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MARGARET RUTHVEN LANG.
Copyright, 1889, by Arthur P. Schmidt & Co.
Out in the misty moonlight, the first snow flakes I see,
As they frolic among the leafless boughs of the apple tree.
Faintly they seem to whisper, as round the boughs they wing;
"We are the ghosts of the flowers who died in the early spring,
Who died in the early spring."
Her opus 32 is made up of two songs, both full of fire and originality. Opus 33 is a captivating "Spring Idyl" for the piano, for which she has also written a "Revery," of which the exquisiteness of sleep is the theme. The music is delicious, and the ending is a rare proof of the beautiful possibilities of dissonance.
Personally, I see in Miss Lang's compositions such a depth of psychology that I place the general quality of her work above that of any other woman composer. It is devoid of meretriciousness and of any suspicion of seeking after virility; it is so sincere, so true to the underlying thought, that it seems to me to have an unusual chance of interesting attention and stirring emotions increasingly with the years.
An interesting and genuine individuality will transpire through the most limited amount of creative art. This has been the case with the few published works of a writer, whose compositions, though unpretentious in size and sentiment, yet reveal a graceful fancy, and a marked contemplation upon the details of the moods.
Irene Baumgras was born at Syracuse, New York, and studied the piano at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where she took the Springer gold medal in 1881. She studied in Berlin with Moszkowski and Oscar Raif. She was married in Berlin, in 1884, to Philip Hale, the distinguished Boston musical critic.