a juvenile literature; the directness and repose of
fidelity to nature come later. The American woman is in the habit of
getting what she sets her heart on. She has determined to write
music.

With an ardor that was ominous of success, Miss Amy Marcy Cheney,
after a short preliminary course in harmony, resolved to finish her
tuition independently. As an example of the thoroughness that has
given her such unimpeachable knowledge of her subject, may be
mentioned the fact that she made her own translation of Berlioz and
Gavaert. She was born in New Hampshire, of descent American back to
colonial times. At the age of four she wrote her opus 1. She is a
concert pianist as well as a frequent composer in the largest forms.
She is now Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.

[Illustration: MRS. H.H.A. BEACH.]

Not many living men can point to a composition of more maturity and
more dignity than Mrs. Beach' "Jubilate," for the dedication of the
Woman's Building at the Columbian Exposition. The work is as big as
its name; it is the best possible answer to skeptics of woman's
musical ability. It may be too sustainedly loud, and the infrequent
and short passages piano are rather breathing-spells than contrasting
awe, but frequently this work shows a very magnificence of power and
exaltation. And the ending is simply superb, though I could wish that
some of the terrific dissonances in the accompaniment had been put
into the unisonal voices to widen the effect and strengthen the final
grandeur. But as it is, it rings like a clarion of triumph,--the cry
of a Balboa discovering a new sea of opportunity and emotion.

Another work of force and daring is the mass in E flat (op. 5), for
organ and small orchestra. It is conventionally ecclesiastic as a
rule, and suffers from Mrs. Beach' besetting sin of over-elaboration,
but it proclaims a great ripeness of technic. The "Qui Tollis" is
especially perfect in its sombre depth and richness. The "Credo" works
up the cry of "crucifixus" with a thrilling rage of grief and a
dramatic feeling rare in Mrs. Beach' work. This work was begun at the
age of nineteen and finished three years later. It was given with
notable effect in 1892 by the Haendel and Haydn Society of Boston.

Mrs. Beach' "Valse Caprice" has just one motive,--to reach the maximum
of technical trickiness and difficulty. There is such a thing as
hiding one's light under a bushel, and there is such a thing as
emptying a bushel of chaff upon it.

"