several marches, of which one is on the German army lists at present.
Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen, who lived but twenty-four years,
found time to compose several marches and a number of songs and piano
pieces.

Among living composers, Princess Beatrice of Battenberg is the author of
a number of melodious songs, also an orchestral march and some church
responses. Saxe-Meiningen seems to hold its own in the present as well
as the past. Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Emperor Frederick III.,
has composed some military and Turkish marches, also a tuneful "Cradle
Song" for violin and piano. Marie Elizabeth, of the same principality,
counts among her works an "Einzugsmarsch" for orchestra, a Torch Dance
for two pianos, a number of piano pieces, and a Romanze for clarinet and
piano.

One of the most notable female figures in German music was Maria Theresa
von Paradies. Born at Vienna in 1759, she met with an accident when
three years old, and became blind for life. Even with this drawback,
however, her musical aptitude was so great that her parents were
justified in letting her begin regular studies and procuring the best
teachers for her. At the age of eleven she appeared in public, singing
the soprano part of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, and playing her own
accompaniment on the organ. This interested the Empress Maria Theresa,
who procured the best of teachers for her. She made such rapid progress
in piano that at her first concert she was able to arouse the utmost
enthusiasm by her expressive and sympathetic performance. She made a
number of concert tours, winning plaudits everywhere. In Paris, where
she stayed six months, she appeared at the Concerts Spirituelles, and
played frequently before Marie Antoinette. After various royal audiences
in England and Germany, she returned to Vienna, where she soon retired
from public life, and devoted herself to teaching and composition.

Her memory was something phenomenal. It is said that she was able to
play no less than sixty concertos with the most absolute accuracy,
besides knowing any number of smaller piano works. Her power of
concentration is also made evident by the fact that she would dictate
her own compositions, note by note, without the slightest alteration.
Very few, even among the great composers, have possessed this faculty.
Wagner and Mendelssohn were perhaps the most gifted. Beethoven's great
works were the result of much careful correction, and in some