Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-20

by 1hckla BadarSZcwSkn. and half n
century ago was doubtless played more
than any other piece of music. pros
perty which it enjoyed for many years.
1t is true also that women have COM
posed music only for about century.
whereas men have been writing it for
more than three hundred years. But
the elements apparently lacking III the
creative musical work of women have
little in common with this fact. Their
work is usually graceful and refined,
but it finds its charm in dclicacy rather
than in strength. The workmanship is
generally good. although it is also true
that counterpoint and other technical
resources. which must be at the abso-
lutte command of the great composer,
are rarely the strong points of feminine
composition.
NEVERTHELESS women have com
~ posed an astonishing number Of
works in the larger forms. especially In
the symphony and the opera. Their
work Invariably shows grace and re-
that Broad feeling, which Is the hall
mark of the great composer. But the
trouble is that there Is today no sym
phony or opera composed by woman
which holds a permanent place in the
repertoire of the great orchestras or
opera companies of the world.
America stands better with respect
to it's women composers when viewed
from world standpoint than it does
with respect to the men composers. 1t
is safe to say that Mrs. Beach, &
Gaelic" symphony has had fully ms
l5many performances By fine American
orchestras as any symphony written by
a woman Of any other country has
had by the great orchestras of that
country. And this does not except
| Chaminade, who must never be for
gotten when the question Of women
composers arises. But Nine. Chaminade
was at her best in the smaller forms,
| in songs and smaller pieces for piano,
her own instrument.
! A MERICA has produced some other
n very talented women composers.
among them Margaret Ruthven Lang
! and Julie Rive King. the reputation
of the latter as n pianist oversbadow-
ing her fame as composer. How
ever, taking it by and large, America
has produced relatively about as many
! fine women composers as men, OF
course, observing the proportion OF men
and women composers of other coun'
tries.
As the United States has Mrs.
| Beach. and as France has Nine.
Chaminade, England has produced a
very talented woman composer in DR..
Ethel Mary Smyth, who Is perhaps
the only woman composer to have an
opera produced by the Metropolitan
Opera Company. She has composed
symphonies, operas and chamber music
but little Of it is known outside o!
her native country. Germany. Italy
| Holland and Russia have also pro-
duced women composers whose work
was given repeated hearings in their
/ own country. But the lamentable fact
, remains that there has been as yet nc
woman composer whose work was uni
versal.
The mystery Is, why has no woman
yet been able to rise to the greatest
| heights in creative musical work n
! they have done in practically every
! other field? It is true that in this briei
discussion their work has been meas
urcd with the Bach Mozart Beethoven
Brahms yardstick, by which test %!
out Of every 1000 masculine composers
also fail. Women have the love Of thu
art. greater sympathy, keener un'
derstanding of human fundamentals, th'
intellectual ability--in short all thu
elements which would seem to MAKE
the great compassionate yet the grea
ona has still to come.
Two hundred and sixty years o
music dating from the birth of Bach
has produced five giants and seven o
eight slightly lesser geniuses, all men
Perhaps the first giantess is about t
make her appearance.