Podcasts · Episode

Rebecca Clarke

Program: NoteWorthy
Aired: Monday, July 29, 2024
Hosted by Loki Karuna

Classical music is filled with terminologies that you may not hear in everyday conversation. You know, words like allegretto, diminuendo, and trill! These terms may be foreign, and maybe in more ways than one, but that doesn't mean there's no path to understanding them. Many of history's composers, in fact, wrote music that perfectly highlight the meaning of these otherwise unfamiliar phrases. Greetings – I'm Loki Karuna, and on today's edition of Noteworthy I'd like to showcase not just a musical term but also a composer who might help you understand it – the one and only Rebecca Clarke.

Rebecca Clarke was born in late 19th century England, and made history as one of the first women to work in London as a professional musician. In addition to making music, Rebecca also wrote lots of it, titling many of her works with musical words and phrases that perfectly describe the aesthetic she produced. This lively and brisk chamber work is among them – music here that very appropriately bears the name, vivace. 

Rebecca Clarke passed away in New York back in 1979, but her legacy is alive and well, with the Rebecca Clarke Society, established in September of 2000, promoting and performing her vivaces, adagios, allegros, and everything in between for future generations to enjoy. She was a master of the viola, vivaces, and other musical vocabulary, and is without question one of history's most Noteworthy composers.

Noteworthy is a production of WDAV classical public radio. 

Pictured: Rebecca Clarke; by Hopkins Studio, Denver, Colorado, United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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