Musicians
Ancient Lesbian Music & Musicians
Sappho c 610-570 BCE. Greek.
Did you know that Sappho, the lesbian poet, composed music as well as wrote poetry? Today, we would call her a singer-songwriter of love-songs, and she performed her lyric poetry publicly, accompanied by a lyre. Only one complete poem and a small number of fragments of her other poems remain, but none of her music has survived, You can read more here. This has not stopped people from guessing how her lyric poems may have sounded, and examples are here and a modern electronic interpretation is here.
Modern Lesbian Music & Musicians
Dame Ethyl Smith (1858-1944). English.
Smith was a leading female composer in the early 20th century. More information on her can be found here. A popular composition of hers among suffragists was ‘March of the Women’ (1911), the anthem of the Women’s Social and Political Union, and is still performed today. See and hear an example by the Virago Symphonic Orchestra here. Smith has a place at Judy Chicago’s famous ‘Dinner Party’, on display at the Brooklyn Museum, and here is a link.
Contemporary Australian Lesbian Music & Musicians
SOME OLD AUSSIE LESBIAN FAVOURITES
Alex Dobkin- ‘Love and Politics’
Dusty Springfield- ‘I only want to be with you’
Fran Kelly in a band called Toxic Shock
Indigo Girls – ‘Closer to Fine’
Janis Ian – ‘I’m Still Standing’
Joan Armatrading – ‘Into the Blues’
Judy Small – ‘You don’t speak for me’
Judy Small – ‘Let the Rainbow Shine’
Margret Roadknight – ‘The girls in our town’
Marie Wilson – ‘You can’t keep a good girl down’
The Ovarian Sisters – ‘Beat Your Breast’
Robyn Archer –‘That old soft screw’
Stray Dags (Jan Cornall & Elizabeth Drake) – ‘Better than Het’