THE COURIER.
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Ahbje L. Millkr, Editob.
Siroak met with Mra. D. A. Camp- talk of Vlyzaea binding himself to the
bell on Tuesday afternoon. It was a mast of his ship and stopping the ears
fitting close to a stimulating year is this of bis companions with wax ere they
club of thoughtful, friendly, aspiring ventured near the rocks on which the
women. With the aasktaace of her sirens sang their alluring songs. Of this
musical friends Mrs. Campbell's paper tale the Teutonic "Lorelk' and the
was illustrated by the compesitiona of "Rhine Daugters"' are a legitimate pro
women for the piano, violin and Toice. geny.
The illustrations were furnished by Mrs. Sappho is the reputed inventor of the
Hadden-Alexander, 'Miss Bebe Wood, barbiton, a stringed instrument, car.
Miss Hollowbusb and Mrs. Campbell tainly unknown up to her time,
herself in the following program: A tale is quaintly told of Queen Eliz-
1. Two ballet scenes: v abets, who was ambitious ot excelling
(a) PasdesAmphores.. QBamBKe Mary Queen of Scotts in playing the
(b) Scarf Dance: J virginal, an instrument of which the
.Phantoms Mm H. H. A. Beach diehard, harpsichord and
Toufcea frsgilesflears, tot mortes pUno-e ,n evolution. Lord Melville,
quen'eea- Victor if ago a jj,tener behind the tapeBtries of her
Mrs. Hadden-Alexander. chamber, heard the queen playing, as he
2 Violin solo...... Agnes Tschetschuhn atteats, "excellently well," and upon de-
Miss Wood. taction, declares, "she 6emed to strike
7htliG,e d UVef BiDg' chminade me with her hand, alleging she was not
is the aren... ' accustomed to play before men, but
' , , rn xr when solitary, to shun melancholy, (like
4. Pastorale Mrs. Clara Korn ,. v. . , , , . .
7 ' . , many of her Bistera today), and inquired
Akde Ballet, No. 1 Chaminade .. "' u , A
v "". if my queen (Queen Mary) or she played
.. -m"" i-i j.n j i . the best; in which I found myself
5. Without Thea .Guy dHardelot .,.,..... ..-,,. '
T .7T . ., o . . obliged to give her the praise." "Eliza-
Lalkby Henrietta Hollowbush .,?,. . 1D .,. . .... , .
... beths Virginal Book is still extant.
Mrs. Campbell.'
Miss HoUowbaahV lullaby dedicated Process Maria Antonio of Saxony
to Mm. -Campbell waa charming and created no small stir as a vocalist and
created a sensation. composer. Frederick the Great in 1763,
Mrs. Campben'a very interesting paper on receiving the score of her two princi-
on Women in Musk follows: P Per which 8he waB B0 libret-
Browaing has said: ti6t 'd: I am obliged toconfese.
"AI -we km wsU. or hoped, or dreamed ni3006. that 7oa have honored music,
. '-" --Lii n that 3'0U are an examP'0 to other
riot iw irmWanrr. fr- -?tfr ft fcratrty, " composers, who, to achieve a likesuc-
., cess, must become poets as well." So,
. ?? i"ZH- fn.it knt each ssr- 'rom my tbical times to the Christian
. . tfceaaefeikt. StCecilia,music had its feminine expres-
WastfraryafsVBmtBeoaceptioaofan KOn' And what ia more like1 than
, ' that many of thse were elaborations of
some strains by which the savage
The high that.provai too high, the. heroic mother sought to encourage in her child
for carta too hard; emulation of her warrior husband; or an
The pamfca that left the ground to kae echo of that wild lament crooned by the
staff ia the sky, cradle of the Northern infant, whose
Afesasicaeatpto God by the fever and yiking father dared through fjord and
the hard; fjord to sail into the unknown! What
Faoagh .skat He heard it oace, we shall should last longer than this heart cryT
hear it hy aad by." What exert more influence than these,
Can we not fit each line to our theme by f-neir lovo power?
of Woman in Music, a theme progressive Thus, the language of Sappho, in lyric
ia possibilities. For who that inclines measure, spoke to the Greeks, Miriam,
to belittle woman's influence can but io sinuous rythm, marked by timbrel
coBfeas that, after sleep through winters and castinet to the Israelites; the
of freexiLg contempt, distrust and criti- Sirens, by all the allurements of beauty
ctam. She has awakened and marching and magic, to Ulysses; Francesca Cac
forward shoulder to shoulder with her cini, Barbara Strozzi, Maria Theresa to
brother. tD0 Italians; Maria Paradies, Julia
lathe primitive musical scale of seven Roichardt, Marian Martinez, Fannj
notel,' the Chinese allowed woman a Hecsel and Clara Schumann to the
placets a ccordance with their notion Germans; Miss Abrams, Elizabeth
oltherelativevalneofthe8exe6,thehalf Mounaey, Virginia Gabriel to the En
tases being representative of things im- glkh, of the past; Mile. Chaminade, Au
Bcrfectach as earth,meou and woman; gusta Holmes. Maude Valeria White,
ia contradistinction to heaven, sun and Liza Lehman, Helen Wood, Margaret
man, which in whole tones represented Lang, Guy D'Hardelot, Mrs. H. H. A.
tai perfect aBd independent. Among Beach and Elanor Smith are speaking
the Egyptian the Lyre was intrusted to now, but,, freed from hampering re
womee; and the fame ot the Sapphonian straint, with richer vocabulary, greater
Israelite Miriam was, through h:r "Song strength, vitality, and magnetic iodi
ot Victory" over the drowning of Pha- viduality.
roth's bost in the Bed Sea, deemed Various writers, past and present
worthy ot transmission through history, have striven to 6olve the problem,
David and Solomon instituted bands giving the emotional, sensitive, delicate
of wo-oen vocalists (probably composed and religious nature of woman, and mu
of members of their harems and house- sic the highest expression of all theee,
holds) for execution of secular music, why has she never produced a composi
while participation by women in relig- tion that, in common with masculine
km' processionals and public perform- utterances, has outlived its little day?
"ggeeg of PmIsu ia a matter ot record, The illustrious names of those whose
though the music ot the temple was time in the sister arts of literature,
gtvsfi over to men. painting and sculpture have caused our
Apretty Homeric fable, giving deeper hearts to beat in sympathy with their
aMMiac to the myth, ot the sea sirens, triumphs, seem to prove that the crea
tive power has not been denied her.
Information is meagre concerning the
works of those whose fame as composers
reached a certain degree ot excellence in
their day; the names of those mentioned
heretofore being the best known. It is
said Fanny Mendelssohn wrote graceful
music but was ashamed to publish it
under her own name and it was absorbed
by her brother. While we of the present
decade are proud of Mile. Chaminade,
Augusta Holmes, Mrs. Beach and many
others, how can we know that the divine
spark may survive the tornado ot criti
cism, the drenching flood of prejudice
and conservatism?
In an article written for a musical
convention, Fanny Bloomfield Zeialer
says: "Women lack the power of ex
tending their observations over a large
range of facts before 'forming general
conclusions; they lack concentration.
They lack the power of self -observation
of their own thoughts; also the power
of self-criticiBm, and objective judgment
of the productions of their own minds."
Music is the most abstract of arts, and
on the other hand the moat bound by
mathematical rules. For all other arts
we have a basis or background of reality,
but music, as Schoponh'auer phrases it,
differs from other arts in being a' pre
sentative, not a representative art'
Then women chafe under technical
rules. Balsac sayB "most women pro
ceed like the flea, by leaps and jumps;"
and Bishop Whately's contempt of
woman's logic is evinced by his' asser
tion, "Women "nerer reason, or, if they
do, they either draw correct inferences
from wrong premises, or wrong infer
ences from correct premises; and they
alwas poke the fire from the' top."'
Quoting opinions, however, imposes upon
us no necessity of agreement.
Prejudice has, nevertheless, done
much to smother many a sensitive
talent; criticism coming even from those
who, admitting the existence ot a talent,
object to its exercise as unwomanly.
Rubenstein once said to Frau Mosz
kowski: "Your sister (Mile. Chaminade)
has great talent, but she shouldn't com
pose music. It isn't right!" More kind
ly, yet not lese humiliating, was Schu
mann's remark to a celebrated pianist
of his time, who had dared publkh a
sonata: "Fear not, gentle artkt soul,
for thes shall the critic's rod become a
lily stem."
Fortunately this, with many other
prejudices, k fast modifying. Women
should, hoar ever, buckle on her defen
sive armor against another as fatal a
foe the praise that comes solely be
cause she k a woman; praise as humil
iating to her pride as it is demoralizing
to her work."
Four women composers have appeared
in the 17th century, tweaty-seven in the
17tb, and seventeen in the 19th. I
speak ot the great composers.
The first production of 3Ille. Holmes'
opera, "La Montagne !Noir," was under
the most auspicious circumstances, and
though the new president, Faure, and
hk wife had chosen this occasion for
their debut before the Parkkn public,
the French critics found her work
"lacking in relief and personal charac
ter," that "her ambition had o'erleaped,
itself," that "the task she undertook
was beyond her powers," that all of its
best numbers were "plagiarized from
Donizetti, Massenet, Gounod and Wag
ner," that, in short, there was nothing
good that was not plagiarized, and noth
ing original that was not bad! Thus
one o'c the most ambitious conceptions of
a woman of today was rudely, perhaps
unjustly, slaughtered at its birth, and
we are left with the less pretentious,
though exqukite songs, piano and violin
sonatas, some orchestral work, etc., aa
the highest successful feminine attain
ment. George P. Upton, in Woman in Music,
says: "Conceding that music k the
highest expression of the emotions and
that woman k emotional by. nature, is it .
not one solutioc of the problem that "
woman does not, musically reproduce'
them because she herself is emotional by
temperament and' nature and cannpt
project herself outwardly, any more' than
she can give outward expression to ,
other mysterious and 'deeply hidden
traits of her nature. Man controls hk
emotions and can give an outward ex
pression to tbem; in woman they are the
dominating element', and so long as they
are dominant she absorbs music." Let'
us hope through the composite of the
old and new woman may be evolved the
modern woman, with more strength, Jess
sentimentality, more practicality, though
not less ideality; losing that amount ot
emotional preponderance that makes her
recipient rather than productive. ,
Woman often resigns her artaftei
marriage, pleading more engrossing du
ties; but, truth to tell, it has never been,
a serious study with her until now. ,
Itk ocly during fie past thirty years
that the study of music his "been pur
sued by women earnestly, and her envir
onment has made an coireeponding.edu-J
cation difficult if net impossible. Since
music as an art was born, all great com
posers have gone through the drudgery
ot counterpoint, harmony and all the:
technic of composition. The future
musician was taught to' play several in
struments. He was environed by music
as soon as hk predilection became as
sured. As choir-boy or in an orchestra,
he learned to observe the effects of or-'
ganand chorus, and the capability "of
the instruments.
Mubic was largely a material, mathe
matical science, which woman's' educa
tion did not' fit her for. Her nature's
roots were rather in the emotional and '
ideal than in the philosophic' or scien
tific. It required nine centuries after the
Monks intoned and appropriated music
for those learned gentlemen to discover"'
that two notes could be sounded simul
taneously. Not a rapid development,
Burely! Before another such interval ot
time, woman; with her present tendency
to thoroughness; will have removed the
reproach against her creative ability.
From the 18th century to the present .
time, beginning with Malibran and Tiet
jensi, there have been these feminine in
terpreters: Mrs. Billington (Englkb;
17S01819), who possessed a flute-like
voice of remarkable power and compass,
was said to have wop Hadyn's enthusi
astic admiration While watching the.
great Sir Joshua Reynolds painting her
portrait Hadyn said: "Great mistake!,
you have painted her listening to the
angels; it should be vice versa!''
Of' "Griei," Prima Donna AbsoIuU
nearly thitty years at the Park opera,
some one has said: "No vocalization
was too trivial for her careful study; no
part beneath her creative instinct Her
profession to her was a holy duty."
Grki married the great tenor Mario,'
and it is said when the emperor jestingly
called her children "Grisettes,'he re-,
plied: "Ah! No, eire; pardon me, they
are Marionettes."
Sontag (1805-1852, German) sang at
the first appearance of Beethoven's 9th
Symphony. Sontag and Malibran were
warm friends,' despite public efforts to
create rivalry between them.
The history of "Lablache" is embodied
in the senterce, "a great heart' in a
great body, a great soul in a great
voice."
Jenny Lind (1820 1889) adorned the
stage and left a legacy ot purity of con
duct and high aims realized. Her mem
ory remains unsullied by an unworthy
deed, untainted by the breath of envy.
Catherine Hayes (Englkh, 1825-1861)
was worshipped in Ireland for her won
derful gift, and also for her beautiful
character as a woman. She was essen
tially a ballad singer.
Such are a few ot the names of the
last generation who have reached the
