. She wrote many children's songs, ranging from the sweet and trivial "There are fairies at the bottom of our garden" to the melodically and harmonically passionate "Stars" in The Daisy-Chain. Her tenor song "Ah, moon of my delight" from In a Persian Garden has been recorded through the years by tenors such as John McCormack, Jan Peerce, Mario Lanza, Robert White, and Webster Booth
In 1904 she was commissioned by Frank Curzon to compose the score for the Edwardian musical comedy Sergeant Brue, with a libretto by Owen Hall and lyrics by James Hickory Wood. The piece was a success in London and New York, but Lehmann was unhappy that Curzon added other composers' music to her score. Although she refused to write any further musicals, Lehmann composed the score for a comic opera adaptation of The Vicar of Wakefield in 1906, with a libretto by Laurence Housman. This piece was a modest success but did not lead to further comic operas. In 1916, she returned to writing for the stage, with the score for the opera Everyman, which was produced by the Beecham Opera Company.
Lehmann, Ethel Smyth and Maude Valérie White were England's foremost female composers of songs at the beginning of the 20th century. Although they all composed solo settings of serious texts, Lehmann and White excelled in setting lighter material. Some of Lehmann's compositional practices, such as her frequent writing of four-voice cycles and writing piano links between songs, were consistent with her time. Although her pieces were inventive, they are now often overlooked and disregarded.

Musical works

Stage