Since the centennial of women's suffrage in the UK in 2018, interest in Ethel Smyth's music has increased exponentially. Not only has this interest resulted in increasing numbers of performances (The Wreckers alone was staged twice on both sides of the Atlantic in 2022), but several new recordings and scholarly editions have been released. John L. Snyder's scholarly edition of Smyth's Serenade in D major, published by A-R Editions in 2021, is a welcome contribution to this recent surge in Smyth scholarship. Following Odaline de la Martinez's 2015 performance edition, Snyder's critical edition is detailed and meticulous, demonstrating the level of scholarship Smyth's work deserves.

This exhaustive critical edition comprises two items: a newly engraved edition with significant introductory material and a facsimile edition of the photocopy of the autograph score currently held by the British Library. The introductory material to the engraved edition is rich with information. The Introduction is divided into two sections: a biographical sketch of Smyth and an overview of the piece itself. The biographical sketch is a concise yet comprehensive overview that captures the salient points without oversimplifying Smyth's life. The accompanying overview of the Serenade in D major comprises three subsections: ‘Origin, Premiere, and Reception’, ‘Form and Style’, and ‘Reworkings of the String Trio Movements’. The ‘Form and Style’ subsection provides a brief overview of the textures, harmonies, phrase structures and approaches to rhythm and metre found in the Serenade. Snyder notes that metre changes within movements are ‘a bit unusual’, providing several examples of metre changes that ‘raise questions of tempo relationships, which Smyth did not indicate’, and that may or may not be metric modulations (xi). His subsequent investigation of the issue included a comparison with the de la Martinez edition, with which he agreed in all but one instance (xii).

Following the Introduction are two appendices, three plates, and the engraved score. Appendix 1 is a reproduction of Smyth's programme note for the 26 April 1890 premiere concert at Crystal Palace with August Manns conducting. The programme note, as Smyth prepared it, including musical examples and analysis by the composer, is preceded by an overview of the text and followed by a brief commentary. Appendix 2 presents contemporary reviews of the performance. Like Appendix 1, it begins with an overview of the information, followed by 16 reviews Smyth herself compiled in a scrapbook and nine additional contemporary reviews Snyder found that Smyth did not include. Three plates follow the appendices. Two are images from the programme note, as it was published at the premiere, and one image is from the programme itself, listing other pieces performed at that concert. The back matter includes the Critical Report, which is also divided into two sections. The first section explains and clarifies the sources used for the edition. In addition to a photocopy of the autograph manuscript (Source A), Snyder investigated the fair copy of the full score in a copyist's hand and signed by Smyth (Source FC) and the autograph score of a String Trio in D major that Smyth wrote around 1884 (Source ST) (179). The second section explains Snyder's editorial methods.

The facsimile also includes an Introduction, divided into three parts: a discussion of the particulars of the manuscript; a section titled Dramatis personae: Composer and Conductor, which includes a brief overview of Smyth's annotations to the manuscript, a biographical sketch of the conductor of the premiere, August Manns, who also marked the score, and a discussion of an unidentified third hand; and a brief commentary on marks and annotations found in the score. The facsimile itself follows the Introduction. There is no critical commentary.

Two sections will be of particular interest to Smyth scholars as they present new primary sources and information. The first is the reproduction in full of Smyth's programme note for the Serenade in D major. Smyth notoriously ignored her instrumental music in her published writings, and this text provides the best evidence of the composer's intentions regarding the piece and its performance. According to Snyder, it ‘allows access to her thoughts on the structure and character of her music, but it also provides some clues concerning late revisions made between press time and performance’ (xv). At the outset, Smyth presents her argument for calling the work a serenade and not a symphony. She wrote, ‘The claim of the work to the title ‘Serenade’, lies chiefly in the fact that the prevailing character of its four movements may be described as respectively lyrical and humorous; and the intention is further carried out in the composition of the orchestra (without Trombones) and the dimensions of each movement’ (xv). She then followed this with a description of the events in each movement, labelling forms, themes, motives, treatments of said themes and motives, and guiding the audience through the crucial moments as the music unfolds. A curiosity of the programme note is Smyth's introduction of herself, whereby she provides a brief vita (omitting all reference to her gender) and claims that ‘a new String Quartet is announced for performance at the opening Chamber Music Concert of the coming season at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig’ (xv). No such performance or string quartet written circa 1890 is known to this reviewer, leaving one to wonder to which concert or piece Smyth is referring and if a planned concert was cancelled. The only string quartet written close to 1890 is a String Quartet in C major whose full score and copyist's parts are housed in the British Library. An address on the score places it during the winter of 1886–1887. No evidence has yet been found that a performance of this quartet ever happened, and it was never published.

The second point of interest is Snyder's detailed comparison of the source materials for movements three and four of the Serenade in D major. He notes that these two movements originally appeared as the second and fourth movements of Smyth's String Trio in D major, Op. 6 (x, xiii–xiv). Snyder presents a thorough comparative analysis, noting where the Serenade copies the Trio and where Smyth expanded or ‘reworked’ passages beyond simply arranging for winds or adding percussion. He begins his examination with the finale movement, arguing that ‘The Serenade's finale is not only an expansion of the trio's [finale], but the proportions have been changed as well’ (xiii). This is followed by a description noting how many bars were added or taken away and mentioned passages that became ‘more cohesive’. The ‘reworking’ of the second movement of the String Trio as the third movement of the Serenade involves, in Snyder's estimation, a revising of harmonic relationships. To better understand Smyth's key relationships in the String Trio movement, he employs Neo-Riemannian theory, replete with a concise definition of Neo-Riemannian terms and concepts. This albeit brief foray into Neo-Riemannian theory marks an attempt to understand Smyth's somewhat unusual approach to chromatic harmony while also explaining how she altered the movement for the Serenade. Snyder observed that Smyth simplified the key relationships in the Serenade version, and he postulated two theories for this change: 1) he found it made the passages ‘friendlier to the orchestra’; and 2) Josef Joachim had called the Trio and Smyth's Violin Sonata ‘over-wrought’ and Snyder suspects she may have had that criticism in mind when she revised the String Trio movement for the Serenade (xiii–xiv).

Although the A-R edition was published in 2021, it is presumed that Snyder was unaware at press time that Smyth also revised an earlier Scherzo for the second movement of the Serenade. The String Quartet in C minor, dated c. 1880 was recorded in 2020 and published by Furore Verlag in 2016. In his liner notes for the CD, Klas Gagge reveals that the Scherzo movement of the Quartet became the second movement of the Serenade in D major (Klas Gagge, liner notes to Rendezvous: Leipzig, dB Productions dBCD197 (2020): 7). I compared the scores and verified this information to be true in May 2022. As Gagge states, the autograph manuscript to the String Quartet in C minor is located in the Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections, item number GB-0033-SMY 3a. The Scherzo movement is also part of a separate String Quartet in E-flat major located in the British Library, Add. MS 46858, 67–76 ff. All three movements (from the String Quartet in C minor, the String Quartet in E-flat major, and the Serenade in D major) are 260 bars; only the Serenade movement is in G major; and the String Quartet in C major contains a different accompaniment rhythm in the trio section than the String Quartet in E-flat major or the Serenade in D major. Other differences include slight changes in articulation (staccato versus no staccato, etc.). Unlike the movements from the String Trio, however, Smyth did not ‘rework’ the Scherzo movement by adding passages or drastically changing the harmonic nature of the movement; in fact, the Quartet Scherzo and the Serenade Scherzo have the same total number of bars. However, she shifted the movement from G minor to G major, and she simplified an accompaniment rhythm in the trio section. With this additional information, it seems that the first movement of the Serenade was the only part that did not exist in earlier work.

Snyder expertly engraves the score itself. All editorial markings, including dashes, brackets, and the like, are clearly explained in the critical report. The layout is clear and readable, and it serves as an excellent study score. Performance materials are in preparation as of the writing of this review, and the price was not available. It will also be an acceptable performance score if the score is available in a spiral-bound format. The only critique of this invaluable resource is the cost of the bound engraved edition; at just over four hundred dollars (US), it is a resource more likely to be purchased by a library than an individual scholar, conductor, or student. The facsimile is available for an additional cost. The engraved edition is also available via Recent Researches in Music Online, but only through a library or institutional subscription. While this edition is invaluable for future Smyth research, the cost of the performance materials may hinder the performance of the work.