The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-13
PROGRAMME OF ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS
 HEARD BY THE MUSIC STUDY CLUB
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE

cal standpoint, that it does Commercially
 it will not be the fault of the Music Stuc- club and the splendid membership of this organization.
 Certain it is that no other assemblag ge
 has ever done for Birmingham musi- cally what this club has done and is do- ing.
 1t has been willing to put up" money, spend it freely, even lose it on different attractions; it has struggled nobly for su- premacy in musical affairs, and it has 1 marched along over the obstacles and surmounted them and placed itself upon l plane that makes it today the largest
 musical club and the most influential in
 the city of Birmingham.
 It's present president, Mrs. Charles J.
 Sharp, has been worthy successor to
 the talented women who have preceded her and with her graciousness and clever ness, her progressiveness and never end
 ing energy, she has placed the Music Study club one note higher, one step further toward perfecting it, that it has ever been before.
 In the morning of yesterday at the l meeting of the club, at the Cable-Shelby- ! Burton hall, Mrs. Flournoy Rivers, direc-
 tor of the Sherwood Music school, and
 one of the most talented members of the Music Study club, presented an entire l programme of original compositions, in cluding songs, piano, violin and orches- tral numbers-17 in all
 What other musical organizations in the entire south could boast of a member who is not only finished pianist and uneXceled teacher, but who has to her credit the rare gift of composition as Mrs. Rivers has?
 Few women possess the divine talent, the intellect and the comprehension of music that Mrs. Rivers does, and still fewer there be who can express it, in
 song and melody, as she can through her own compositions.
 l Birmingham is proud in the possession
 of Mrs. Rivers, and the Music Study club 1 has no more honored member no one who stands more actively for the upbuilding of | music and it's highest attainment than l she.
 After Mrs. Rivers beautiful programme was rendered before the Music Study club yesterday and every one present was &C., l claiming her success in the highest terms and her praises were being sung on every l side l wedged in a little chat with her I on the subject of Composition" mainly trying to ascertain how it was that with all her other musical and social activities. 1 even when she possesses the talent and | has the inclination, she finds the time
 to do anything in the matter of compost | ton.
 l Why, that is easy enough" Mrs l Rivers answered quick. gro be bromidic.
 where there's a will there's always a way, and even from my childhood meant to compose some day.
 With a child's sublime faith, thought In will ttFn- fA dot
 mendously in Cincinnati under Carl Bae- tens and Otto Singer, with such an end 1 in view but instead of trying my hand
 on small things and slowly gaining skill
 to attempt larger forms I tackled grand opera first thing. Now, you know opera writing Is special art all to itself and many most excellent composers fail at if entirely Americans especially seem to be l hoodooed in their attempt. Witness l 'Madelaine," Victor Herbert's latest; ihe 1 ill fated "Mona," the Scarlet Letter." as
 well as the Pipe of Desire" None oi l our American operas has ever been sue
 cessfuL I was in my teens, crazy about 1 the dramatic and pictorial side of this art l knowing nothing of voice ranges and less | of formal structure: yet I made enough l of stagger at it to interest the College | of Music authorities. and my little ven | ture, the amateur handling of "Klne \ Arthur" in "Idyls of the King" would I have been staged and presented in Music l ball if l had been willing to permit my teachers to write about half of it But | child as l was, I recognized that spuri- ous celebrity is a short lived and cruel 1 thing. I wanted to do it myselfr 'The artists passion for self expres- sion?" I quered
 Yes" she said, When found that I had failed to do as I desired (you see I was getting early one of life's kindly(?) 1 lessons), l was heart sick There was nc doubt in my mind about it all. I didn't question if I had genius, opera writing 1 just seemed to me the most beautiful | thing in the world. naturally. Isn't il | funny what wild schemes simmer in the | brain of creative child? There 1 was at an age when a girl generally gets | boys in her head, struggling to put into | measure melody and rhythm, the loves of Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot.' A stu pendous task for a skilled adult an i'm possibility for even a god, called genius like Mozart, while still a child. Tn the reaction after the knowledge that
 couldn't do it, began systematic study
 of why I couldn't Was it lack of gift! Was it a question of sex? q had heard Otto Singer tell Authur Mees that my work was clever for a woman, and 2 perfectly maddening, kindly meant, com. pretending sort of nod had passed be- l tween them over it. that filled me witl | blind rage). Up to that hour I had liked l the women I had known better than the men. Now, like Tightening bolt came 1 the thought, maybe we are all below | par So because I was good and mad