WOMEN AND MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1240, 23 September 1911, Page 11

WOMEN AND MUSIC.

i' WHAT THEY HAVE'\DONE. A society of women musicians has been formed in London, says the "Queen," to give the members opportunities to have their works performed nnd published. Tho number of women who devoto themselves to composition is certainly growing laTger, but this in itself is not a proof that there is «n inorcase of gifted women musicians. The number oi ginls at tho various academics and colleges who study composition sufficiently accounts for this increase. But, after all, it is lici the question as to whether women's music is better or v;orse than in former days, but whether they should find moans within their reach of showing what they can do. Of late thero has 'been one fortunate lady. We refer to Dr. Ethel Smyth. She sot two of her oneras produced abroad, and the first, "Der Walcl," at Covent Garden Theatre. The directors, however, would not givo her second, "Strandrecht," but Mr. Thomas Beecham performed it several times at Her Majesty's Theatre, at the last of which the late King Edward VII was present. Since then Miss Smyth was represented at the recent London Musical Festival. We speak of her as fortunate, because the performances mentioned have brought her name and her works into gpecial prominence. About thirty years t«o the late' Mr. Stephen 3, Stratton read

■Mi interesting paper entitled "Women in Gelation to Musical Art" before the.mem- . oers of the, Musical Association. ' His aim was to present a fair view of her position. : h'Ho declaredcthatcin e'very depstrtmentiin which her faculties have been fully developed and had freo play she had achieved greatness. In learning he named, among -others, Lady Mashani, the friend of Locke; Maria Agnesi, who was appointed Professor of Mathematics in the University of-Bologna; and M.rs. Somerville, who, according to Mr. Justin McCarthy, "distinctly raised the world's estimate of woman's capacity for the severest and the loftiest scientific pursuits." The writer added names of poets, novelists, painters, Bculptors, etc., oi note, and all, o± course, of- the female sex. Mr. .Stratton argued that woman's genius has toen developed '' in exact proportion to the educational advantages at her com maid. And'he added that, as in all directions there ( was advance, "right,estimate of woman's genius belongs to the future." Now, let us consider only one direction, and ece if in opera since Mr. Stratton wrote there has been advance. In . her day Mile Augusta Mary Holmes was prominent. She v;rote retto and music of a. four act opera, "La Montagne," which was actually produced at the Paris Opera in 1595, and her orchestral and choral works were performed at the Concerts dn Chatelet, the Concerts Populaires, and one at the Conservatoire. Tie opera since 1895 has not been played either in Paris or elsewhere. Two other operas remained in manuscript. nd from all acoounts of Mile. Holmes's art work, we venture to think that Dr. Sm.vth has shown a marked, advance. 1 There are, of course, other and. highly talented women composers at the present day, but Dr. Smyth is the only one, we believe, who "has attempted writing for the stage. In some respects her operas have been criticised, but her great gifts have been fully recognised. 1