# The Story of the Flute/Chapter 15

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CHAPTER XV.
WOMAN AND THE FLUTE.
Suitability—Female players in classic times—More recent flautistes—English flautistes of to-day—American flautistes—Female composers for the flute.
The flute is the only wind instrument which has to any appreciable extent been adopted by women. Still, inIts Suitability modern times at any rate, flute-playing has never found many votaries amongst women, and none have ever attained the very first rank as performers. The mere man might attribute this to the fact that one cannot flute and talk at the same time, or possibly it may be, as a fair flautiste is recently reported to have said, because kissing is fatal to flute-playing: in such a contest it is, of course, the flute that goes under. In early Victorian times it was considered most unlady-like and vulgar. Yet the instrument is extremely well suited for ladies. The attitude when playing is graceful and healthy, affording ample opportunity for the display of a beautiful arm; it is a gentle instrument, requiring but little physical exertion. Moreover, women possess more delicacy of touch and deftness of finger than men, and their lips are softer and more flexible.
​Among the ancients female flute-players were numerous. One of Alexander's generals wrote that he had captured 329 ladies of the Persian monarch'sFemale Players in Classic Times harem, who were skilled in flute-playing; the biographies of no fewer than 535 fair fautistes are said to have been destroyed in the burning of the Alexandrian Library at Athens. The most celebrated of the ancient flautistes was a very beautiful Egyptian named Lamia, who lived at Athens. She was taken prisoner on the occasion of a battle between Ptolemy Soter (whose mistress she was) and Demetrius Poliorcetes, c. 312 B.C.; whereupon Demetrius conceived so violent a passion for her that, at her instigation, he conferred extraordinary benefits on the Athenians, who in consequence dedicated a temple to her as "Venus Lamia." Her portrait is preserved on an amethyst in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. A sister of the Empress Theodora frequently performed in public. Athenæus mentions one Harmonia as a great female flautiste, and Diodorus Siculus says that Minerva with her flute was present at her wedding in Samothrace. Plutarch mentions Nanno, a beautiful girl flautiste of the sixth century B.C., in whose honour Mimnermus, himself a flautist, composed an elegaic poem.
For many centuries we find no particulars of any female performers on the flute, but doubtless there were many such. The flute-player in the engraving in Spenser's Shepherd's Calender, 1579, is a lady (see p. 33, ante). There is a picture by Philip Mercier ​(1743) of a concert with a lady playing a flute. Sarah Schofield played the flute in Gorton Chapel, Manchester,More Recent Flautistes in 1775. A flute was presented by an admirer to the famous Susanna Kennedy, Countess of Eglinton, in the days of George III. On attempting to blow it she found it obstructed by a copy of verses, expressing the donor's envy of the lucky pipe which was to be pressed to her lips! A sister of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, about 1780, played a flute made by Quantz, and took lessons from Dulon. In 1825-26 a little girl of twelve, named Cann, of Hereford, created quite a sensation in England by her performances at the Hereford and Gloucester Festivals, and the Quarterly Musical Magazine (8,268) says that her tone was clear and sound, her execution rapid and neat. On these occasions she played Drouet's "God Save the King," "Rule Britannia," and Tulou's French air with variations. She died in Paris in her twentieth year. An Italian lady player of note, Signora Maria Bianchini, was a pupil of Briccialdi. A Danish flautiste, Miss Julie Petersen, of Copenhagen, performed in her own country with great success in 1894. She subsequently visited New York, and in 1898 gave flute recitals in London, where I had the pleasure of hearing her. During her stay there she had the honour of appearing before Queen Alexandra (then Princess of Wales) at Marlborough House, and was specially chosen for musical honours by the King of Denmark.
Two English flautistes. Miss Greenhead and Miss ​Paggi, obtained considerable reputation, but probably the most famous of all English lady flute-players is Miss Cora Cordigan (Mrs. L. Honig), whoseEnglish Flautistes of to-day charming tone and brilliant execution has earned for her the title "The Queen of Flute-players." Mrs. Honig plays also the piccolo and the violin. Several other British lady flautistes of the present day deserve brief mention. Miss Erroll Stanhope (a daughter of Mr. Collard, the well-known professor of the flute), Miss Mary Woolhouse, Miss Nellie Flood-Porter, Miss N. Crump, Miss E. Penville (who has given recitals in London), Miss Elgar (sister of Mr. Eli Hudson, whose recent performances both on the flute and piccolo at the London Colisseum have attracted much attention), and Miss Elsie Wild—who originally took up the flute out of bravado, because her young brother, who played it a little, said "No girl could play it properly." Miss Wild was the first lady to play a wind instrument in the orchestra of the Royal College of Music, then under the conductorship of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. On her first appearance in the orchestra she was so terrified that she wished there was no such instrument in the world as the flute.
America has produced at least two lady flautistes of note—Miss May Lyle Smith of New York (b. 1873), who never visited England; and MissAmerican Flautistes Marguerite de Forest Andersen, a native of Maryland. The last-named lady appeared in London in 1905 and gave a recital in the Queen's ​Hall, for which Mde. Chaminade specially orchestrated her fine flute concerto.
Female composers for the flute are by no means numerous; Miss E. A. Chamberlayne, whose ScherzoFemale Composers Ariel for strings, harp and flute was played at the Crystal Palace in 1895, Miss Dora Bright, Miss G. Rockstro, Mrs. Honig, who has written for the piccolo, Madames Chaminade and De Grandval; and quite recently, Miss Katherine Eggar—these practically exhaust the list.