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 Chaminade affords still another case of this opposition. When
Rubinstein heard a few of her early compositions, upon which he was
asked to pass an opinion, he could not gainsay their excellence, but
insisted on adding that he thought women ought not to compose. The time
has gone by when men need fear that they will have to do the sewing if
their wives devote themselves to higher pursuits. The cases of Clara
Schumann, Alice Mary Smith (Mrs. Meadows-White), and Ingeborg von
Bronsart afford ample proof, to say nothing of our own Mrs. Beach.

Whether women are in any way handicapped by the constitution of their
sex is a point that is still undecided. It would seem that composition
demanded no great physical strength, and no one will deny that women
often possess the requisite mental breadth. The average sweet girl
graduate of the conservatories, who is made up chiefly of sentiment, and
hates mathematics, will hardly make a very deep mark in any art. But
there are many who do earnest work, and who lead lives of activity and
production that afford them equal rank with the men in this respect.
Augusta Holmes may be cited in illustration.

It is often claimed that women study music merely as an accomplishment,
with the object of pleasing friends and relatives by their performances.
This horrible accusation the writer can attempt neither to palliate nor
to deny. But why should it be denied? If music is to be regarded as one
of the feminine accomplishments, why should this debar the more earnest
students from doing more earnest work? The very fact that all cultivated
women are expected to know something of music ought to result in a
better chance for the discovery of woman's talent in composition.

But there are some, even among the women composers themselves, who admit
that in many cases the matter of sex is a drawback. Liza Lehmann speaks
in very definite terms on this subject. "If I were asked," she says, "in
what form of composition women are best fitted to write, I should say
that I hope they will win in all forms. But there is