knowledge. Her compositions include a piano trio, three violin
sonatas, a suite and other pieces for piano, and a number of songs. Her
clear style and thorough musicianship have given these works more than a
passing value, and she is reckoned to-day as one of England's leading
women composers.
Still more numerous than the violin composers are the women who have
shown their ability merely in the form of a few piano pieces. Almost
every eminent performer is at some time tempted to express his own
musical thoughts in writing. Such has been the case with Arabella
Goddard, the famous pianist. Born near St. Malo, in 1838, she played in
her native place at the age of four. At six she was studying with
Kalkbrenner at Paris. At eight she played before Queen Victoria, and
published six piano waltzes. Among her maturer works are an excellent
ballade and several other piano selections. Dora Schirmacher, born in
1862, was less precocious, but won the Mendelssohn prize at Leipsic,
where she studied under Wenzel and Reinecke. Her works consist of a
suite, a valse-caprice, a sonata, a serenade, a set of tone pictures,
and so on. Amina Beatrice Goodwin was another child prodigy, first
playing in public at the age of six. She studied with Reinecke and
Jadassohn at Leipsic, Delaborde at Paris, and finally with Liszt and
Clara Schumann. She has published many piano selections, besides
founding a pianoforte college and publishing a good book of practical
hints on technique and touch. She is married to an American, Mr. W.
Ingram-Adams. The list of piano composers might be extended much
further, but these are the most representative names.
Of the long list of song composers, but few have produced anything of
marked artistic value. Foremost among these at present is Liza Lehmann,
who has recently become famous through her song cycle, "In a Persian
Garden." She came of a gifted family, for her father, Rudolph, was an
excellent artist, and her mother a composer of songs, which were
modestly published over the initials "A. L." Her grandfather was Robert
Chambers, famed by his Encyclopaedia. Born in London, she studied singing
with Randegger, and composition afterward with Freudenberg, of
Wiesbaden, and the Scottish composer, MacCunn. She expected to make a
career as a singer, but found herself so extremely nervous whenever
appearing that she was forced to abandon the idea. She persevered
awhile, however, and has been frequently heard in Great
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