Emilie Mayer, who was born in 1812 in Friedland (Mecklenburg) and died in 1883 in Berlin, is one of the most remarkable German women composers of the 19th century. In an era when women composers were generally only permitted to perform their works in a domestic setting
– preferably that of a salon – Emilie Mayer practised her vocation as a full-time profession.
Besides her musical talent, her extraordinary career can be attributed to the unusual circumstances of her biography. In 1840 Mayer’s widowed father – for whom Emilie as the oldest unmarried daughter kept house – committed suicide. This was a turning point in her life. Largely freed from family duties and financially independent, at nearly 30 years of age she decided to leave the provinces and pursue a career as a professional woman composer. She received her training from some of the leading music theorists of her day – Carl Loewe (1796–1869) in Stettin, and Adolf Bernhard Marx (1795–1866) and Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802–1872) in Berlin. In the face of the general restrictions on women’s access to composition studies at universities and conservatoriums, the quality of her education is the result of the individual backing given by her teachers to a comprehensive musical education for women.
Marx appears to have been particularly dedicated in this respect. In an article published in the “Berlin Musikzeitung Echo” in 1856 he argued for a thorough musical training for women and made it clear that he not only lent them his verbal support but also took practical steps for their advancement.
Even during the years she spent studying, Mayer took up musical genres which were generally deemed too difficult and “unseemly” for women. In the reviews produced by musical experts, multi-part compositions often gave rise to the question of whether women were fundamentally
equal to the demands of combining unrelated musical thoughts in a meaningful way. Emilie Mayer’s works cover a remarkable number of these “unfeminine” genres – 8 symphonies, 7 concert overtures (including the successful overture to Faust op. 46), a piano concerto, a “Rondo militaire” and a broad oeuvre of string and piano chamber music. What is characteristic of the chronological and stylistic classification of Emilie Mayer’s works is her occupation with one or only a few genres over a longer period. Initially she wrote mainly Lieder with a singing voice – very much in keeping with her teacher Loewe. The 1st and 2nd symphonies also date from her early time in Stettin in the 1840s. The Symphony no. 3 in B minor, written in 1850, reveals an interest in Beethoven’s tonal language which is also discernible in the string quartets. The eight string quartets contained in the bequest were written before 1858.
Mayer’s compositional leanings towards Beethoven were motivated and endorsed by her teacher Adolf Bernhard Marx, who still exerted considerable influence over her during this period.
