"I am NOT a Woman Composer!" The Life and Music of Louise Talma (1906-1996)

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I am writing a biography about composer, pianist, and pedagogue Louise Talma. The working title of this biography is “I am NOT a Woman Composer!” The Life and Music of Louise Talma (1906-1996). I have an advance contract with the University of Illinois Press. Three more chapters, three more years (yes, my 12-month, full-time job takes lots of time). But now that I am about halfway through the book, the momentum is helping. Right now, I am writing Chapter IV which is built around the correspondence between Talma and Pulitzer Prize winner Thornton Wilder. Together they wrote a three-act grand opera, The Alcestiad. It was premiered in Germany in 1962 to twenty minutes of audience cheers, but has never been performed since or in the original language. Talma declared it "too expensive."

I am writing this book because when I ask people how many twentieth century female composers they can name, I hear crickets. Talma is part of the fabric of twentieth century art music history that could be lost. Also, women who write music are still, today, in the twenty first century, struggling. This is still current news. Equity is a long way off.

Below, find a brief outline of each chapter. Feel free to contact me for more information. And stay tuned! Three more chapters, three more years!

Chapter Summaries:

Introduction. This section will set the stage with background of research activities involved as well as the materials, collections consulted and individuals interviewed.

I. Prelude: 1906-1925. This background chapter will include the context of early years in France where Talma was born. I will investigate the myth her mother perpetuated that Louise’s father died before her birth and chronicle the move of Louise and her mother, Cécile, to the states in 1914; early musical training with Cécile and at the Institute of Musical Art (later, The Juilliard School); early piano performances; piano and composition awards.

**II. Marraine: Fontainebleau and Nadia Boulanger: 1926-1942. Because of the influence Nadia Boulanger had on Talma personally and because Boulanger was a giant figure in the world of Twentieth Century American music, focus on this affiliation is essential for a clear picture of Talma the musician, the teacher, and the woman. This chapter aims to portray their relationship through examination of a correspondence spanning over fifty years (from 1928-1979) and consisting of more than five hundred items with thousands of pages.

**III.  Live Free or Die: The MacDowell Colony:  1943-1951. Talma was devastated after the death of her mother. She had a falling out with Boulanger and was emotionally undone. Her family was gone, she was alienated from her godmother – she was suicidal. Along with the family doctor, who took her in during the crisis, she credits Marion Bauer, her teacher at NYU, with rescuing her. Bauer suggested a residency at the MacDowell Colony. Starting in 1943 Talma found refuge in these woods and wrote most of her music there.

*IV.  Thorny: Serialism, Thornton Wilder, and The Alcestiad: 1952-1963. Talma met Thornton Wilder in 1952 at the MacDowell Colony. He transformed her life. They collaborated on an opera, The Alcestiad. It took three years to write and two to orchestrate. The two met all over the world to work on it. In 1952, Louise joined a growing number of composers who adopted the 12-tone technique. Wilder was taken by her atonal sound world.

V.  A Wreath of Blessings: 1964-1996. After The Alcestiad Talma received recognition and awards and arrived as a composer in her own right. She wrote a chamber opera ten years later, Have You Heard? Do You Know? – the only work for which she also wrote the text. It is a rhapsody to nature as a solution to our hectic, modern world. Accounts of her later life are enriched with stories derived from interviews with academic colleagues and fellow colonists during her many residencies at MacDowell. As feminism rose, she struggled with gender issues.

** Draft completed
* Draft in progress

Humbly submitted,

Sarah B. Dorsey

sbdorsey@gmail.com

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