Marga Richter

4. Landscapes: 1970s

4 Landscapes 1970s “Do you think of yourself as a feminist?” “No. Not actively. I don’t think I have the problems that people who are active have. . . . You tell me: what do feminists really do for themselves?” Marga Richter, interview by Sharon Mirchandani, 2005 during the 1970s Richter created some of her most important works: two large-scale orchestral scores, Landscapes of the Mind I and Blackberry Vines and Winter Fruit; two chamber music scores, Landscapes of the Mind II and Landscapes of the Mind III; and two significant piano pieces, Remembrances and Requiem, inspired by personal relationships. The music is her response to the beauty she found in nature, and intimacy. Richter also became increasingly aware of the need to promote her own music. She recalls: In 1974 I began to understand that I needed to become more proactive in regard to furthering my career. To that end, I attended my first American Symphony Orchestra League convention , in Memphis, Tennessee, hoping to meet conductors who might program my music. As it turned out, I met a New York conductor, Michael Bartos, on the flight to Tennessee. We became friends, and he subsequently programmed my first piano concerto with me as soloist. The concert took place on January 31, 1975, at the Greenwich House Music School [New York]. Two scouts from the publisher of the work (Mills Music) attended with the intention of reporting back to Ainslee Cox, conductor of the Oklahoma Symphony, about whether I would be a viable soloist to present the work on a concert featuring American composer-pianists performing their own works, in January 1976, in Oklahoma, celebrating 59 America’s Bicentennial year. I passed the test and was engaged for the concert, which included Francis Thorne and Lee Hoiby.1 More prominent conductors became interested in Richter’s orchestral works: Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (b. 1923) conducted Lament in 1976 with the Minnesota Orchestra and became a staunch supporter of her music.2 That same year Gregory Millar conducted Landscapes of the Mind I with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra with William Masselos as soloist.And, Kenneth Schermerhorn conducted Blackberry Vines and Winter Fruit in 1977 with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Later, in 1989, conductor Harold Farberman recorded Blackberry Vines and Winter Fruit with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Sheldon Morgenstern conducted Lament in 1977 with the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra in Greensboro, North Carolina, and in 1993 commissioned and conducted her triple concerto, also with the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra. One reason for this spate of performances was that the U.S. Bicentennial generated increased interest in programming U.S. composers. In addition, the backdrop to these performances and more was the second wave of feminism that had swept the nation. Second-Wave Feminism Although Richter has never referred to herself as a feminist, she is such an independent -minded person that she has led the life of “liberated woman” without thinking too much about it. During her childhood, her mother had been a strong role model, and her parents encouraged her to pursue not marriage but a career. This support for women having independent careers may be a hallmark of Richter ’s lineage: her mother’s parents supported her choice of career, Richter and her husband enthusiastically sent daughter Maureen to India to further her sitar studies , and Maureen’s daughter Stephanie dreams of opening an orphanage in Africa. The kinds of obstacles Richter faced were not explicit, but rather matters like the social distance that separates women from men, and the role she fulfilled as primary caregiver to her children, even though her husband was supportive of her work. She feels in hindsight that it might have benefited her to sign her name as the genderless “M. Richter,” since there was a definite, if unacknowledged, bias against women composers. “The very term tells the story. There is no category called ‘men composers.’”3 In the early 1970s Richter began watching the soap opera Days of Our Lives. While many housewives watched soap operas while doing household chores, Richter recalls being hooked on it while engaged in the tedious process of writ- 60 ing out the full score of Landscapes of the Mind I and the piano reduction. She still watches Days today. The show is noted for its bold programming that addresses psychological problems and race issues. Its focus on human relationships and emotions appeal to Richter. Teaching, a traditional goal for women...