Female composer desires to replace end of stringed instrument (7)
I believe the answer is:
lutyens
'female composer' is the definition.
(Elisabeth Lutyens, 1906-1983)
'desires to replace end of stringed instrument' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'desires' could be 'yens' (yen is a kind of desire) and 'yens' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
(Other definitions for lutyens that I've seen before include "English architect, designer of the Cenotaph" , "Sir Edwin Landseer -, English architect" , "The Cenotaph's designer" , "Sir Edwin -, nineteenth to twentieth century English architect" .)