The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-02-10

to be, spontaneous.
1t is hard to believe that one com
poser could write The Search, NY
Task, the cycle of cnildreii's songs and
the final Midnight Tragedy which was
the iustifiable murder of cat in an
fal1ey-but the whole program last
evening was music by one composer
and 1t was all good music by most
remarkable woman who ought to visit
Keoklk.
A Musician From the Cradle.
Mrs. E. L. Ashford, the author OF
the music which Mrs. Tucker render
cd so perfectly. is a woman born
with much talent and having that
marked genius which is a capacity for
hard work. She is a resident OF Nash
vile, where her husband is a uni
versity professor, but Mrs. Tucker did
not discover that they are OF the
same state until the program OF last
evening was arranged. Mrs. Ashford
was born in Delaware and lived as a
girl in Illinois and Connecticut. When
only twelve years old she was organ
ist In the Episcopal church at ke-
vance, and little later was organist
in the principal church In Seymour,
Conn. She was so precocious that
she was only seventeen when she be-
gan her happy married life with an
Englishman for husband. Imme-
diately after the wedding, Mrs. Ash
ford became solo alto singer in st.
James church In Chicago, where Dud.
ley Buck was choirmaster and or
ganist.
But it is as a composer that Mrs.
Ashford is being considered just
now, and her career in that field OF
achievement is most remarkable.
The Genius Of Hard Work.
During the last ten years she has
been giving all her energies to COM
posing and she is little over sixty
years old-after becoming an editor
OF couple of good musical journals.
She has written over three hundred
anthems; eleven sacred cantatas, two
secular cantatas; forty sacred songs:
ten sacred duets: forty-ive graded
piano compositions; and nine vol
umes of books.
The books are an organ instructor
in four volumes: work on the pedal
organ in two volumes; Vox Celeste in
three volumes.
Her hymn voluntaries have been
translated into the Chinese which
means the words, not the music. and
they are used for instruction in the
christian college in China.
There are seven song cycles and
some majors and minors of compost
ton to be added to the above cata
logue OF the work of decade done
by this wonderful woman.
The Proof Of a Master.
| Almost anybody can dig out a seal
of an aria, but only master can d.
/ something worth while with ease an
/ dispatch. Here is what Mrs. Ashfor
4 did recently:
On her sixtieth birthday, the musi
cal world delighted to honor her
She received over FIVE hundred tels
grams and cablegrams from all owe
the world including China, Japan an
India. Nashville made gala day {
the anniversary in honor of its note
composer. Nashville always has 81
preciated and honored It's own, and
has had several really famous SOL
and daughters.
!, There, Mrs. Ashford gave lectul
a on how songes are made and toe
her audience into the sanctnn san
. forum of song composition. AS an
lustration, she asked for some word
!, and a woman handed up poem tt
composer had not seen before. MI
Ashford wrote the music to the wor,
in ten minutes by the watch, and
: man in the audience sang them, Il
:, whole cycle of achievement occur
= Ing about fifteen minutes. That WI
more than STUNT was the wor
u manship of a real master Of a diff
B. cult art.
u The indispensable Adjunct.
:, Perhaps the music of Mrs Tuck
= would have been as good, If II
lights had gone ONT and tho heat,