Bearing in mind the fact that woman's greatest activity has been limited to the most recent period, it may be well to inquire what the present tendencies are in the world of music. On this point, Robert Franz, in a recent letter, speaks with decided conviction. He believes that the art proceeds in a cycle, and that music began with the smaller forms, and is destined to end with them. In his own compositions, he gave expression to this conviction, for he worked wholly in the Lied form. After Beethoven, he said symphonic form could proceed no higher. While the world would not willingly dispense with the orchestral works of Schumann and Mendelssohn (Wagner's efforts being in a separate field), there seems much truth in the idea thus advanced. Few men of to-day are successful in the largest forms, and the demand for short works in literature seems to have aroused a similar feeling in the musical world. Yet we may only be passing through a period of temporary eclipse, for already the new note of triumph sounds loud and clear from Russia. It may well be that in a more inspired epoch than the immediate present, woman will rise to a higher level than she has already reached.
It would not be fair to take leave of the women without mentioning their work in still another line,—that of musical literature. The list of women who have done work in this direction is fairly extensive, but the number of great names on it is comparatively small. The foremost name is perhaps that of Lina Ramann. In 1858 she began the most important work of her life by opening a normal school for teachers. Her writings have been numerous and valuable. They include several volumes on piano technique and practice, an important "Life of Liszt," a number of works on the musical education of children, many essays, and biographies of Bach and Handel.
Many of the women fall into the bad habit of imbuing all their work with a romantic tinge of exaggerated sentiment. One example of this fault is Elise Polko, some of whose sketches are very pretty reading, but almost wholly misleading to the new student. Even Marie Lipsius, who published a series of excellent biographical sketches under the pseudonym of La Mara, is not entirely free from this defect.
In France, Mme. Audley has written some good biographies, notably the lives of Beethoven and Schubert and some articles on Bellini. Across the Channel, Constance Bach has done some successful work in editing the letters of Liszt and Von Bülow. Two English women, Mrs. F. J. Hughes and Mary Maxwell Campbell, have entered the speculative field by trying to draw analogies between harmonies and colours, but this theory can never have any real basis in scientific fact. In America, the work of Helen Tretbar and Fanny Raymond Ritter is well known. Mrs. Mary Jones has devoted her energies to a book on the musical education of the blind, but the best work in this direction is that of Caroline Wiseneder in Germany.
In closing, it may not be amiss to express the wish that the compositions of women composers could be heard more frequently than they are at present. There is no doubt that some of our quartette clubs would find much to interest themselves and their audiences among the works of the famous musical women. According to Nero, music unheard is valueless, and all musicians would rejoice to see the fullest possible value thus placed, by frequent performance, upon Woman's Work in Music.
THE END
APPENDIX
I. BRITISH COMPOSERS