Born: 6 September 1927, United States
Died: 21 June 2015
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Lyle de Bohun
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Composer, instructor, activist, and businesswoman Clara Lyle Boone (1927-2015) founded Arsis Press to elevate the music of women composers who encountered numerous obstacles attempting to get their music published in the male-dominated industry. Boone majored in piano performance and music theory at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and studied composition with Walter Piston at Harvard, where she earned a master’s degree, and with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School. She made a living mostly as a teacher but also worked intermittently as a lobbyist and representative for music publisher G. Schirmer. She also worked on John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign and ran for Congress on a civil rights platform.
Through her experience in the publishing industry and her own compositional efforts, Boone knew that major publishers were not interested in publishing music by women composers and vowed to start a publishing company to promote these composers and their works. She understood that creating a catalog of music by women would make it easier for interested parties to locate their music. Boone moved from Kentucky to Michigan and then to New York before arriving in Washington D.C. in 1957, saving her teaching salary to start Arsis Press in 1974. The name “Arsis” came from the Italian word for “upbeat.” The first scores she published were her own under the pen name “Lyle de Bohun” to conceal her gender. Music by Ruth Lomon and Elizabeth Vercoe followed, and through word-of-mouth the Arsis catalog began to grow. In 2015, Arsis published music by 45 composers.
Boone retired from teaching in 1977 and devoted her time to composing her own music and running Arsis Press, which remained a one-person operation. Boone promoted the music of the composers she published, fostered connections between composers and performers, and attended performances of their music whenever possible. She was a political activist in her community and ran Arsis Press from her home in southeast D.C. until her death in 2015.