This Women’s History Month, as we celebrate the women who are leaders, women in sports, women in the arts, women in science and more, let’s make a conscious effort to extend this honoring to the further marginalized women: Native American women, women of color, and LGBTQ+ women. Transgender girls and women in particular have faced epidemic levels of violence such as medical discrimination and societal isolation for ages, and it continues to this day. We must commemorate trans women from our past who have broken through barriers in their life but are still constantly left out in “women’s rights” discussions. One such example is groundbreaking composer and orchestra conductor Angela Morley.
Born in Leeds in 1924, Angela Morley was an English musician, orchestrator, and composer whose eminent career extended across numerous film, television, and theater performances—specializing in music for the screen. Some of her very successful works are Watership Down, Dallas, and Star Wars. She got nominated six times for an Emmy award for outstanding music composition for a series. She went on to win three Emmy awards, and her achievements and popularity continued to ascend throughout her lifetime. She was the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Oscar.
Early Life ~
Growing up, she cycled through the piano, accordion, and the violin before finally settling on the alto saxophone and clarinet. As bands lost their members to the World War II drafting, the demand for talented saxophonists and sight readers like Morley was high. She dropped out of school at the age of 15 to join these British bands. After three years of honing skills in live performances, she joined the Geraldo Orchestra, one of UK’s best bands at the time. She continued her career as a touring musician until the age of 26, after which she switched her focus to composing and arranging. In the 50’s and 60’s, she started scoring films under her own name instead of as a ghost writer. She signed on as the music director for the new record label ‘Philips Records’ and collaborated with stars such as Shirley Bassey and Frankie Vaughn. She worked on two BBC shows—Hancock’s Half Hour and The Goon Show—and became well-known to the BBC listeners. Around the late 60’s and early 70’s, her music career grew as she scored ‘The Looking Glass War’, ‘When Eight Bells Toll’, and ‘Captain Nemo and the Underwater City’. And then in 1972, she made headlines.
Morley transitioned in 1970. After her gender-affirming surgery with the support of her second wife Christine Stott, she came out publicly in 1972. The public knew Angela Morley as a man named Wally Stott until this time, and her transition came as a shock to everybody. However, she faced up to any criticism that was thrown her way and continued up her ladder of success. Morley talked about how her wife Stott was a huge support system that helped her confront her gender dysphoria. She said, “It was only because of her love and support that I then was able to deal with the trauma and begin to think about crossing over that terrifying gender border”. Shortly after assuming her true name and gender, she was nominated for the Oscars twice for her work in film, making her the first openly transgender person to be nominated for any Academy Award. She contributed to the 1974 adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince and the 1976 live-action take on Cinderella, The Slipper and the Rose.
“It was only because of her love and support that I then was able to deal with the trauma and begin to think about crossing over that terrifying gender border.”
Angela Morley
By 1980, she earned a position at Warner Bros Studios and permanently relocated to Los Angeles, US. She worked with John Williams, Itzhak Perlman, and more. She was part of one of the most iconic scenes in the history of cinema. When she was interviewed for The Arizona Republic, she revealed, “You know the scene in Star Wars where Luke descends to the Death Star trench and the voice says, ‘Use the Force, Luke?’
That’s my orchestration.”
Angela Morley, who died in 2009 at the age of 84, steadily produced admirable work and has an unprecedented story of success during an era of extreme social stratification. She lived through many changes in life, both in her music career and her personal life. Her story must not be lost in history but rather be an example of acceptance and visibility for musicians of all diverse gender and sexual identities.