The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-09-20

How comes it that during four centu-
rles, from the time roughly speaking,
Of Palestrina, to the present day, only
twelve women have made their mark
upon the history of creative music and
that not one even Of these twelve has
accomplished anything approaching
hrst-rate excellence? The fact is. of
course. indisputable. Musical history
has known no feminine Bach. or Wag-
ner. or Schubert, nor even a feminine
DvOrak or PuCcini Women have
wrought admirably, at times incOm-
parably. in letters; and I'm painting
they have worked 10 honorable ends;
but what woman has written music
that is to be mentioned in the same
breath with the work of<Jfeorge Eliot.
OF Christina ROssetti OF the Brontes.
of Rosa BOnheur Of Alice Meynell.
and Fiona Macleod Surely not Clara
Schumann. nor Ingeborg Won Bronsart,
nor Augusta Holmes. nor the incOrrigi-
bly, superficial Chaminade. nor Liza
Lehman, nor those accomplished and
earnest Americans, Mrs. H. II. A.
Beach and Miss Margaret Ruthven
Lang-tO name those among the most
eminent who come first TO mind.
Tt has been urged, and doubtless viii
be urged again, that the woman COM
poser has had, as yet, scarcely a fair
chance to prove her mettle: but it
must be conceded that she has had a
least equal opportunities with her sis
ters in literature and art. Certainly
there are today no insurmountable OBJ
Stacles i'm her patti. for only the other
day Miss Ethyl Smyth cOmpassed the
amazing feat OF achieving the produc-
ton Of her music-drama. "Der VALID"
on the august and inhOspitable stage
Of the Metropolitan opera house. New
GOTk-nOt to mention her previous con-
quest of COveut Garden. London. and.
before that, of an operate stronghold
I'm Berlin. One IS finally then. con-
fronted with the question. Is woman
incapable Of great creative achieve
ment in this most sensitive, plant. and
en- OtiOnal of the arts-the art of all
others in which. one would suppose.
she ought most brilliantly to warrant
the conviction that she is Mr.. Have
lock Ellis, a thoughtful and acute
psychologist, indOrses the view that
Mr.. @. =. Upton takes OF the matter
in his Woman and Music. Ccnceding,
says Mr.. Upton that music is the
most intense and potent medium for
the expression of the emotions, and
that woman is emotional by nature.
us II not one solution of the problem
inat woman does not unsteady repro
CucC them. because she herself is emo
tioual by temperament and nature. and
cannot project herself OutWaraly2 p
The emotion is a part Of herself, and
is as natural TO her as breathing. She
lives in emotion and acts from emo
ton. but to treat emotions as
IF they were mathematics. to bind and
measure ana limit them within the
rigid laws OF harmony and counter
point and 20 express them with arbi-
trary signs. is a cold-blooded operation
possible only TO the sterner and more
obdurdtc nature or man.. All or which,
To our mind. is exceedingly convincing
and explanatory. Mr. W. b. Yeats.
who is as subtle in wisdom as he is ac-
complished IN poetry. has written
somewhere Of what seems to him a
typIcauy feminine defect in wOmen's
practices of the arts. "a fitting incoher-
ence.' he calls fl. "a ftful diving out
OF the sense as must needs be when
life is the master and not the slave of
the singer There is, we believe, the
fatal disqualification long as wo-
mans emotional relation 60 life is that
OF the slave rather than the master.
so long viii her creative work in that
art which is preoccupied, above all
Things. with emotional utterance, be in
ferior and Intellectual
London Mail: The London concert
season, which has come TO a close, has
called attention 90 "A discovery the doc
tors have made that vocalism is a
healthy profession.
A quiet baby who never gives way 90
taHtrums and tears is not a healthy.
but weakly child. When his voice
is raised in a piercing crescendo OF
screams his lungs are expanding. his
blood is circulating wen. and he is
gaining strength and beauty momen-
tarily. Translate the salutary shrieks
of infancy into the educated singing Of
maturity and the net result is the same
namely, a large increase Of health
and cOmeliness.
Anaemic boys and girls are now being
ordered by doctors to take singing les
sons, because such persons do not know
how 20 breathe properly and the sing
ing master teaches them the art Very
few people utilize the whole of their
lung power when they breathe. bat
get into lazy way of merely gasping
or breathing suDerficially
Candidates for the army whose chest
measurement lacks the requisite num-
Der Of inches take singing lessons to
increase their girth. or. If their voices
lack the musical element. they attend
breathing classes and learn where their
respiration should come frOm-that is