LEGION OF HONOUR WOMEN,

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1872, 4 October 1913, Page 11

LEGION OF HONOUR WOMEN,

FAMOUS COMPOSER. . Three more women havo been mado membors of the Legion of Honour of France. Thiß brings tho total number of women within tho Order since it was established in 1802 up to considerably more than a hundred. One of the early notablo elections was that of Rosa Bonhour. Tho recent selection of Mme. Curie everyone recalls! Tho three women whoso names hare just been added to tho distinguished roll are: Mme. Cecilo Louiso Stephanie Cnammade-Carbonncl, most famous living woman composer; Mile. Stoude, diroctress of tho High School for Girls ■in Paris, and Mme. Prevost, inspectress of the Department of Labour. Several directresses and inspectresses have already been .taken into the Legion, but Mme. Chaminado is the first woman to bo thus honoured because of her ability and success as a musician and composer. However, this is not the first decoration which she has received. When she camo to America in 1908 to make a concert tour of Eastern and Middle Western cities, sho had already been honoured by Turkey and England, Queen Victoria hawing: given her tho Insicnia of tho_ jubileo nerself. Mme. Chaminade is now fifty-two years old, and has been entirely devoted to music sinco long before Bizet heard her play at tho age of eight. Her child-' hood, according to her own account, was ono lorn; hanpy harmony of outdoor life, in whr!eh her pet animals and mako-believe friends furnished themes and motifs of her first compositions. "And for my cat, whoso ways were mysterious and unaccountablo," wrote Mine. Chaminado in art article concerning her childhood composition, "I would compose a nocturno or a serenade \lunaire—a moonlight serenade." Her Family Convinced. It was not until Georges Bizet, the composer of "Carmen" gave his verdict of "She undoubtedly has the gift," that her'family began to appreciate the necessity of a musical education for , her, and that sho began to study wjth he Couppoy, professor at tho Conserva-

toire. After this Bhe studied harmony, counterpoint, and fugue with Augustin Bayard, and played chamber music with MaTsick,. Delsarto, and Godard. Since her formal debut, when she ''was eighteen, she has composed untiringly, and has played in probably every capital iin Europe, as well as,in many cities of tho United, States. From a charming child, Mme. Chaminado developed into a moro charming woman: charm is tho word liaturally connected with her, in both her personality and her mußic. In fact, < all the environs of her life have lain under the spell. In tho summer she lives at Lo Voynet, a country home only twenty minutes on the train from Paris; jn tho winter she lives and writes in her villa at Samariß by the sea, in southern France. And this is whero she dees the beat work, in tl}e winter, by the sea, late at night. Sho writes almost always without a piano. Sho hears every note of tho chords and every instrument of tho orchestra. At times this power of imagining which is part of her genius, is annoying to'herself and startling to her friends,-- as when one day .one instrument became unduly loud in her mind and she exclaimed: "Oh, that oboe! That abominable oboel" She had written for voice, organ, violin and 'cello, as well as for the piano. - Composer Who Is a Woman. "This is not a woman who. composes, but a composer who is a woman," is tho now time-worn but unceasingly apt comment of Ambroise Thomas, musician, writer, and poet. She is indeed a woman with all tno homo-tics and normal affections of a woman. Her husband, who died in 1907, was tho chief owner of the largest music-selling house in Marseilles. It was partly the illness of hef husband and tho ago of her mothor which delayed Mme. Cbaminade's first and tbus far only visit to America until 1908. It is interesting, in view of tho many performances of her music at 'American symphony conoerts, and of the scores of Chaminade clubs, ; from Brooklyn to San Francisco, to remember her misgivings on sailing up New York Bay.' "Is it true," she asked, "that they are so terrible, so crucl to foreign artists, these Americ.™'critics? I havo been told such dreadful tales about them. 'They say that French music ia not liked by the Americans. Perhaps Ckamuiade's music is not French, but merely cosmopolitan. Along .with the charm of her music and her personality, is th# charm . of Mme. Chaminiid»'s personal appearance. Oil# of her admirers puts it in n way worthy of quotation : "Charm, tho. most exquisite of qualities, is nis loss evidtnt in the woman than in bar art. Mme. Chaminade appeals to you. Sho does n«t take you by storm. I d« rot know whether all would call her beautiful-. Hor features aro not regu-

jar. _ They oro not classic. But they inspire sympathy, and thoy havo tho beauty of intelligenco. A mobile and rather generous mouth, a fino forehead, and agreeable eyes, abovo which one Bees a mass of ourly chestnut locks, framing a round, well-shaped .head; That tho composer is nervous is evident from tho extreme vivacity of her gesture and the rapidity of her speech. But despite her nervousness she does not agitato ono. _ She seems hs restful as her' surroundings at Le Vesinet.", , It would seem that tho Legion ofHonour has chosen well. —Now York "Evening Post.'*