men composers, however, form a long
and honourable list, and are by no means confined to the present period
of female emancipation.

CHAPTER VI.

ENGLAND

England's period of musical greatness has been said to be the past and
the future. During the contrapuntal epoch her music flourished as never
before or since, and side by side with the Shakespearian period in
literature came an era of musical glory scarcely inferior to it. During
the Restoration, too, music still held its own, thanks to the genius of
Purcell in opera. But no names of women are recorded, and it is only in
the eighteenth century, and the latter half at that, that they begin to
appear on the roll of fame.

The year 1755 witnessed the birth of two women who were gifted enough to
leave worthy works behind them,--Maria Parke and Mary Linwood. The
former was the daughter of a famous oboist, who gave his child an
excellent training. She became well known as a pianist and singer, and
among other works produced songs, piano sonatas, violin pieces, and
even a concerto for piano, or rather harpsichord. Miss Linwood devoted
herself more entirely to vocal compositions, and published a number of
songs and the oratorio, "David's First Victory." Two operas by her were
left in manuscript.

Mrs. Chazal, who flourished at a still earlier date, won reputation as
an orchestral conductor. This work is hardly deemed to come within
woman's sphere, but the many choral and orchestral festivals of England
offered her a better chance in this direction than her sisters in other
lands could obtain. Mrs. Chazal's works included overtures and an organ
concerto, as well as piano and violin music. Organ compositions seem to
have been fairly numerous in England a hundred years ago, and we find
Jeanne Marie Guest, daughter and pupil of a well-known organist, writing
a number of voluntaries and other selections, also some manuscript
concertos and some piano music. Other instruments were not neglected, as
may be seen from Ann Valentine's "Ten Sonatas for Harpsichord and
Violin," published in 1798. Another good organist was Jane Clarke, who
issued a setting of psalms, as sung at Oxford, in 1808.

Coming nearer to our own times, Elizabeth Stirling, who died in 1895,
was considered one of the very best of English organists. Her works for
that instrument include two grand voluntaries, a half-dozen excellent
pedal fugues, eight slow movements, and many other pieces. She has done