Another suffragist composer - the incomparable Liza Lehmann

I was thrilled to be asked to present a BBC Radio 3 Sunday Feature about Actresses' Franchise League member and composer Liza Lehmann in June 2025. Here's a link to the programme, and some of my research that didn't make it into the edit.

​Liza Lehmann frequently appears on lists of “forgotten” female composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, a dubious endorsement of a woman who wrote classical music, musical comedy, had over 300 songs published, and toured and performed internationally.

I first encountered her whilst looking through the names of members of the Actresses’ Franchise League. Liza was an active member alongside many other women musicians and composers, performing at events and fairs, and maintaining connections with the suffrage movement up until her death in 1918. Networking with and advocating for women in music and the arts was an important part of her professional and personal life. She became the first president of the Society of Women Musicians on its foundation in 1911, an organisation that would go on to support and champion women in music for 60 years.
 
In her inaugural address to the Society of Women Musicians she quoted a line from author Robert Hichens “Art is a door through which we pass to our dreams” adding her own sentiment “I think that is beautifully expressed but in my own case I have unfortunately the habit of dreaming on both sides of the door.”[1]
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Liza spoke about the scarcity of professional female musical role models in this area when interviewed in April 1910: “The idea of my becoming a composer was never even considered. Why? Simply because during my childhood the thought of a woman becoming a composer was not a popular one in England. It never seemed to occur to those who had the guidance of my early education that a woman could ever be taken seriously as a composer.”  [‘Liza Lehmann – To The Young Musician Who Would Compose’, The Etude, April 1910]

She was fortunate in coming from an artistic family, having a mother who was already a composer, and finding mentors and supportive networks for both her performance and composition work. Like her mother, she also taught singing and published a book in 1913 called Practical Hints for Students of Singing which has vocal exercises and advice.

She pops up frequently in my research into suffrage entertainments, especially for militant societies - for example, she was a pianist and had songs performed at the WSPU Christmas Fair and Fete in 1911, and was on the entertainment committee of the Endell Street Military Hospital during WW1.

As well as being networked with political creatives it seems that she was very aware of the importance of the business side of music too – she published her work, collaborated with established and emerging writers, and wrote her own autobiography in her 50s. She’s quite humble in her book, and seems to wear her celebrity lightly – but although it's a slim volume it packs a punch, with extensive press reports of her work and accounts of her touring in America.  

The variety of her output is impressive, and shows a keen eye for the popular and quirky. Lehmann set two stories by Oscar Wilde to incidental music – The Happy Prince and the Selfish Giant – wrote four beautiful Nonsense Songs from Alice in Wonderland and set the Cautionary Tales of Hillaire Belloc to music too. She set poems and writing by a wide range of creatives including Robert Browning, and Radclyffe Hall.  She also wrote the score for the hugely successful musical comedy Sergeant Brue which opened in London in 1904 and then on Broadway a year later, and wrote a comic light opera The Vicar of Wakefield with fellow suffragist Laurence Housman in 1906.

Her autobiography and much of her vocal music can be found online in the public domain, although as you'll hear if you listen to the BBC programme, her orchestral music is more elusive. Recordings of her music are relatively few, considering how prolific and popular she was, but if you are wanting to get a sense of the beauty and breadth of her vocal music I would recommend the CD put together by her grandson Steuart Bedford who was a conductor and pianist. It was published in 2004 by Naxos - info here.

[1] Lehmann, Liza. The Life of Liza Lehmann, p. 173-4

Page from Lehmann's autobiography, published posthumously in 1919.

​Her autobiography, published in 1919 the year after she died, closes with a highly personal and emotional chapter about the death of her son Rudolf during training in WW1. Their shared grave is in Highgate Cemetery East, and marked on the map as "Lehmann" - although it is her son's name that appears on the gravestone. If you're visiting the cemetery, Muriel Perrin's beautiful angel is the landmark to look out for.

Angel by Muriel Perrin marking both Liza Lehmann and her son's grave in Highgate Cemetery

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Liza Lehmann at the Proms

When I researched the programme about fellow Edwardian suffragist composer Teresa del Riego I made an extensive list of her works performed at the Proms.
You can find that blog post here.

Liza and her mother 'A.L' had songs performed at the Proms in the same year - in 1898, 1900, 1901, 1912 - and in the same Prom in 1928.

Liza Lehmann and Amelia Lehmann* at the BBC Proms 1895-2007

Liza - 41 songs performed
Amelia – 4 songs performed -
​her songs indicated with a *

1895
Prom 11 – Irish Love-Song (Proms premiere)
Prom 14 – Come, dance the Romaika (Proms premiere)
Prom 24 - The Castilian Maid (Proms premiere)

1897
Prom 23 – When love is kind (Proms premiere)*

1898
Prom 29 – The Castilian Maid
Prom 33 - When love is kind*
Prom 40 – You and I (Proms premiere)

1899
Prom 41 – To my beloved (Proms premiere)

1900
Prom 22 - In a Persian garden No 20
Prom 57 – Ellen Bawn (Proms premiere)*

1901
Prom 41 - In September*
Prom 51 - In a Persian garden No 17
Prom 54 - I have a garden of my own (Proms premiere)

1902 
Prom 10 – I have a garden of my own
Prom 12 – Titania’s Cradle
Prom 26 – There’s no spring but you (Proms premiere)*
Prom 29 - In a Persian garden No 20
Prom 33 – Cupid and the Rose

1903 
Prom 10 – The Daisy Chain No. 8 (Proms premiere)

1904
Prom 03 – Molly’s Spinning Song
Prom 58 – The Daisy Chain No. 5

1905
Prom 11 – More Daisies No. 7
Prom 41 – More Daisies No. 7

1906
Prom 38 - The life of a rose No. 4 Lovers in the lane (Proms premiere), If I built a world for you

1907 
Prom 02 - In a Persian garden No 20
Prom 24 - In a Persian garden No 20
Prom 25 – The Vicar of Wakefield Prince Charming
Prom 60 - In a Persian garden No 10

1908
Prom 04 – The Vicar of Wakefield ‘Good people all… in Islington there was a man’
Prom 05 - The Golden Threshold (arr. composer for voice and piano) Recitative & aria 'Come to me...You flaunt your beauty' (Proms premiere)
Prom 10 – The life of a rose No. 7
Prom 25 – Love in a mist (Proms premiere)
Prom 48 - In a Persian garden No 20 and No 5

1909 
Prom 07 – Thoughts have wings
Prom 18 – The Vicar of Wakefield Prince Charming
Prom 34 - In a Persian garden No 10
Prom 47 – Bird Songs No 1 and No 3

1910
Prom 30 – The Vicar of Wakefield Recitative and aria ‘Good people all… In Islington there was a man’

1911
Prom 03 – Everybody’s secret
Prom 14 – Bird Songs No 1 and No 3
Prom 48 – 5 Little love songs No 4 and No 1

1912
Prom 11 - When love is kind*
Prom 13 – 5 Little love songs No 4 and No 1
Prom 17 – 3 Cowboy ballads (Proms premiere)
Prom 51 – 3 Cowboy ballads

1913 
Prom 17 – Prince Charming
Prom 34 – Bird Songs No 1 and No 3
Prom 46 - Good morning, Brother Sunshine

1914
Prom 05 - Good morning, Brother Sunshine

1915 
Prom 35 – ‘Tis the hour of farewell
Prom 43 - ‘Tis the hour of farewell
Prom 62 - ‘Tis the hour of farewell

1917 
Prom 05 – Fly away, pretty moth
Prom 24 – Evensong (Proms premiere), There are fairies at the bottom of our garden (Proms premiere)

1918 
Prom 01 First Night of the Proms – Evensong, Little brown brother (World premiere)
Prom 41 - Good morning, Brother Sunshine (Proms premiere)

1919 
Prom 4 – Evensong
Prom 7 - In a Persian garden No 20
Prom 21 - There are fairies at the bottom of our garden
Prom 41 – Didn’t you know?
Prom 44 - Good morning, Brother Sunshine

1920
Prom 10 - There are fairies at the bottom of our garden 
Prom 15 - Good morning, Brother Sunshine
Prom 35 – Daddy’s sweetheart

1921
Prom 11 - There are fairies at the bottom of our garden
Prom 22 - Good morning, Brother Sunshine
Prom 40 - In a Persian garden No 20
Prom 53 – In the watches of the night (World premiere)
Prom 60 – Were I a butterfly (World premiere)

1922 
Prom 13 - In a Persian garden No 20
Prom 21 - There are fairies at the bottom of our garden

1923
Prom 30 - There are fairies at the bottom of our garden
Prom 35 – Evensong
Prom 43 - There are fairies at the bottom of our garden

1924
Prom 01 - First Night of the Proms – Evensong 
Prom 18 - Good morning, Brother Sunshine
Prom 27 - There are fairies at the bottom of our garden

1925
Prom 21 - Good morning, Brother Sunshine

1926
Prom 05 – There are fairies at the bottom of our garden
Prom 13 – Evensong
Prom 17 – Good morning, Brother Sunshine

1927
Prom 23 - In a Persian garden No 20

1928
Prom 17 - In a Persian garden No 20
Prom 17 - When love is kind*

1930
Northern Proms 02 – In a Persian garden No 10

2007
Proms Chamber Music 01 – Love, if you knew the light (Proms premiere)

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During the research process for the programme I found Lehmann's setting of Behind the Nightlight - and am now reviving it. For more information see this page

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