on a large collection of prizes while at the Royal Academy. Her works
include three sketches for orchestra, a string quartette, a number of
songs, and a violin sonata that received a London performance in 1894,
and was highly praised by the critics.[6]

CHAPTER VII.

GERMANY

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 considered a proper relaxation for royalty, and in the
eighteenth century every petty court aimed to keep its orchestra and
performers, while very often the exalted hearers would try their own
hands at playing or composing. Frederick the Great was especially fond
of music, and played the flute with much skill and persistence, and his
sister, the Princess Anna Amalie, was as gifted as her brother in a
musical way. She wrote many compositions, of which an organ trio has
been published in a Leipsic collection, while her cantata, "Der Tod
Jesu," represents a more ambitious vein. Contemporary with her was Maria
Antonia, daughter of the Emperor Charles VII., and pupil of such famous
men as Porpora and Hasse. Her musical aspirations took the form of
operas, of which two, "Il Trionfo della Fedelta" and "Talestri," have
been published recently. Amalia Anna, Duchess of Saxe-Weimar, composed
the incidental music for Goethe's melodrama, "Erwin and Elmira," and won
flattering notices, though part of their praise may have been due to her
rank. Maria Charlotte Amalie, Duchess of Saxe-Gotha, published several
songs, and wrote a symphony for an orchestra of ten instruments.

Coming into the nineteenth century, we find the Princess Amalie of
Saxony possessed of considerable talent. Her skill showed itself in the
form of various pieces of church music and no less than fourteen operas,
best among them "Die Siegesfahne" and "Der Kanonenschuss." The Empress
Augusta herself, wife of Kaiser Wilhelm I., besides always fostering the
art of music, was gifted with a talent for composing, even in the larger
forms. Among her works are an overture, the ballet "Die Maskerade," and