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 unwilli

The position of woman among the northern races that overthrew the Roman power was wholly different from that which she held in the more ancient epoch, but even under the newer regime it was no enviable one. In many of the earlier Germanic systems, wives were bought by a definite payment of goods or of cattle. That this was a recognized practice is shown in the laws of Ethelbert, which state that if a man carry off a freeman's wife, he must at his own expense procure another for the injured husba

Among the women who have influenced music without actually creating it, none have had greater chances to use their power than the wives of the famous composers. Often they have been endowed with no inconsiderable musical genius themselves, but have sacrificed their claim to renown upon the altar of domestic duty. Sometimes, in rare instances, they have had the ability to perform the double task of caring for the household and continuing their own musical labours. Their story is an interesting on

History has never witnessed a more perfect union of two similar natures, both endowed with rich mental gifts, and each filled with a perfect sympathy for the other, than the marriage of Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck. It holds a place in the story of music similar to that occupied by the romance of Abelard and Heloise in poetry. The lives of both composers afford an example of the most unselfish devotion and depth of affection, combined with the highest idealism in an art that poets themselves

Although some of the great composers remained unmarried, many of them were influenced by women, and the effect is frequently visible in their compositions. Dedications of musical works to women are apparently a matter of little moment, but often they are surface indications of some deep feeling underneath, which is expressed in the music. Especially will this be found true in Beethoven's case, but it applies also to Schubert and other composers. If George Frederick Handel never married, it was c

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 ap

It is only natural that the country whose composers have led the world for more than two centuries should produce many musical women. The list excels not only in point of length, but in merit and priority. It begins with the nun Roswitha, or Helen von Rossow, who flourished at the end of the tenth century, and won renown by her poetry, some of which she set to music. But in modern times many important names are found in Germany at a time when few or none appear in other countries. Music was cons

Famous among women composers of all nations is Cécile-Louise-Stephanie Chaminade. She was born at Paris in 1861, of a family that was well endowed with musical taste. In childhood, she made the piano her favourite companion, and while other girls were devoted to their dolls, she would try to express in tones the simple emotions that moved her. There are some gifted mortals who can think in music, whose joys and sorrows translate themselves naturally into melody. Cécile Chaminade was one of these

If the term America be applied, as is often the case, only to the United States, then the list of its women composers will still be found to include practically all who have done work in this line in the Western hemisphere. By far the larger part of these women are living now, for our musical growth has taken place in recent years. The record is already a worthy one, and will become still more extensive in the near future. At the head of the list stands Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, the one great name to

Though not as prolific of women composers as its musical reputation might indicate, Italy has still produced some famous names. The women of the earlier schools of contrapuntal work have already been mentioned. Francesca Caccini was an exponent of the first growth of opera. After her comes a gap, and we find no women at work during the time of Scarlatti, for example, and few in the era when the early conventional opera saw its palmy days in the hands of Cimarosa and his compeers. A number flouri

The question of allowing women to compose, if they wish to do so, is hardly one that needs any extended debate. Yet it is only in the last few decades that woman's inalienable right to compose has been fully established. The trials of Carlotta Ferrari in getting her first opera performed are an example in point. The opposition of Mendelssohn to the publication by his sister of even a few minor works is another instance of the attitude formerly taken by even the greatest composers. The life of Ch

I. BRITISH COMPOSERS Abrams, Harriet. Songs . Allitsen, Frances. Songs . Ames, Mrs. Henry. Songs . Andrews, Mrs. John H. Songs . Arkwright, Mrs. Robert. Songs . Armstrong, Annie. Songs . Austen, Augusta A. Songs . Aylward, Florence. Songs . Bach, Constance. Songs . Barker, Laura W. Cantatas , Violin , Songs . Barnard, Mrs. Charles. Songs . Barnett, Emma. Piano , Songs . Bartholomew, Ann Shepard. Oratorio , Cantatas , Hymns , Songs . Binfield, Hannah R. Organ , Harp . Bisset, Elizabeth Anne. Harp