choir score (minimum order quantity: 10 copies)
Description
THE MARCH OF THE WOMEN
for women’s choir (SSA)
Music: Ethel Smyth
Lyrics: Cicely Hamilton
choir score (minimum order quantity: 10 copies)
from: Songs of the women’s movement Vol. 1
The composer Ethel Smyth campaigned for women and women’s rights in a wide variety of ways throughout her life. She composed the March of the Women which became
the anthem of the Suffragettes. Smyth was herself an active member of the movement from 1910 to 1912.
The March of the Women is based on an Italian folk song from the Abruzzi region. The Suffragette Cicely Hamilton wrote the lyrics to the music composed by Smyth. The march calls for solidarity among the Suffragettes and is intended to give them courage and the hope that women will continue to fight for their freedom despite the hardship of their fate. Tradition has it that Ethel Smyth used a toothbrush to conduct imprisoned Suffragettes as they sang the march in the exercise yard when she herself was serving a prison sentence for breach
of the peace.
