Still longer is the list of women who have worked wholly in the shorter forms. Yet the absence of ambitious work must not be taken to indicate a lack of musical genius, for many of England's best known musical women rest their fame upon a few short pieces. There is a vast difference between good music and great music, and a song of real worth often outlasts an ambitious but overswollen symphony that is laid on the shelf after one hearing.
In the field of violin music, there are many women deserving mention. Margaret Gyde, after taking prizes and scholarships, produced two excellent violin sonatas, besides piano pieces, songs, and some organ music. Contemporary organists, in passing, are well represented by Kate Westrop, who has published four short voluntaries for organ. Laura Wilson Barker, wife of Tom Taylor, has entered the classical arena with a violin sonata, and has done more ambitious work in the music to "As You Like It" and the cantata "Œnone." Caroline Carr Moseley has produced several pieces for violin and 'cello, and has written one or two dainty works for toy instruments. Mrs. Beatrice Parkyns, born of English parents at Bombay, has several charming violin compositions to her credit, and the same may be said for Kate Ralph, a native of England. Emily Josephine Troup is another violin composer, who has also tried her hand at songs and piano pieces. Maggie Okey, at one time wife of the pianist De Pachmann, and now married to Maître Labori, famous as the advocate of Dreyfus, has composed a violin sonata, a violin romance, and several piano pieces. Kate Oliver is responsible for some concerted music, while Alma Sanders has produced a piano trio, a violin sonata, and a piano quartette. To-day Ethel Barns heads the list of violin composers among women.
MAGGIE OKEY
By far the most important name in this field of woman's work is that of Agnes Zimmermann. Born in Cologne in 1847, she received her musical education in London. At the Royal Academy of Music she studied piano under Pauer and Potter, afterward attaining high rank as a performer. In composition, her teachers were Steggall and George Macfarren. She won the silver medal of the Academy, and obtained the king's scholarship twice, in 1860 and 1862. In the next year she made her London début, and a year later appeared with the Gewandhaus orchestra at Leipsic. Her fame as a classical pianist was soon established, and her excellent work in editing the sonatas of Beethoven and Mozart bore added testimony to her musical knowledge. Her compositions include a piano trio, three violin sonatas, a suite and other pieces for piano, and a number of songs. Her clear style and thorough musicianship have given these works more than a passing value, and she is reckoned to-day as one of England's leading women composers.
Still more numerous than the violin composers are the women who have shown their ability merely in the form of a few piano pieces. Almost every eminent performer is at some time tempted to express his own musical thoughts in writing. Such has been the case with Arabella Goddard, the famous pianist. Born near St. Malo, in 1838, she played in her native place at the age of four. At six she was studying with Kalkbrenner at Paris. At eight she played before Queen Victoria, and published six piano waltzes. Among her maturer works are an excellent ballade and several other piano selections. Dora Schirmacher, born in 1862, was less precocious, but won the Mendelssohn prize at Leipsic, where she studied under Wenzel and Reinecke. Her works consist of a suite, a valse-caprice, a sonata, a serenade, a set of tone pictures, and so on. Amina Beatrice Goodwin was another child prodigy, first playing in public at the age of six. She studied with Reinecke and Jadassohn at Leipsic, Delaborde at Paris, and finally with Liszt and Clara Schumann. She has published many piano selections, besides founding a pianoforte college and publishing a good book of practical hints on technique and touch. She is married to an American, Mr. W. Ingram-Adams. The list of piano composers might be extended much further, but these are the most representative names.
Of the long list of song composers, but few have produced anything of marked artistic value. Foremost among these at present is Liza Lehmann, who has recently become famous through her song cycle, "In a Persian Garden." She came of a gifted family, for her father, Rudolph, was an excellent artist, and her mother a composer of songs, which were modestly published over the initials "A. L." Her grandfather was Robert Chambers, famed by his Encyclopædia. Born in London, she studied singing with Randegger, and composition afterward with Freudenberg, of Wiesbaden, and the Scottish composer, MacCunn. She expected to make a career as a singer, but found herself so extremely nervous whenever appearing that she was forced to abandon the idea. She persevered awhile, however, and has been frequently heard in Great Britain and Germany.
In 1894 she retired and married Mr. Herbert Bedford. Only then did she begin those efforts in composition that have since met with such great success. She has published a number of songs and some piano and violin pieces, but is always thought of in connection with her cyclic setting of the Persian poet, Omar Khayyam. When she composed this, she was little known, and fortune as well as fame was a stranger to her. Oddly enough, all the London publishers refused this work, which has since then charmed two continents. Finally it was sung at her house by a gathering of musical friends, the performers being Ben Davies, Albani, Hilda Wilson, and David Bispham. They were so delighted with it that they brought it out at the Monday "Pops," and after that its success was assured. There are other song cycles by this composer, notably "In Memoriam," but none equal the "Persian Garden." It is full of rich passages of exquisite beauty, moving pathos, and strong expression.
Frances Allitsen passed a lonely childhood in a little English village. She would improvise warlike ballads for amusement, though her later works and her character are marked by gentleness of thought. She hoped to make a name by singing, but unfortunately lost her voice. Her family were all hostile to a musical career, and regarded her tastes as most heinous. She describes the scene of her youth as a place "where, if a girl went out to walk, she was accused of wanting to see the young men come in on the train; where the chief talk was on the subject of garments, and the most extravagant excitement consisted of sandwich parties." Domestic misfortunes and illness left their mark on her, but could not hinder her musical progress. She finally sent some manuscripts to Weist Hill, of the Guildhall Music School, and with his approval came to London. Her days were spent in teaching, to earn money with which to pay for her studies in the evening, but she braved all difficulties, and finally won success. She is best known in America by her songs, which are really beautiful settings of Browning, Shelley, Longfellow, Heine, and other great poets. But she is a master of orchestral technique as well. Her overture, "Slavonique," was successfully performed, and a second one, "Undine," won a prize from the lady mayoress. Her room is a delightful gallery of photographs of artists and musicians. She has a picture of Kitchener, whose example, she says, ought to cure any one of shirking; hence the mistaken anecdote that she could not work without a picture of Kitchener on her desk.