“…indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman,” wrote Virginia Woolf, in her seminal text A Room of One’s Own. And it is not only poems that have the ghosts of women’s fingerprints across them, without any whisper of acknowledgment – it is science and mathematics, works of fiction and music. These fingerprints can be felt on works of great genius, long credited with male names, and pieces written and distributed with no name at all. And “Anon”, to her overdue credit, has left behind some spectacular treasures.

These unclaimed gems, and the great and enduring work of correcting the male-centric canon, were given time in the spotlight in the second performance of 3MBS Radio’s second annual Music, She Wrote festival, curated by violist Katie Yap: three nights of “Melbourne’s most celebrated, imaginative and engaging classical, baroque and folk musicians.” Each night featured two contrasting sets of 40-minutes or so, tucked safely inside the stunning surrounds of Alpha60 in Flinders Lane’s Chapter House.

Cathedral high ceilings and stained-glass windows were fitting for the spectacular stylings of Italian Baroque triple harpist Hannah Lane and golden-voiced Chloe Lankshear. Through a...