We are happy to share with you this essay by Kathleen Shimeta, music researcher, writer and mezzo soprano. Shimeta is co-founder and Chair of The Gena Branscombe Project, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the performance of Gena Branscombe’s art songs, chamber music, instrumental works and piano pieces. In addition The Gena Branscombe Project is awarding yearly scholarships to a student conductor, composer and Arts Administrator.
Advocating for women composers of the early 20th century is a mission some of us researchers take up with pride. My mission has been reacquainting the 21st century with Canadian/American composer Gena Branscombe (1881-1977).
She was born in Picton, Ontario and began her early musical training on the piano. At age 15 she left Canada to attend the Chicago Musical College where she studied piano, composition, orchestration and theory. After graduation she joined the faculty of the College. Her first art songs were published by Whaley Royce in Canada when she was 18 years old.
In 1907 Miss Branscombe became the head of the piano department at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. During her two years on the faculty her compositions were played on numerous concerts.
Deciding she wanted further study, Branscombe lived in Germany in 1909-10, taking composition lessons with Englebert Humperdinck and piano with Rudolf Ganz.
When researching Miss Branscombe, one will find that she composed and published 150 art songs, choral, instrumental and piano works. Her orchestral pieces remain in manuscript and are not well known.
With the founding of The Gena Branscombe Project we have worked to edit her manuscript scores for future publication and performances. Her orchestral work dating from 1912-1913, “Festival Prelude/March” has now been performed twice in the past two years. Her major choral drama, “Pilgrims of Destiny” had its 21st century premiere in 2019.
In a few of her letters to her publisher Arthur P. Schmidt of Boston dating from 1913-1914, she frets about having completed her orchestral work “Festival Prelude/March,” wondering if she will get it performed somewhere; she is interviewing prospective conductors.
In 1910, Marian MacDowell, widow of composer Edward MacDowell, had created the “American Bayreuth Festival” in Peterborough, New Hampshire with the goal of promoting new American composers. In the summer of 1914 Gena Branscombe’s “Festival Prelude/March” was premiered with the Festival Orchestra conducted by Arthur Bergh.
Loving all things martial, Gena scored the piece for full orchestra including her beloved trumpets. With a bright opening melody the composer leads the listener through rich harmonic tonality, modulations, and secondary melodies, returning to her opening melody, more modulations and the piece comes to a rousing end. “Festival Prelude/March” captivates an audience with its harkening back to the composer’s late German-Romantic foundation of vivid and memorable melody.
Gena Branscombe
With thanks to Damali Willingham, The Gena Branscombe Project Composer Scholarship winner, “Festival Prelude/March” was arranged for wind ensemble. In Spring 2023, Willingham conducted that version of the work at Berklee College of Music. The original orchestral version was performed at Colleges of the Fenway in Spring 2024 conducted by Dan Ryan. The Gena Branscombe Project holds and distrubutes both the wind ensemble and orchestral versions of “Festival Prelude/March.”
The Library of Congress has in its archives the original and only copy of the conductor’s score to Branscombe’s dramatic oratorio, “Pilgrims of Destiny.” Over three days at the Library taking photos of each page of the score and the orchestral parts, a colleague and I were dedicated to the idea of entering the score into music editing software for a future performance.
Days after returning from the Library, Dan Ryan contacted me saying he had miraculously found the piano/vocal score at a garage sale and wanted to perform the work at Clark University where he was Director of Choral Activities. With the help of numerous people and countless hours of work, a new conductor’s score was created. The 21st century premiere of “Pilgrims of Destiny” took place April 2019 with Dan Ryan conducting his chorus, orchestra, soloists and children’s choir.
Branscombe composed her dramatic oratorio “Pilgrims of Destiny” (1919-1920) out of the depths of grief. Her third daughter, Betty, had died during the influenza epidemic of 1919 at the age of three. With the encouragement of her husband, Branscombe returned to composing, choosing America’s pilgrims as her subject matter. Her husband researched historical facts and passenger lists on the Mayflower; she wrote the libretto. Gena’s personal life is woven into the drama with her deep faith, love of children and the sad loss of a child parallel to the pilgrims Dorothy and William Bradford.
The work follows the final two days, November 9th and 10th, 1620, of the Mayflower’s voyage. Over six scenes Miss Branscombe’s music embraces a turbulent storm, sailors with braggadocio of their life at sea and a tender duet between brother and sister. Children’s songs are sung while playing games remembered from their homeland, a mournful women’s chorus questions the unknown future and why children and the shivering sick may not survive. Land is sighted and the work ends with a chorus of thankful jubilation to God. The pilgrims rejoice that their new country shall be a temple filled with brotherhood, faith and love. Miss Branscombe’s America — as in her country of birth, Canada — is one of strong character, determination, new opportunity and love for all.
“Pilgrims of Destiny” is filled with haunting melodies, an in-depth sensitivity to text-setting of struggle, hope and rejoicing in the human spirit overcoming adversity. Her orchestration is steeped in lush Romantic harmonic language utilizing the color of the respective instruments to support the narrative.
Gena Branscombe’s early 20th century compositions and leadership roles in women’s organizations helped lead the way for women composers to be brought into the forefront of American music. Her music is increasingly recognized as a valuable part of that process.
Links for further reading and listening:
Podcast on Gena Branscombe with Kathleen Shimeta