Womans Work in Music

Woman's Work in Music, by Arthur Elson

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman's Work in Music, by Arthur Elson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Woman's Work in Music
Author: Arthur Elson
Release Date: February 12, 2007 [EBook #20571]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN'S WORK IN MUSIC ***

Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: CLARA (WIECK) SCHUMANN.]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WOMAN'S WORK IN MUSIC
Being an Account of Her Influence on the Art, in Ancient as well as Modern Times; A Summary of Her Musical Compositions, in the Different Countries of the Civilized World; and an Estimate of Their Rank in Comparison with Those of Men
By Arthur Elson
Author of "A Critical History of Opera," "Modern Composers of Europe," etc.
Illustrated
L C PAGE & COMPANY BOSTON PUBLISHERS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright, 1903 By L. C. Page & Company (INCORPORATED)
All rights reserved
Third Impression, April, 1908
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
COLONIAL PRESS Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. Boston, U. S. A.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
TO Mrs. Louis C. Elson TRUE TYPE OF SELF-SACRIFICING WIFE AND MOTHER IN A MUSICAL FAMILY, THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY HER SON
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE
Acknowledgments are due to Mr. Otto Fleishner, of the Boston Public Library, for his kindness in furnishing lists of periodical articles bearing on the subject of this book.
The Author.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Ancient and Mythical 11 II. Medi?val 35 III. Wives of the Composers 61 IV. Clara and Robert Schumann 90 V. Other Musical Romances 111 VI. England 132 VII. Germany 154 VIII. France 174 IX. America 195 X. Other Countries 211 XI. Conclusion 234
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Clara (Weick) Schumann Frontispiece Eleanor of Aquitaine 50 Richard and Cosima Wagner 88 Marie Wieck 91 Marie Antoinette 114 Sybil Sanderson 130 Maggie Okey 144 Louisa Adolpha Lebeau 164 Adele Aus der Ohe 171 C��cile-Louise-Stephanie Chaminade 174 Augusta Mary Ann Holmes 178 Mrs. H. H. A. Beach 196 Julia Riv��-King 204 Ingeborg von Bronsart 220 Teresa Carre?o 232
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

WOMAN'S WORK IN MUSIC
CHAPTER I.
ANCIENT AND MYTHICAL
The Church of Rome, though admitting no women to a share in performing its services, has yet made a woman the patron saint of music. The religions of antiquity have paid even more homage to the weaker sex in the matter, as the multitude of musical nymphs and fostering goddesses will show.
Of Saint Cecilia herself little is known accurately. The very apocryphal legend states that about the year 230 a noble Roman lady of that name, who had been converted to Christianity, was forced into an unwilling marriage with a certain Valerian, a pagan. She succeeded in converting her husband and his brother, but all were martyred because of their faith. This it is stated, took place under the Prefect Almacus, but history gives no such name. It is unfortunate, also, that the earliest writer mentioning her, Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, speaks of her as having died in Sicily between the years 176 and 180. It is doubtful whether she would have been known at all, in connection with the art, but for a passing phrase in her story, which relates that she often united instrumental music to that of her voice in sounding the praises of the Lord. Because of these few words, she is famed throughout musical Christendom, half the musical societies in Europe are named after her, and Raphael's picture, Dryden's ode, Stefano Maderno's statue, and a hundred other great art works have come into existence.
The earliest inferences of woman's influence in music are to be drawn from the Hindoo mythology.[1] According to the tabular schedule of all knowledge, found in the ancient Brahmin records, music as an art belongs in the second chief division of lesser sciences, but on its mathematical and philosophical side it is accorded a much higher position, and is treated of in the oldest and most sacred Hindoo work, the Veda. This authority tells us that when Brahma had lain in the original egg some thousand billion years, he split it by the force of his thought, and made heaven and earth from the two fragments. After this, Manu brought into being ten great forces, whence came all the gods, goddesses, good and evil spirits. Among the lesser deities were the genii of music (Gandharbas) and those of the dance (Apsarasas), who furnished entertainment for the gods before man possessed the art.
About this time the female element began to assert itself. At Brahma's command, his consort, Sarisvati, goddess of speech and oratory, brought music to man, incidentally giving the Hindoos their finest musical instrument, the vina. The demigod Nared became the protector of the art, but Maheda Chrishna performed a more material service by allowing five keys, or modes, to