In my role as a radio producer and programme manager, I tend to approach International Women’s Day programming initiatives with a degree of caution, especially if the idea feels like a tokenistic pat on the head – and on classical music stations, a genre encompassing centuries of male-dominated creativity, it often does.
This is why I feel particularly proud of Mark Kermode‘s International Women’s Day specials on Scala Radio, because they represent what we do throughout the year.
The station launched on 4th March 2019, and Mark’s first film music show on Scala broadcast on International Women’s Day last year. When we first met to discuss ideas, he told me he was keen to use his weekly programme (Saturdays, 1-3pm) as a showcase for lesser-played composers and soundtracks, so it felt a very natural choice to devote 2 hours to films scored by women, considering the world of movie music is still such a male domain.
But this was not going to be a tick-box exercise for one day of the year. Mark plays film scores by women in every single show, as our intention is to make it the norm to broaden the palette of what has been accepted, and expected, from a movie music show.
In any given show you might hear music by Anne-Kathrin Dern next to Angelo Badalamenti or Devonté Hynes next to Dimitri Tiomkin, with a singalong from Grease 2 thrown in for good measure. I have discovered so many brilliant composers and scores from research, recommendations and the show’s faithful listeners, who have introduced me to the likes of, for example, Yoko Kanno, Elizabeth Drake and Annette Focks.
For International Women’s Day 2020, and for Mark’s first anniversary Scala Radio show, we wanted to expand on our original idea, so we handed over the music curation to a selection of women composers, inviting them to pick their favourite film scores by a woman composer.
We played a piece by each composer followed by her choice, so for Rachel Portman – the first woman composer to win a scoring Oscar – we played the main theme from her Academy Award-winning score to Emma, before turning to her musical pick: The Wife by Jocelyn Pook. The composers had taken the time to provide context to their selections, and I love how Portman described Pook’s score as “subtly integrating itself into the film” and staying “sensitive to the story without overwhelming it“.
Later in the programme, both Isobel Waller-Bridge and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch selected another Jocelyn Pook cue – this time ‘Masked Ball’ from Eyes Wide Shut – and Isobel wrote a wonderfully vivid account of first experiencing this piece, concluding with: “It was so strange and satisfying. The whole score transitions from being dreamlike to chaotic, and heightens the characters feelings of paranoia perfectly. It is grandiose, hellish, primal and stunning. It was a total game changer for me“.
Anne Dudley, who recently presented a series on Scala Radio, opted for Elisabeth Lutyens, Miriam Cutler chose Mica Levi and Debbie Wiseman went for Shirley Walker, praising her for being a “total trailblazer” as a woman composer writing action music, with a “wonderful understanding of the orchestra and the power that was possible within each section“.
Aisling Brouwer picked Anne Nikitin‘s amazing score for American Animals, and in her response she touched on 2020 in the world of film scoring: “Honestly if I had been asked this question five or ten years ago I would have struggled, not because there weren’t any women but because they weren’t getting the same amount of work or attention as men – and they’re often missing from university curriculums which is incredibly discouraging. These days however I feel so lucky to be surrounded by so many inspiring women in the industry that I find it hard to choose one!”
So, there is a justified sense of optimism right now, and hopefully it will become commonplace for more women to sweep the board for scoring awards, as Hildur Guðnadóttir did earlier this year, but I am glad that Mark and I both continue to see it as a necessary responsibility to dedicate shows to films scored by women yet more importantly to ensure women composers are represented in every single show we make for Scala Radio.
Listen back to the show before Saturday March 14th here: https://planetradio.co.uk/scala-radio/player/101388018/
