Elfrida Andree, of Sweden,
is another composer of high rank. But when all is said and done, it
seems at present as if the palm must be awarded to France, with Augusta
Holmes and Cecile Chaminade as rival claimants.

Bearing in mind the fact that woman's greatest activity has been limited
to the most recent period, it may be well to inquire what the present
tendencies are in the world of music. On this point, Robert Franz, in a
recent letter, speaks with decided conviction. He believes that the art
proceeds in a cycle, and that music began with the smaller forms, and is
destined to end with them. In his own compositions, he gave expression
to this conviction, for he worked wholly in the _Lied_ form. After
Beethoven, he said symphonic form could proceed no higher. While the
world would not willingly dispense with the orchestral works of Schumann
and Mendelssohn (Wagner's efforts being in a separate field), there
seems much truth in the idea thus advanced. Few men of to-day are
successful in the largest forms, and the demand for short works in
literature seems to have aroused a similar feeling in the musical world.
Yet we may only be passing through a period of temporary eclipse, for
already the new note of triumph sounds loud and clear from Russia. It
may well be that in a more inspired epoch than the immediate present,
woman will rise to a higher level than she has already reached.

It would not be fair to take leave of the women without mentioning their
work in still another line,--that of musical literature. The list of
women who have done work in this direction is fairly extensive, but the
number of great names on it is comparatively small. The foremost name is
perhaps that of Lina Ramann. In 1858 she began the most important work
of her life by opening a normal school for teachers. Her writings have
been numerous and valuable. They include several volumes on piano
technique and practice, an important "Life of Liszt," a number of works
on the musical education of children, many essays, and biographies of
Bach and Handel.

Many of the women fall into the bad habit of imbuing all their work with
a romantic tinge of exaggerated sentiment. One example of this fault is
Elise Polko, some of whose sketches are very pretty reading, but almost
wholly misleading to the new student. Even Marie Lipsius, who published
a series of excellent biographical sketches under the pseudonym of La
Mara, is not entirely free from this defec