Her sacred music takes rank with the very best that modern writers can show. Her two masses have been frequently given at Paris. Her two oratorios, "Sainte Agnes" and "La Fille de Jaire," met with a similar favourable reception. Her Stabat Mater contains an effective "March to Calvary" and a beautiful "Juxta Crucem," and received the enthusiastic homage of the critics when first brought out. Several smaller works, for voices, organ, and piano, are no whit behind the larger compositions in musical worth. She has also written a grand overture, "Esquisses Symphoniques," a piano trio, a violin sonata, a suite for flute and piano, and many other violin and piano pieces. She deserves to rank among the foremost women composers of our time.
Jeanne Louise Farrenc was another Parisian woman who won fame by composing. Born in 1804, her career falls in the earlier part of the nineteenth century. Pursuing the usual studies, harmony with Reicha, and piano with Hummel and Moscheles, she began to write ambitious works at an early age. Such merit did some of these works show that Schumann, who reviewed them, was at first inclined to doubt her ability to write them unaided. She deserves credit for making a remarkable collection of old clavichord and piano music, and writing a clear summary of the terms and abbreviations employed by the early musicians.
Her own compositions have been often performed, even the larger orchestral numbers. Chief among them are two symphonies and three overtures. Her chamber music includes a nonette and sextette for strings, two quintettes, several piano trios, in two of which clarinet and flute replace the usual violin, a number of sonatas and other pieces for violin and piano, several 'cello sonatas, some flute and piano pieces, and numerous piano works and songs. Her daughter, Victorine Louise, was another gifted musician, but died after a brief career, leaving a heritage of piano works and songs.
Louise Angelique Bertin, born in 1805, was one of those impatient creatures who are eager to read books before learning the alphabet. In taking up painting, she wished to start in at once with canvas and brush, regardless of preliminary training. In her musical studies the same tendency showed itself, and immediately on beginning her work in composition with Fétis, she commenced writing operatic airs and scenes. Apparently she was able to estimate her own talents justly, for success crowned her efforts. Her first opera, "Guy Mannering," was performed in private, but "Le Loup Garou" made a marked public success. Her "Faust," a later work, met with a like favourable reception, although "Masaniello" and "William Tell" had already taught the Paris public to be exacting. "Esmeralda" was another successful work, but "Notre Dame," written to a libretto of Victor Hugo's own arrangement, proved a failure. Mlle. Bertin won further musical fame by her string quartettes and trios, as well as her choruses and songs. She was also a poetess of some renown, and her collection of verse won a prize from the French Academy.
Pauline Viardot-Garcia was one of a remarkable musical family. Her father, Manuel Garcia, was a singer and teacher of note, and, like her elder sister, Mme. Malibran, she received the benefit of his tuition. One of her earliest memories of his singing was connected with an unexpected appearance in America, when a band of Mexican robbers, not content with relieving them of the proceeds of their tour in this hemisphere, added insult to injury by insisting upon hearing the great tenor sing. Pauline became renowned in opera, and, after the early death of her sister, held the foremost place on the European stage. She was able to impersonate and create rôles of the most diverse nature, ranging from the lightest of Italian heroines to the most dramatic characters of Meyerbeer. After a career of fame and honour, she left the stage and devoted herself to teaching, and it is in that period of her life that her compositions appear. Her house in Baden-Baden was the centre of attraction for a circle including not only musicians, but artists, poets, and nobility of the highest rank. There she produced her operettas, "Le Dernier Sorcier," "L'Ogre," and "Trop de Femme." At first arranged for private performance, they succeeded so well that they were given to the public. Of her other works, twelve romances for piano, twelve Russian melodies, and six pieces for violin and piano are the most important. She numbered many famous names among her pupils, and her singing exercises are of unusual value.
Her sister, Marie Felicitas, at first wife of M. Malibran, and afterward married to the violinist De Beriot, was one of the world's greatest singers, and her career is too well known to need description. Her fame as a composer rests on a number of attractive romances and chansonettes, of which an extensive collection was published in Paris. Louise Pauline Marie Viardot, afterward Mme. Heritte, was a daughter of Pauline Viardot, and possessed all her mother's talent for composition if not for singing. After a sojourn at the Cape of Good Hope, where her husband was consul, and a four-years' term as professor in the St. Petersburg Conservatory, she settled down to teaching and writing in Paris. Among her many works are the operas, "Lindoro" and "Bacchus Fest," and the cantatas, "Wonne des Himmels" and "Die Bayadere." Her chamber music includes four string quartettes and two trios. In the lesser forms she produced a number of songs, vocal duets, and piano pieces. Another member of this famous family, Manuel Garcia, is still living. He is a brother of Malibran and Pauline Viardot.
Gabriella Ferrari is another gifted French composer of orchestral works. She is a pupil of such men as Dubois and Gounod, and has done much in the larger forms. Among her works are a number of orchestral suites, many piano pieces and songs, and the comic opera, "Le Dernier Amour." Mme. Renaud Maury is another composer who is able to handle large masses of instruments. She drew attention to herself by carrying off the prize for fugal work at the Conservatoire, at a time when women were expected to take a more modest place in composition. Her "Fantasie Symphonique" and "Jeanne D'Arc" are often given before French audiences. The Marquise Haenel de Cronenthal, one of the older generation, has produced several symphonies, a number of sonatas, a string quartette, numerous piano works, and the opera, "La Nuit d'Epreuve," which won a gold medal at the Exposition of 1867. Célanie Carissan has produced the operetta, "La Jeunesse d'Haydn," and the oratorio, "Rebecca," besides other choral works and many songs and piano pieces.
The roll of operatic composers in France is long and honourable. Just as England seems the home of cantatas, and Germany of orchestral work, so France is especially devoted to opera, and her women have held their own well in this field. As far back as the seventeenth century, Elizabeth Claude de la Guerre upheld the glory of her sex by playing and improvising in a masterly fashion. One of her greatest admirers was the king, Louis XIV., himself. Besides a number of sonatas, she wrote a "Te Deum" to honour the king's recovery from illness, and a number of cantatas. Her opera, "Cephale et Procris," was successfully given at the Academic Royale in 1694. Another composer of the same century was Mme. Louis, whose operetta, "Fleur d'Epine," met with a good reception.
In the eighteenth century, Henriette de Beaumesnil was one of the foremost musical women in France. Endowed by nature with a fine voice, she became one of the leading artists in the Paris Grand Opera Company. When her voice failed, she took up composition, and succeeded in that also. Most popular among her many operas were "Anacreon," "Les Legislatrices," and "Les Saturnales." Emilie Candeille was the daughter of a dramatic composer, from whom she received a solid musical education. Her works include piano trios, sonatas, and songs with piano and harp, besides the operetta, "La Belle Fermière," and the comic opera, "Ida." Mlle. Duval was another grand opera singer, and author of the ballet, "Les Genies." Mlle. Kercado, of later date, produced the operetta, "La Méprise Volontaire." Lucille Grétry, daughter of the famous composer of that name, produced "Le Mariage d'Antonio" when only sixteen years, and followed it up with "Toinette et Louis." Her career was cut short in her twenty-fourth year by an untimely death.
Edme Sophie Gail-Garre, who flourished at the beginning of the nineteenth century, won some renown by her very popular songs and piano pieces, but was known chiefly by her successful operas. Among these were "Les Deux Jaloux," "Mlle. de Launay," "La Méprise," and "La Serenade." Mlle. Guenin, another youthful aspirant for fame, produced "Daphnis et Amanthée" in her seventeenth year. Louise Puget wrote romances and chansons that were remarkably pretty and popular, if not very ambitious, and produced the operettas, "Le Mauvais Oeil" and "La Veilleuse," besides the opera, "Beaucoup de Bruit pour Rien." Helene Santa Colona-Sourget, author of some beautiful songs and a string trio, produced a one-act opera, "L'Image," in 1864.