Womans Work in Music

Woman's Work in Music, by
Arthur Elson

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Title: Woman's Work in Music
Author: Arthur Elson
Release Date: February 12, 2007 [EBook #20571]
Language: English
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[Illustration: CLARA (WIECK) SCHUMANN.]
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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
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Copyright, 1903 By L. C. Page & Company (INCORPORATED)
All rights reserved
Third Impression, April, 1908
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COLONIAL PRESS Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
Boston, U. S. A.
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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
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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.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Ancient and Mythical 11 II. Mediæval 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
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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 Cécile-Louise-Stephanie Chaminade 174 Augusta
Mary Ann Holmes 178 Mrs. H. H. A. Beach 196 Julia Rivé-King 204
Ingeborg von Bronsart 220 Teresa Carreño 232
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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,