o:° F R O M T H E E D I T O R

Thg

Enduring Legacyof Music

HE WOMEN FEATURED in this issue of The Maud Powell Signaturedemonstrate the importance and intrinsic value of familytraditions in the arts. Each woman's musical achievements were shaped

by attitudes towards the arts in the home. Their experiences are mirrored by

families throughout the world today.Both ends of the scale are represented here--the family that ridicules and

dismisses the artistic promise and interests of its children as a worthless diver-

sion--and the family that respects the arts and nurtures and encourages its chil-

dren to dream, explore and discover the secrets and joys inherent in them.

Why is it that one of the most difficult tasks today is proving to parents,

educators and politicians that music is no mere entertainment? Tragically, too

many people believe in the myth of the starving artist as a non-contributing drain

on society whose visions and dreams are not to be taken seriously. Yet so much of

importance is at stake in our complex and increasingly materialistic society that

only the arts can address and resolve.Without the arts a civilization is doomed. The ancients, knowing this, held the

arts in high esteem. They believed that there was something fundamental about

music which guided the spirit and determined thought and action. And so it is

today, but we have lost sight of the significance of this essential force in our lives.

With so much emphasis on the material, we are in grave danger of losing our

soul as we become passive and dismissive of things that truly have value.

I recall the story of the rich and powerful Dutch banker who had his portrait

painted by a poor artist more than 300 years ago. His image is still with us but noone knows his name or the facts of his life or even what he achieved. By his

clothing we know he was a banker, respected in society for money, power and

position. By comparison, the portrait painter, a mere artisan, was socially inferior

and useful only to record another man's perceived greatness. The painter's pov-

erty was an embarrassment, his dreams a waste of time. Yet everyone today knowsthe name of the artist--Rembrandt--but no one knows the name of this wealthy

man who bought his services.

Are the attitudes toward artists that were so prevalent in the 1600s any differ-

ent today? No. We still attempt to define the artist in commercial terms. Success is

measured by money, power and fame, not by beauty, truth and the exultation of

the spirit. But whose contribution endfires?

The artist is not always doomed to a life of failure and poverty. No career is

easy to establish. Lawyers, doctors, stockbrokers, bankers, sports figures all un-

dergo a period of study and learning and all must eventually struggle to make

their way in a highly competitive marketplace. Rewards are slow in coming forthem too and some never make it. But why is their struggle more acceptable than

the struggle of a painter or a composer? The artist enters his or her profession

frequently without support, encouragement and enthusiasm on the part of par-

ents, friends and society at large. This lack of understanding and support is one of

the greatest tragedies of our time for all too often family members demean and

crush the sensitive spirit of the fledgling artist. This devastation could be avoided

so simply if only parents and educators, the people who exercise the most influ-ence over our early lives, would recognize and acknowledge the value of the arts

and encourage children to pursue them openly and enthusiastically. What a differ-ent world this would be!

Our society still has a great lesson to learn about the importance of the arts in

all our lives, not just in the lives of an alleged "elite" few. Perhaps the womenfeatured in this issue of The Maud Powell Signature can serve as teachers for all

of us. Their lives and experiences are all different yet each woman has a message

about the power of her art as a positive life force--a lifeline to be passed on--no

matter how stormy the seas.Pamela J. Blevins

CONTENTS

Libby Larsen ............................... 3

Amy Fay ...................................... 4

The Amalias ................................ 9

The Garcias ............................... 13

Cecile Chaminade ..................... 20

Julianne McLean ....................... 24

COVER: Pauline Viardot-Garcia

('The Maud Powell Archive)

/Fall, 1995

Volume 1, Number 2ISSN 1083-5954

The Maud Powell

$1 l atureis o quarterly publication of The MaudPowell Foundation, a non-profit educationalorganization. Publication dates: August,November, February, May.

Subscriptions, $28 yearly, 703/536-7826.

The Maud Powell Signature invites thesubmission of articles. Please call or write forguidelines.

Contents copyright © 1995 by The MaudPowell Foundation. Contents may not bereproduced in any form without writtenpermission from The Maud Powell Founda-tion.

5333 N. 26th Street, Arlington, VA 22207703-532-2055 telephone/fax

Karen A. Shaffer Pamela BlevinsPublisher Editor

John B. Bolton Janet S. WhiteBusiness Manager Art Director

Helen Rash ProductionSubscriptions EDGE Communications

ServicesWorcester, MA

Editorial Advisory Board: Jane Ambrose(USA), Christine Ammer (USA), VirginiaBortin (USA), Margaret Campbell (England),Sylvia Glickman (USA), Annette Kaufman(USA), Jo Leighton (Scotland), Karin Pendle(USA), Nora Sirbaugh (USA), Judith Tick(USA)

2 Signature

•:-FROM THE DESK OF

Z

u_

Z

6

©

LiL,oy Larsen

I AM HONORED TO BE WRITING tO you through

this new publication, The Maud PowellSignature. This magazine recognizes howimportant it is that we performers, composers,

educators and music lovers of all kinds can speak toeach other through our own history, past, presentand future.

As a composer, I find myself in a complex, excit-ing flow of history. The last decades of this centuryhave underlined some sea-changes in our musicalworld. Never before have so many kinds of musicbeen so abundantly available worldwide. Marvelousperformers abound. Cultures, nations, and cultureswithin nations share their spirits through music.Through technological advances in recording sincethe 1950s, an ordinary person can take a private mu-sical tour of the world in a single afternoon. Music isliterally everywhere.

And yet, in the midst of so much music there is agrowing urgency to understand what music is to contemporary life. Music exists beyond itsaccompaniment of life's events, beyond the entertainment of the moment, beyond theperformer or the composer. It comes from an essential source, out of time, creed andculture. It speaks about human existence giving form and voice to emotions too deep toexpress in words or over borders and generations. How then, do we listen to music? Howdo we teach about music? What is music's purpose? It seems to me that composers arecentral to addressing these questions.

In my music I try to communicate something about what it is like to be alive now byarranging sound in space and time, for that's what composing is. I am intensely committedto living in my own times. I find new musical forms in things as diverse as traffic patternsand modern architecture. Infinite possibilities of rhythm and melody exist for me in ourown fluid language, American English. In the ways we live there are fresh views of texture,color and dynamic range.

Early in my own work I saw that we composers were often set apart from the largermusical world in which we operate. I wondered how our lives could fully benefit frommusic if its creators were marginalized. Through co-founding the Minnesota ComposersForum and through my work with Meet the Composer and other musical organizations, Iwork to ensure that living composers are always part of the concert experience.

I hope that in composing music and in working to have the music of living composersperformed regularly in the traditional concert hall, I can add to the understanding of whatmusic is in our lives.

Yours,_,

Libby Larsen is an American composer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Discography, page 29

Signature 3

o$oBY ROBERT DUMM AND KAREN A. SHAFFER

Amy Fay, American PianistSomething to Write Home About

ZDa:

z

r.a.a

©

k-,

z

o

©

,.-t

I-'*

6©a:

"Unless people have an enthusiasm for art I don't see the least use

in their coming abroad,'Amy Fay wrote in 1871. "If they cannot

appreciate the culture of Europe, they are much better off inAmerica."

MY FAY'S MUSIC-STUDY IN GER-

MANY won thousands of read-ers at a time when Americans

elieved that a European "fin-

ishing" and debut were indispensable to

a career in music. Beginning in 1881,

the book was published in more than25 editions in the United States and was

said to have inspired over 2,000 Ameri-

cans to go abroad to study prior to World

War I. Her book was published in En-

gland and France and even translated

into German at the request of Liszt.

Amy Fay was one of the first Ameri-

can women to study music in Europe

on her own, from 1869 through 1875.

She had plenty to write home about and

her letters reveal an intelligent young

woman bursting to share her experi-

ences. Her letters, collected in Music-

Study in Germany, were written to her

elder sister Melusina ("Zina") (1836-

1923), Amy's surrogate mother, who

recognized their historic value and ar-

ranged their publication. The sequel

Zina may have planned, based on the

letters Amy continued to write her fam-

ily to the end of her life, had to wait

until 1986 and the publication of Amy

Fay: The American Years, 1879-1916, Ed-

ited by S. Margaret William McCarthy,

(Detroit: Information Coordinators,

1986).

Amy's entire family was strong on

music and the arts, full of talent inher-

ited from, among others, her maternal

grandfather, the Episcopal Bishop of

Burlington, Vermont, a poet, musician,

author, architect and painter, and her

mother, Charlotte Emily Hopkins

(1817-1856), a gifted visual artist and

pianist who gave Amy her first formal

piano lessons. Her father, Charles Fay, adistinguished scholar and Harvard

graduate, served as an Episcopal minis-

ter in Vermont, Louisiana and Michigan,

until his retirement to Cambridge about1870.

Amy was born in Bayou Goula, Loui-

siana, on May 21, 1844, the fifth of nine

i'

i

4 Signature

children. At five, she was able to extem-porize on the piano and perform at ahigh level of technical and musical pro-ficiency. Her gifts must have promptedReverend Fay to obtain a parish in St.Albans, Vermont, where the childrencould benefit from New England's richintellectual and cultural climate, despitethe retarding influence of the Civil War.

Her father, a strong advocate of athorough classical education, personallysupervised his children's study of lan-guages. Amy learned to converse, readand write in Latin, Greek, German andFrench. Her mother, a self-taught pia-nist and gifted singer who also playedorgan, guitar, violin, flute and harp, cre-ated a rich musical environment for her

family. She tutored Amy in drawing andwriting as well as music and instilled inher nine children (six girls, three boys)a keen awareness of the cultural and so-

cial value of participation in music. Amywas the most gifted musician among hersiblings, but her sister Kate Fay Stone(1846-1928) was a good pianist whileLaura Fay Smith (1841-1920) was a

skilled singer and watercolorist.Married at sixteen, Amy's mother

died at the age of thirty-nine when Amywas only twelve. At eighteen, Amy wentto live with her older sister Melusina af-

ter Zina's 1862 marriage to CharlesSanders Peirce (1839-1914), who hadread mathematics and physics at Harvardand worked for the U.S. Coast Survey(1861-91). Known as a brilliant math-ematician, philosopher, and scientist,Charles Peirce was an original thinkerwho used pragmatism to construct histheory of relations and signs and discov-ered quantification theory--preludes tothe computer. Amy grew fond ofCharles' brother Benjamin and the twomay have been considering marriagebefore Amy went abroad.

Zina was a pianist and a "doer" withexecutive ability like her mother. Astrong feminist, she was a prominentwriter, lecturer, and organizer. At a timewhen divorce was viewed as scandalous,Zina's husband divorced her in 1883.Relieved from the burden of contend-

ing with his difficult nature, Zina movedto New York City. A year later, her popu-lar book Cooperative Housekeeping: HowNot To Do It, How to Do It: a Study inSociology (Boston: J. R. Osgood, 1884)was published. She later wrote the novelNew York: A Symphonic Study in ThreeParts (New York: Neale, 1918). With-out a doubt, Zina provided a powerful

role model for Amy, bolstering hergrowing feminism.

Amy studied Bach with JohnKnowles Paine ( 1839 - 1906), music pro-fessor at Harvard, and attended the pi-ano classes of Otto Dressel at the New

England Conservatory of Music. At sev-enteen, she studied piano with the Pol-ish artist Jan Pychowski at a summerschool in Geneseo, New York, and thenagain with him at age twenty-one in NewYork. Encouraged by her sister Zina andJohn Knowles Paine, Amy went to Ger-many to study music between 1869 and1875 with the most prominent teachersin Europe.

The first year, she studied in Berlinwith Carl Tausig (1841-1871), who, asPaine described him, "plays the pianolike forty thousand devils!" When Tausigabruptly closed his conservatory in1870, Amy "suffered terribly overTausig's going off." Adding to her dis-tress was the stunning news of the deathof her potential fianc6 Benjamin Peirce,followed in July 1871, by news ofTausig's sudden death of typhoid feverat age 31.

The young pianist resolutely contin-ued her studies with Theodore Kullak

(1818-1882) in Berlin for three years.With Kullak, she faced the commonEuropean prejudice against Americans.

"Kullak has a deep rooted prejudiceagainst Americans, and never loses anopportunity to make a mean remarkabout them," Amy writes, "and thoughhe has some remarkably gifted onesamong his scholars, he always insistsupon it that the Americans have no realtalent. As far as I know anything abouthis conservatorium just now, his mosttal-ented scholars are Americans."

William Sherwood, at seventeen, and

Amy herself were among them. She hadonly one direct way to avenge his preju-dice. When Kullak said to Amy,"Fraulein, you can take Schumann's con-

certo or my concerto," the plucky Amyrelates, "I immediately gotSchumann's."

Exposed to a panoply of great artistsin Berlin, Amy writes enthusiasticallythat the pianist Clara Schumann (1819-1896) gave the best concert of the sea-son in 1871. Discovering the Hungar-ian violinist Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) in 1870, she characterizes him as"the wonder of the age...so bold! ...Sofree! And then his conception!! It islike revealing Beethoven in the flesh, tohear him." "It was worth a trip across

.............. ...... .............:iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ii! iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiii ii! iiiiiiii!

Signature 5

the Atlantic" just to hear these two friendsof Brahms perform together in concert.

In 1873, she sought instruction andinspiration from Franz Liszt (1811-1886) in Weimar.

Amy's word portraits of Liszt-in-ac-tion during her Weimar summer of 1873leap from her pages and stay in the mind.They still constitute a major sourcerecord of that remarkable personality ata time when he was "finishing" most ofthe world's great pianists. The youngAmerican spent hours in close observa-tion of Liszt as music master, socialgrandee, and human being, played in hisclasses and accompanied him on the con-

cert trips and banquets he was alwaysarranging for his pupils.

Amy managed to establish a personalfriendship with her teacher, somethingfew pupils ever achieved. She was con-sidered to be one of his most promisingstudents, and Liszt seemed to regard herintelligence, hard work, sensitivity andsocial poise with respect.

"On Monday I had a most delight-ful t_te _ t_te with Liszt, quite by chance.Strange to say, he was alone, sitting byhis table and writing. It was the first Iever heard Liszt really talk, for he con-tents himself mostly with making littlejests. We were speaking of the faculty ofmimicry, and he told me such a funnylittle anecdote about Chopin."

Amy is stirred by the first perfor-mance of Liszt's oratorio, Christus. "I

wish it could be performed in Boston,for his orchestral and choral works, I amsorry to say, make their way very slowlyin Germany. 'Liszt helped Wagner,' saidhe to me sadly, 'but who will helpLiszt?'" Amy did her best to gain a per-formance of Liszt's Bells of Strassburgin Boston on her return home.

The level-headed Amy takes a dimview of humbug and her letters bubbleover with humor, as in her Balzacian es-timate of a certain haughty countess:"She always seems to me gradually go-ing to wreck--a burnt-out volcano, withher own ashes settling down upon herand covering her up."

The young American was not im-mune to the appeal of men, and moreassured men responded to her spiritedanimation. On an excursion to Jena withLiszt and his pupils, she was charmedby the Belgian pianist and visual artistWilliam Gurickx, "who only speaksFrench." He sent to her dinner place "anexquisite rose, petals furled, which hemolded from new bread" then and

there. "Since then," she writes, "we havebecome very good friends and he isteaching me to speak French." She re-lates how she admires his playing ofLiszt's Rhapsodies but cuts her tale shortwith "But back to Jena .... "

Amy did become romantically in-volved with the Belgian but her brotherinsisted that she end the relationship.Amy kept Gurickx's portrait in a heart-shaped locket which she wore even afterGurickx married. Their deep friendshipendured through visits and correspon-dence.

Amy never did marry. Ultimately,music claimed her heart and she found

the inspiration she sought from Liszt:"Oh! you cannot conceive anything likeLiszt's playing of Beethoven. When heplays a sonata it is as if the compositionrose from the dead and stood transfig-ured before you. You ask yourself, 'DidI ever play that?'"

I_st her sister think that Amy hadlost her American good sense, shescribbles this perceptive afterthought toa description of one of Liszt's lessons:"Everything is so topsy-turvy in Europeaccording to our moral ideas, and theydon't have what we call 'men' over here.

But they do have artists we cannot ap-proach! It is as a Master in Art that Ilook at and write of Liszt and his mere

presence is to his pupils such stimulusand joy, that when I leave him I shallfeel I have left the best part of my life."

The Liszt canon still feeds on pagesshe meant for Zina's eyes and ears. Un-forgettable is her portrait of "der liebeMeister," like a "big tabby cat," "lazily"proposing to a young lady, at a passagein his E-Flat Concerto where the hands

begin midway and run to both ends ofthe keyboard, to "Alles zum Fensterhinaus werfen" ("Throw it all out the

window!"). One such picture fromAmy's camera eye catches both Liszt'suniquely "ideo-kinetic" command of thekeyboard and the seductive power thatnicknamed him "The Wizard ofWeimar."

By December of 1873, Amy hadcompleted four years of piano study inGermany with three teachers. She re-turned to Kullak in Berlin, where shemet Ludwig Deppe (1828-1890), whowould be her last teacher. She had heard

about Deppe from the American pianistWilliam H. Sherwood (1854-1911 ) andothers.

Deppe, as a violinist and conductor,had long exercised his arms in what he

Melusina Fay Peirce, "Zina," was asurrogate mother to young Amy after theirmother died at the age of 39. Zina, afeminist, was a pianist, writer and lecturerwho possesseda sharp business sense.(Courtesy Jane Ambrose)

felt pianists in their hidebound formal-istic training needed most--a coordi-nated body rhythm to energize and freethe expression of their musical impulses.Although not a pianist, he had takentime to discover and test the steps thatlead to such freedom, from the simplefall of the fingers "like drops of water,"through the full range of "conscious"(bewusst) sensations of the movementsof finger, hand and arm that correspondto the spectrum of sound colors.

Sound was everything. As he discov-ered the principles that underlay the re-markable post-Lisztian development ofthe mechanical side of playing, Deppe'scentral concern was always, and right-fully, a good sound.

"If only I had found him beforeLiszt, " wails Amy, as Deppe reveals toher, one by one, the conditions of Liszt's"unearthly" sound and shows her howto draw it from the piano. "Deppe is nota pianist himself, he has the funniest littlered paws that don't look as if they coulddo anything, but he's got the same touchand tone that Liszt has--that indescrib-

able something that when he plays a fewchords, merely, he makes the tears rushto your eyes. It is too heavenly for any-thing."

Amy's belated discovery of Deppecoincided with his rising fame as thepianistic guru many had been seeking,the careful builder of skills which leadto virtuosic freedom.

"Deppe teaches more for the love ofArt than for love of money," Amy writes

6 Signature

RoseFay Thomas used her position as wife ofChicago Symphony Orchestra conductorTheodore Thomas to champion highermusical standards for women in compositionand performance. She was an organizer ofthe National Federation of Music Clubs.(TheMaud Powell Archive)

on December 11, 1873, "a rare thing inthese materialistic days!" Deppe nevershied from the groundwork often del-egated by European piano "professors"to their female assistants. He devoted to

it an infinite patience; three-hour lessonswere the rule.

Deppe called technique "the small-est difficulty." "Anybody can master ex-ecution if they know how to attack it,unless there is some want of develop-ment in the hand." At their first meet-

ing (lasting three hours) he asked Amyto show him her hand without a glove.She refused, however, "because I was

afraid he might find some radical defector weakness in it." But Deppe let Amy

play her pieces through (which othershad not been allowed to do) then re-turned his verdict: the difficulties were

primarily mechanical. "You have concep-tion and style, but your execution isuneven and hurried, the wrist stiff, the

fourth and fifth fingers very weak, thetone not full and round enough, you donot know how to use the pedal, and fi-

nally, you are too nervous and flurried."Many would have hit the floor, but

Amy had "invoked the demon" as sheput it, and "felt bound to give the pledgeDeppe required" to "give up all playingfor the present except what I give youto study, and those you must play veryslowly." Back to square one, after fouryears of hard effort!

One measures the depth of Amy's

determination to learn by her willing-ness to start yet again and by recallingan earlier painful experience with Kullak.Amy was slated at last to play a concerto(Anton Rubinstein's Fourth) with or-chestra at one of Kullak's twice-a-year"academies." She had hardly performedin all her study years and keenly felt herlack of experience. She worked hard andfelt ready when the day arrived.

She went to the hall and waited. A

Haydn Symphony was played, thenBeethoven's Fourth Concerto ("wretch-edly"). Then when her turn came, andshe sat wiping the keys after her nervouspredecessor, "a young man came upbeside her. 'Fraulein Fay,' shoutedKullak, 'you have the same concerto?Very well, you can play it next time.Today Herr So-and-So plays it.'" Amyknows that may mean never. "Such isLife! I had eaten no end of'the bread of

carefulness' and the result is--nothingat all--not even a failure. Oh, the diffi-culty of doing anything at all in thisworld!"

Amy's cri de coeur, rare in one soplucky, re-echoes in her sister's editorialcomment that ends Music Study in Ger-many: "My sister hopes that no Ameri-can girl (Amy was the first) who readsthis book will be influenced by it rashly

to attempt what she herself undertook,viz.: to be trained in Europe from anamateur to an artist. Its pages have af-forded glimpses, only, of the trials anddifficulties with which a girl may meetwhen studying art alone in a foreignland, but they should not therefore beunderrated."

She counsels tyros to choose an ex-cellent American teacher, like WilliamMason (1829-1908) (an earlier studentof Liszt), William Sherwood, and JulieRivt-King (1857-1937), who can takethem all the way. "American teachersbest understand the American tempera-ment and therefore are by far the best

for American pupils until they have got-ten beyond the pupil stage." Who knowswhat worlds of grit, disappointment,forbearance, and humor those wordsconceal? We now know her well-provenadvice has put Americans-trained-by-Americans at the top of the world's con-cert lists in this century.

Amy's one-and-a-half years of studywith Deppe (his "course" took three)ended reluctantly, then delightedly, withtechnical rehabilitation with one of his

assistants in Hamburg. The positive ben-efits of Deppe's approach convinced

Amy to base her future playing andteaching on Deppe's principles, as didthe eminient pianists and teachers Will-iam Sherwood, Donald Francis Tovey(1875-1940) and Emil yon Sauer (1862-1942).

Amy then returned to Weimar for afew more weeks of study with Liszt be-fore returning to America in October1875. She managed, just before the endof her time in Europe, to test and real-ize her grounded strength in a success-fill public performance and carried thatimpetus of certified success into hermore than 35 years of professional ac-tivity in America.

...she attributed her lack of

pupils to discrimination

against women.

"Women are beginning to

realize that they, too, havebrains..."

On her return to the United States,

Amy gave her first concert in New York'sChickering Hall in December 1875. Hersister Zina lectured on the duties of

women, a fitting preface to a career thatforthrightly championed women in mu-sic. Amy's piano recitals in Cambridge,Massachusetts, where she made herhome in 1876-78, were attended by thepoet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, aclose personal friend, and the Americancritic John Sullivan Dwight. She also

performed with the Theodore ThomasOrchestra and became the first artist to

play an entire piano concerto at theWorcester Music Festival (Beethoven'sB-flat major concerto with the GermaniaOrchestra conducted by Carl Zerrahn).

Between 1878 and 1890, she lived

in Chicago with her brother CharlesNorman Fay ("Norman") (1848-1944),a Harvard graduate and prominent Chi-cago utilities executive. There shetaught and performed, developing "Pi-ano Conversations," her own recitalform that included a brief talk before

each piece she was to play. She gave theselecture-recitals throughout the Midwest,

steadily educating largely unsophisti-cated audiences to appreciate classicalmusic. It was a format that William

Signature 7

Sherwood and many others adopted intheir appearances before American au-diences whose cultural circumstances

and musical understanding could notcompare with those in European cities.During her Chicago days, Amy sharedthe stage with prominent singers andinstrumentalists and counted the pianistsIgnaz Paderewski (1860-1941) andFanny Bloomfield-Zeisler (1863-1927)among her close personal friends. Sheeven toured throughout the Northwestand West with soprano Emma Thursby'sConcert Company.

Teaching in Chicago, she introduced

the Deppe Method for the Pianoforte toAmerican pupils for the first time. Thecomposer John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951) was one of the most prominentof her students to benefit from Deppe'srevolutionary teaching approach to pi-ano technique.

Believing strongly in the mission ofthe women's music clubs that worked

to develop taste and understandingamong amateurs, she joined the "Ama-teur Musical Club" and founded the

"Artists' Club." Amy continued to write,contributing frequently to The Etude,and was a popular lecturer, frequentlyspeaking at national meetings of theMusic Teachers' National Association.

The young pianists she had encoun-tered in Europe frequently impressed heras "persons destitute of culture outsideof their music, either of mind or heart."

Consequently, in her writings and lec-tures, she emphasized the musician's needfor a well-rounded education.

Meanwhile, her brother Normanbegan the movement to found the Chi-cago Symphony Orchestra, establishedin 1891, and hired Theodore Thomas

(1835-1905), America's then best-known conductor, to lead them. In1890, Amy's sister Rose (1856-1929)became the second Mrs. Thomas. Rose

used her position to champion highermusical standards and women's full par-ticipation in composition and perfor-mance by moving to organize what wasto become the National Federation of

Music Clubs, still a potent force.Rose chaired the four-day national

convention of thirty-eight women'samateur musical clubs at the Music

Building during the 1893 World'sColumbian Exposition in Chicago. Thereports of each club's activities remain atestament to their signal importance inlaying the foundation for appreciationof classical music in America.

During the Exposition, on July 7,Rose also delivered a paper "The Workof Woman's Amateur Musical Clubs inAmerica" at the Women's Musical Con-

gress (July 5-7), chaired by the promi-nent Chicago musician Mrs. George B.Carpenter. Rose emphasized the fact thatthe musical culturing of the nation wasmainly in the hands of the women and

urged the assembly to persuade theirmen to support their educational efforts.

At the same session, violinist CamillaUrso ( 1842-1902) strongly advocatedthe right of women players to be admit-ted as members of professional orches-tras. At that time, the all-male musicians'unions barred women from membership

and from playing in orchestras, thusspawning the formation of women's or-chestras with which Amy and her sisterZina were to become involved.

On July 5, Amy delivered a paper on"The Piano" at the Women's Musical

Congress during the same session thatviolinist Maud Powell (1867-1920)spoke on "Woman and the Violin."Amy's remarks revealed her deep lovefor the piano, "a companion andfriend...a lifelong source of joy...Awhole orchestra in itself, ...the only in-strument which can reproduce the mu-sic which is written for all the others;

and if one be living in a remote countrytown,...he can still make the acquain-tance of Beethoven's symphonies, witha piano .... "

Pianist-composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) performed her own compositionsand two songs of Crcile Chaminade(1857-1944) were sung at that session,vividly demonstrating the growing con-tributions of women to music.

Moving to New York in 1890, Amycontinued all aspects of her professionallife, even giving evening piano recitalssponsored by the Board of Education inthe New York public schools. Althoughshe maintained her good reputation asa teacher, she forthrightly attributed herlack of pupils to discrimination againstwomen in the profession on the part ofyoung students. "As a rule, boys andyoung men do not study music. Younggirls find it more interesting to take of aman teacher...A woman of my

acquaintance...said... 'Will you pleasetell me of some good man teacher inNew York! My niece is going to takelessons in music this winter, and she de-clares she won't take of a woman.' I

meekly named several men teachers anddid not once suggest that in my own

misguided opinion I could teach theyoung girl as well as any of them. I knewit would be of no use, for a man shewould have!"

Amy wrote sympathetically of thedilemma facing women teachers: "Ifwomen teach in schools, it is usually asunder-teachers, poorly paid. If they donot teach in schools or conservatories,

they must depend upon their own mag-netic qualities to attract pupils. It is aprecarious means of support, and I of-ten wonder what becomes of the old

music teachers .... The elderly teachersmust be shelved, and how in the worlddo they save enough to live on?"

Amy's feminism grew strongerthrough the years as she experienced theinequalities in her profession. As a stu-dent, Deppe's manner of working withhis two female assistants provided herwith an ideal ofparmered abilities. Amywrites, "Together, they form a verystrong pair... He has made them magnifi-cent teachers, and they employ their giftsto further him. Through them hismethod will be perpetuated [it was], andhe has given them something to live for.Curious that the practicalness of this as-sociation with women doesn't strike themasculine mind oftener!"

By 1900, Amy had observed andexperienced enough of the obstacles fac-ing women with artistic talent to writeperceptively in the October issue ofMusic: "Women have been too much

taken up with helping and encouragingmen to place a proper value on their owntalent, which they are too prone to un-derestimate and to think not worth mak-

ing the most of... Ruskin was quite rightwhen he so patronizingly said that'Woman's chief function is praise.' Shehas praised and praised, and kept herselfin abeyance." However, Amy was en-couraged enough by women's progressto note a change. "Women are begin-ning to realize that they, too, have brains,and even musical ones." She did much

to fuel that awakening.In New York, Amy and Zina joined

forces to encourage women, as perform-ers, composers, and organizers, to takethe fullest part. In 1899, Zina foundedThe Women's Philharmonic Society ofNew York. Amy served as its presidentfrom 1903 through 1914. The Society,which lasted at least until 1916, sup-ported women musicians in perfor-mance, composition, theory, and musichistory. By 1910 it had more than 200

continued on page 29

8 Signature

°:° BY JANE AMBROSE AND PAMELA BLEVINS

The Triumph of Art

Musical Life at the House of Prussia

HE BEST-KNOWN MEMBER of the

musical Royal House ofPrussia is Frederick the Great,but two of his sisters,

Wilhelmina and Anna Amalie, and aniece, another Anna Amalie, also madeimportant contributions to the art.

Each might have experienced greatersuccess and higher recognition had theiraspirations and gifts not been ridiculedand maligned by young Frederick'scruel, intolerant and abusive father, KingFrederick William I (1688-1740).

The 10 surviving children of this ty-rant grew up in a household where dis-harmony and violence were part of aroutine that often left them coweringin fear. The only stabilizing force in thefamily was Frederick William's wife,Sophia Dorothea, (1687-1757), thedaughter of King George I of Great Brit-ain. While her husband hurled insults

at his talented son, berating his love ofmusic, calling him "effeminate" and"dirty," taking books away from him andsubjecting him to frequent beatings, thelong-suffering but shallow and preten-tious Sophia Dorothea encouraged herchildren in their musical pursuits, ar-ranged concerts at her castle (when herhusband was away) and generally treatedthem with kindness.

Her elegant and comfortable roomin the palace provided a safe haven forthe children who loved to be with their

mother when they were little. As theygrew older, they began to see throughher thin veneer and were inclined to dis-tance themselves from her.

Young Prince Frederick's greatestally against his father in the family wasnot his mother, but his sister FredericaSophia Wilhelmina, born in 1709.Nearly three years older than herbrother, Wilhelmina exercised consider-able influence over him and was a will-

ing accomplice and instigator with himin childhood acts of revenge against theirfather. She was also a stabilizing forcein his life, encouraging him to read andstudy and helped him establish traits thatled to his fame. Later, in writing abouther life in the royal house, Wilhelminagives the impression that she andFrederick were the only children.

Strong-willed, independent and de-fiant, Princess Wilhelmina also sufferedcruelly at the hands of Frederick Will-iam, whose only interest in his daugh-ters was to use them as pawns in estab-lishing his own significant political alli-ances through their marriages. He carednothing for the sensitive natures of someof his children which he regarded as

weakness. He would kick and beat

them, drag them by the hair, and havethem shut up like prisoners when theydid something he did not like. In whatstands as an act of outrageous cruelty,he made young Frederick witness thebeheading of his friend Hans Hermannvon Katte, who had helped Frederick inan aborted attempt to flee to Englandto escape his father in 1730.

However, when Frederick Williamwas away, life in the royal household washappy and the castle in Berlin was alivewith music and parties. And at the cen-ter stood Wilhelmina and Frederick with

their "angelic looks." Wilhelmina playedher lute named "Principe" while herbrother played his flute which he called"Principessa."

Frederick had discovered the flute on

a summer evening in 1727 when SophiaDorothea organized a trip on the riverSpree to her castle Monbijou. As theydrifted along the river the sounds of hisfriend Katte's flute blended with the

gentle sounds and fading light that markthe close of day. Frederick was de-lighted. When they arrived on shore,he took the flute from Katte and hold-

ing it expressed the first "tender root"(zarten Wurseln) of his affection for theinstrument. In 1728 his studies with

TH:E ROYAL:FAMILY.O.F PR.USSIA

(

Sophia Dorothea ...... Frederick Wi._._(1687-1757) : (1688-1740)

14 childrer_ including

Wdhelmina (Princess of Prussia) .... FrederiCk (The:Great) Philippine Charlotte AnnaAmalie( I709_17581) ..... ( 1.71.2 _1786) 1716-1801 t 72 3; 1787)

:::DukeErnst :: :.::..iiii.: : :...

.................... _ ......... ............... (.1739.I807):::: (_e-Weimar) ........ :..:.

Signature 9

The musicroom where Frederickthe Great received Bach.

Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773)were pursued in earnest against thewishes of his father. He was forced to

work on his music in secret, resortingto clandestine evenings in his apartmentwith the musical servants he had en-

gaged and with his friends.Wilhelmina also played the flute and

clavier, sang, composed music and po-etry and wrote librettos. In the midstof marital intrigues created by herscheming parents who were trying tomarry her off to the politically or sociallyappropriate partner, the princess wouldretreat to her room and find consola-tion in music.

"To rid myself of these torments, Ireturned to my room, where I sat downbefore my piano-forte, as if I were set-ting an air." When Frederick was awayon state matters from the late 1730s on,he sent many of his compositions toWilhelmina and often wrote to her onmusical matters.

In 1732, Princess Wilhelmina mar-ried Friedrich of Bayreuth, of the Houseof Brandenburg, after her parents' ef-forts to marry her to the Prince of Walesfailed. The Margrave was not an ideal

choice in the eyes of Sophia Dorothea,who told her daughter to live with herhusband "as a sister" so the marriagecould be annulled eventually. Despitethe mother's misgivings, the couple livedcompatibly and had one child, ElizabethFrederica Sophia who became the Duch-ess of Wiirttemberg.

In 1735, the generous Margravebuilt a villa for his wife called "The Her-

mitage," a palace resembling a Frenchcountry house. Here Wilhelmina builtan opera house which opened in 1740with her starring in her own operaArgenore. She also worked on herMemoirs and entertained some of the

great personages of the day includingFrederick's friend Voltaire who found

her presence soothing after being in thecompany of her sometimes contrarybrother.

In 1740, the tyrannical FrederickWilliam died, ending a paternal reign ofterror that had so badly scarred his chil-dren. Prince Frederick ascended thethrone and became an absolute ruler

who ranks among the most notable ofbenevolent despots. He continued topursue his interests in the arts, science,philosophy, history and poetry, all ofwhich he studied diligently. He invitedJohann Sebastian Bach to visit him in1747 and the master accepted. With-out any preparation, Frederick played an"exceedingly beautiful" theme and re-quested Bach to develop a fugue fromit, a pleasant task that resulted in the fa-mous Musical Offering. In 1758,Frederick the Great suffered the deep-est grief of his life when Wilhelmina died.Never a healthy woman, she was proneto illness and had survived scarlet fever

and small pox. Her final ailment con-fined her to bed for months with "a

headache all over her body," painful ab-scesses, and her face, hands and legsswollen. With her death, the powerfulbond of childhood had been broken andFrederick was left to face the rest of his

Wilhelmina, 6 and Frederick, 3 in anengraving from a painting. Wilhelmina wasa stabilizing force in her brother's life. Sheencouraged him to read and study andhelped him establish traits that led to hisfame. (Courtesy Jane Ambrose)

life without his trusted confidante and

friend. "There is no happiness for mein life without you," he wrote shortlybefore her death. No one could take

her place. He soon described himself as"eaten with grief, riddled with infirmi-ties, just about fit to be thrown to thedogs." The light had gone out of hisspirit.

His brothers and sisters attempted toconsole him, but they were muchyounger and had not suffered the ex-treme stress, imprisonments and brut-ish abuse that had driven Frederick and

Wilhelmina to cling to each other. Ashared love of music did exist, however,

between Frederick and his youngest sis-ter Anna Amalie, Princess of Prussia,born in 1723.

Encouraged by Frederick, Annastudied music from an early age. Herbrother was her first teacher and like

him, her taste in music was conserva-tive, a fact revealed later both in her owncompositions and in the works she col-lected.

At the age of 17, she began the studyof the harpsichord and piano withGottlieb Hayne, a Berlin cellist and ca-thedral organist. She became a "bril-liant" keyboard performer and laterstudied flute, organ and violin. Duringthe period of her studies with Hayne,

10 Signature

she started a collection of music which

would eventually include autographscores by Bach, early printed editions ofthe Brandenberg Concertos, St. Mat-thew Passion and the B-minor Mass

as well as works by Handel, Telemannand Palestrina. The collection reveals

her own high level of musical education.Known as the "Amalien Bibliothek', itis housed in Berlin and regarded as oneof the most valued collections of its kind

in the world today.Although Anna Amalie began com-

posing around 1744, she did not for-mally study composition until 1758when she appointed Johann PhilippKirnberger (1721-1783), a pupil ofBach, as court composer. Kirnberger didnot allow his students to attend concerts

because he feared they might be misledby "new music." Her teacher's conser-vative approach fit perfectly with herown attitudes and she eventually losttouch with the work of her contempo-raries.

She steadfastly rejected music in thenew "galant" rococo style in favor of theold baroque style. She rejected operareformer Christoph Willibald Gluck(1714-1787), declaring he would neverbe successful because he composed bor-ing melodies and had no invention.However, she was a disciple of Bach andamong her contemporaries admired hisson, C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788).

The Princess of Prussia was a harsh

critic of her own compositions and veryfew survive. Although she wrote sona-tas, songs and chorales, she began pro-ducing marches for band in 1767 and isprobably the only woman composer todevote so much effort to this form.

Anna Amalie suffered her own hard-

ships and has been described as an ec-centric whose "abruptness and lack ofbalance in her nature gave her a singu-lar place in the court and in her royalfamily.'" When she fell in love withCharles Theodore, Duke of Deux-Ponts-Neubourg (1724-1799), Frederick, in anact characteristic of his own father, hadthe young man imprisoned for ten years.

The Princess never left Berlin and

lived out her days as Abbess ofQuedlinburg, a royal holding, acceptingher brother's dictum that she must never

marry. She died in 1787 after a longillness that blinded her and robbed herof the use of her hands.

The fourth member of the Prussian

royal musical quartet was the secondAnna Amalie, born in 1739. Named for

her aunt, she was the daughter of

Frederick and Wilhelmina's younger sis-ter Philippine Charlotte (1716-1801)and her husband Duke Carl I of

Brunswick. Like her aunt and uncle, shepossessed a fine musical talent and re-ceived a thorough music education atthe court where she studied with

Friedrich Gottlob Fleischer (1722-1806), court pianist, organist and com-poser.

Early in life, she distanced herselffrom her parents, feeling that they ne-glected her in favor of her brothers andsisters. In 1756, she left their courtwhen she married 18-year-old DukeErnst of Saxe-Weimar, a move that

would eventually lead to a friendship andcollaboration with the great romanticpoet and writer Johann WolfgangGoethe (1749-1832).

Shortly after her arrival in Saxe-Weimar, Anna Amalie, now the Duch-ess, hired composer Ernst Wilhelm Wolff(1735-1792) to give her private lessonsand to teach her sons the art of music

when they were older. A nephew andstudent of Bach, Johann Ernst Bach(1722-1777) was serving as Kapellmeister.The seeds for what would become "The

Court of Muses" had been planted andthroughout her life Anna Amalie wouldnurture them.

At the age of 19, the young Dukedied leaving his wife a widow with aninfant son and a second son yet to beborn. Anna Amalie was unexpectedlythrust into leadership roles as guardianof her two children and Regent at thehelm of Saxe-Weimar until her son Karl

August took over in 1775.Weimar was a small village of 6,000

inhabitants, mostly peasants who workedthe land. The rural lifestyle and bucolicsetting lent a "domestic air" to the placethat poets and artists found attractive.

Able to draw on her own interest in

the arts, Anna Amalie, as Duchess ofSaxe-Weimar, found herself in an envi-able position. She could easily enlivenher court with intellectuals and artists,including Goethe who came to Weimarin 1775 at the urging of Anna's son KarlAugust. At Weimar, Goethe found a"true home" and a "spiritual family."Between August 1788 and June 1790,the Duchess followed in Goethe's foot-

steps visiting the places he wrote aboutin his Italian Journey.

Her residence was adorned with ob-

jects of classical art, particularly portraits.She possessed "a great round table about

which she gathered the literary lights ofGermany...the whole place seemed tobe filled with the spirit of an intellectualprincess, one of the finest and noblestof Germany's women, one whose nameis held in the highest esteem. "2

Despite her commitment to the arts,Anna Amalie had no lofty ambitions ofher own and seemed content in her role

as a patron and friend of other artists.Yet her own gifts were significant. Inaddition to music, she studied art, Greekand Latin and wrote an occasional es-

say.While her catalogue of music is not

large, it contains work of high quality,particularly in the two Singspiels---op-era with spoken dialogue--Erwin undElmire and Das Jahrmarksfest zu

Plunderweisen based on texts byGoethe. Erwin has been revived nu-

merous times even in the 20th century.The Duchess was a proficient and pol-ished miniaturist who composed songsand harpsichord sonatas. She occasion-ally produced successful works in largerforms including oratorio, sacred chorusesfor voice and orchestra and instrumen-tal works.

Although few people today haveheard of Anna Amalie, the Duchess ofSaxe-Weimar, and her aunt the Princessof Prussia, both women made majorcontributions to music and poetry thatcontinue to enlighten and inform newgenerations all over the world. The Prin-cess left a library of rare music manuscriptsthat provides an invaluable resource for

To rid herself of "torments" Jnthe RoyalHouse of Prussia,particularly at the hands ofher brutalfather,Wilhelmina retreated to herroom and found solaceplaying thepiano.(CourtesyJaneAmbrose)

Signature 11

musicians and scholars today• Her niece,

the Duchess, created an atmosphere that

enabled poets, composers, writers and

painters to give full expression to their

gifts.When the Duchess died in 1807, all

of Weimar mourned her. One hundred

years after her death a massive three-vol-

ume study of her life was published.

Jane Ambrose is Professor and Chair

of the Department of Music, University

of Vermont, and the Director of the

George Bishop Land Artist Series•

Pamela Blevins is the editor of Signa-

ture and a public relations consultant•

Curt Sachs, "Prinzessin Amalie yon Preussin

als Musikerin," Hohenzollern Jahrbuch, Vol.

XIV, Berlin 1910, 181.

2 R.W. Moore, Weimar, theAthens of Germany

(1908).

Resources on the Musical Life of the Royal

House of Prussia

Select Bibliography

Hodgetts, E.A. Brayley. The House ofHohenzollern: Two Centuries of Berlin Court

Life. London: 1911.

W'dhelmina:

Cuthell, Edith E. Wilhelmina: Margravine of

Baireuth. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd.,1905.

The Misfortunate Margravine: The Early

Memoirs of Wilhelmina, Margravine of

Bayreuth. London: Macmillan, 1970.

Wright, Constance. A Royal Affinity, The

Story of Frederick the Great and His Sister,Wilhelmina of Bayreuth. New York: Charles

Scribner's Sons, 1965.

Frederich the Great:

Asprey, Robert B. Frederick The Great: The

Magnificent Enigma. New York: 1986.

Gaxotte, Pierre. Frederick the Great. NewHaven, Connecticut: 1942.

Helm, Ernest Eugene. Music at the Court ofFrederick the Great. Norman, Oklahoma:1960.

Martens, Hans. "Friedrich der Grosse und

Quantz," Zeitschriftfiir Musik, 1: 26-27.

McCulloch, Derek. "A Lesson on the King

of Prussia: A New Look at the Compositionsof Frederick the Great," German Life and

Letters, 48:1 (January 1995).

Mitford, Nancy. Frederick the Great. New

York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1970.

Anna Amalie, Princess of Prussia:

Ambrose, Jane. "Anna Amalie•" In Historical

Anthology of Music by Women, edited by JamesR. Briscoe, 84-85• Bloomington: Indiana

Anna Amalie, the Duchess of Saxe-Weimar, center, surrounded by her "Court of Muses,"

including the Romantic poet Goethe whose texts she set to music. (Courtesy Jane Ambrose)

University Press, 1987•

Blechschmidt, Eva Renate. Die

Amalienbibliothek. Catalog. Berliner Studien

zur Musikwissenschaft. Berlin: Verlag

Merseburger, 1965.

Hall, Marnie. Woman's Work: Works by

Famous Women Composers. (Liner notes)Gemini Hall Records, 1975.

Helm, Eugene. "Anna Amalie," In New

Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,

edited by Stanley Sadie, 439. London:

Macmillan Press, 1980.

Jezic, Diane Peacock• Women Composers: TheLost Tradition Found. 2nd edition prepared

by Elizabeth Wood. New York: The Feminist

Press at the City University of New York,1988.

Sachs, Curt, "Prinzessin Amalie yon Preussin

als Musikerin," Hohenzollern Jahrbuch XIV,Berlin: 1910, 181-91•

Anna Amalie, Duchess of Saxe-Weimar:

Abert, Anna Amalie. "Anna Amalie," In New

Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,

edited by Stanley Sadie, 439-40• London:

Macmillan Press, 1980.

Biedrynski, Effi. Goethes Weimar: Das Lexicon

Personen und Schauplatze. Zurich: 1992.

Bruford, Walter• Culture and Society in

Classical Weimar, 1775-1806• Cambridge,

England: 1962.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Italian Journey.

London: Penguin Books, 1970.

Hohendorf, Horst. The Life & Times of

Goethe• New York: The Curtis Publishing

Company, 1966.

Hall, Marnie. Woman's Work: Works by

Famous Women Composers• (Liner notes)Gemini Hall Records, 1975.

Jezic, Diane Peacock• Women Composers: The

Lost Tradition Found. 2nd edition prepared

by Elizabeth Wood. New York: The Feminist

Press at the City University of New York,1988.

Moore, Robert Webber. Weimar: TheAthens

of Germany. Colgate University, 1908.

Select Music in Print

Amalie, Princess of Prussia. Sonata for Flute.

In Historical Anthology of Music by Women,edited by James IL Briscoe. Bloomington:

Indiana University Press, 1987.

The sonatas of Frederick the Great and Anna

Amalie, Princess of Prussia, are published in

Berliner Sonaten, volume 1, edited by HugoRuE Mainz: Schott, 1993.

Select Discography

Anna Amalie, Princess of Prussia• Three

Regimental Marches• Gemini Hall Records

(1975) (rare LP).

• Regiments

miirche. Musical Heritage Society 660 (rareLP).

Anna Amalie, Duchess of Saxe-Weimar.

Erwin und Elmire. Gemini Hall Records,

RAP 1010, (1975) (rare LP).

• Aufdem Lande und in der Stad_, also, Sie Scheinen

zu spielen. Deutsche Grammophon 2533149(rare LP)

Concerto for Twelve Instruments and Cembalo;

also, Divertimento for Strings and Piano• Kurt

Ropf, cond., Vienna Chamber Orch.; RosarioMarciano, piano; Vox Turnabout, TV 34754

(1980) LP.

ii:

12 Signature

o:°BY ELAINE FINE

The. Pauline Via 'dot, MariaAmaz.mg Malibran the First FamilyGarclas of l9th-Cenr, try Opera

AULINEVL_tRDOT-GARcIA, one of the most remark-able women of all time, was the youngest child ofsingers Joaquina Stiches, an actress and soprano fromMadrid, and Manuel Garcia, a tenor from Seville.

Her family inspired composers from the 19th to the earlypart of the 20th century--Rossini through Faur_--to writeopera roles, lieder, and instrumental works. Many novelistsused Garcia family members as models for characters. Herelder sister Mafia Malibran was one of the first opera superstars to command a huge salary and be heralded in cities likeVenice with a fanfare of trumpets to announce her arrival.Pauline's brother Manuel Patrico Garcia, who lived morethan 100 years, was celebrated as the inventor of theLaryngoscope, a device that revcAutionized diagnostic medi-cine.

Michelle Ferdinande Pauline was born in Paris on July

18, 1821, the third gifted child of Manuel and Joaquina. Inthe years before her birth, however, her parents lived likecharacters in a novel, their lives full of drama, deception,intrigue, romance, adventure and adulation.

Joaquina Stiches was born in 1780 and came from a the-atrical family who used the stage name of Briones. At twenty-two when she met Manuel Garcia ( 1775-1832 ), she had beena widow for two years. They met on stage, and soon marrieddespite the fact that Manuel was already married to a dancerManuela de Morales. Since divorce in Spain was impossible,Joaquina masqueraded as Manuel's mistress in order to coverup his crime of bigamy. Eventually Manuel Garcia and histwo wives traveled to France believing they could obtain adivorce, but found the laws there as strict as they were inSpain.

Joaquina and Manuel left their son Manuel Patrico, bornin 1805, in Spain with Joaquina's family and remained inFrance. Morales returned to Spain, never to be heard from

oE

O

Her father, the famous singer Manuel Garcia was Maria's teacher.A strict and abusive man, he would not allow the word "cannot" tobe spoken in the home and once threatened to shoot Maria if shedid not learn an opera role in a matter of days.

again, and the Garcia family never re-turned to Spain. The Garcias created afanciful story to cover Manuel's bigamy:that Joaquina was of noble birth and

upon preparing to enter a convent wastaken, one last time, to the theater.There she heard Manuel Garcia sing andfell in love with him.

Their second child, Maria Felicia, wasborn in 1808, shortly after her parentsarrived in Paris. She was tri-lingual frombirth: Spanish was spoken at home,French was the language of their coun-try, and Italian was the language of op-era. At the age of five, Maria played achild's role in the now forgotten operaAgnese in Naples. Several nights after

the opening, in an act of unusual bold-ness for so young a child, she won cheersfrom the audience when she started to

sing the part of Agnese in a duet in thesecond act!

She began studies of sight-reading

and piano at the age of seven. In 1817,Manuel Garcia and his family crossed theEnglish Channel and settled in Londonfor two years where Maria learned thelanguage and made such impressiveprogress on the piano that by the age of11 she could play many of Bach's com-plex clavier works.

She and her brother, who had beenreunited with his parents in 1814, be-gan taking voice lessons together from

their father. Manuel senior was a strict

and very abusive teacher who would notpermit the word "cannot" to be spokenin the home. The children feared his rages.Maria developed the rare ability of be-ing able to sing and cry at the same timebecause she often cried during lessonsand would turn her back to her father

so he wouldn't see her crying.Manuel Patrico had little interest in

becoming a professional singer and quitthe stage in 1829 to devote his energiesto teaching, scientific studies of the voiceand writing. He taught many famoussingers of the day including the "Swed-ish nightingale" Jenny Lind. He retiredfrom teaching at the age of 90 and the

Signature 13

American painter John Singer Sargentpainted his portrait in honor of ManuelPatrico's centennial.

Maria made her debut in London in

1825 at the age of 17 playing Rosina inRossini's The Barber of Seville. She hadknown the opera since early childhood,and Rossini had written the part ofAlmaviva for her father. Though she wasonly given three days to prepare for the

"Manuel [Garcia] was a

strict and very abusive

teacher who would not

allow the word "cannot" to

be spoken in the home."

role, her debut was a success and shecontinued singing throughout the 1825season, even performing with Velluti(1781-1861), the last castrato. For thesix weeks she worked in London, sheearned £500, a substantial income at a

time when a salary of£100 a year wasconsidered generous.

With the help of Lorenzo da Ponte,an Italian poet and libretist for some ofMozart's most famous operas, the Garciafamily presented The Barber of Sevillelater that year in New York. This pro-duction marked the first time that Ital-

ian grand opera was performed in the"New World," and Maria was an instantstar in her portrayal of Rosina. Her fa-ther played Almaviva, her brother playedFigaro (his operatic debut), and hermother played Bertha.

Maria continued playing Rosina toher father's Almaviva and Desdemona

to her father's Otello on stage and off.Their relationship was very difficult andApril FitzLyon, Pauline's biographer,even suggests the possibility of incest.At 17 Mafia tried desperately to find ahusband in order to escape the tyrannyof her father, and soon married EugeneMalibran, a seemingly wealthy 45-year-old Spanish-American businessman/banker. Her father "charged" him agreat deal of money for Maria, butwithin a year Eugene Malibran was bank-rupt and New York had been saturatedwith Maria's art. She returned to Paris

alone in 1827 in order to raise moneyto pay her husband's debts. ThoughMafia enjoyed the freedom that beingmarried gave a woman, she soon forgother husband. The condition of his bank-

ruptcy left her legally flee to leave himand she seized the opportunity.

Young, vivacious, daring and darklybeautiful, Maria dazzled audiences inLondon, the Gloucester Three ChoirsFestival and Paris with her originality andspirit. She was commanding as much as£125 per night payable in advance for aperformance. When soprano HenrietteSontag (1806-1854) married and retiredfrom the stage Malibran had no rivals.Instead of becoming indifferent to herart now that she alone was the primadonna, Malibran continued to improveher technique, interpretation and pre-sentation.

Malibran was an extraordinarilygifted woman. In addition to singing,she also composed music which was verypopular. Her work Les dernierespeus&es musicales was a best seller, andher music was praised by Berlioz,Schumann and later Debussy. The songLeve toi Jeune Enfant is a haunting,simple melody in the style of a Spanishballad, similar in color to Almavia's Span-ish ballad in Rossini's Barber of Seville

(a song if not written by her father, waswritten for him). The melodic tensionevokes melodies of Chopin, a great ad-mirer of Malibran's singing. He said helearned his "rubato" style from her.Later, Malibran's sister Pauline becamea close friend of Chopin, who lovedmaking music with her. She set some ofhis mazurkas to texts by Louis Pomey,and said that she learned her rubato sytlefrom Chopin!

An avid sportswoman, Malibran rodehorseback, swam and learned to fence.

...."Young, vivacious, daring

and darkly beautiful,

Maria dazzled

audiences.., commanding

as much as £125 a night

payable in advance for a

performance."

She was also talented artist who paintedportraits--the opera composer Bellini(1801-1835) was one of her subjects--and she liked to amuse herself drawingcaricatures of her friends and associates.

She pushed herself unmercifully at timesand even appeared on stage when shewas ill.

14 Signature

8621880

ii i iiiiiiiiii!ii! iiiiiii]i !iiiiiiiii i iii iii iiii!i iiiiiiiiiii!iiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiii

_ :l_?] ]i][:.[::]]:.]][] []][]]ii]::]]i]ii]]]]]1][]]]][_]:._ai_ iiii

_;: :: : i::i :: :iI:!:i!: !i:i:ii:!i:!::i:ii!:i:i:::::i i !::::! :i!::i::ii:::i:;:i:::::i

The year 1830 was one of transitionand change for the young singer. Shewas at the height of her career, unrivaled,in great demand and well-paid when shemet and fell in love with the Belgian vio-linist Charles de Beriot (1802-1870).

A handsome yet cold man, de Beriotis best remembered today as the teacherof Henri Vieuxtemps and as the founderof the Franco-Belgian school of violinplaying that was carried forward by Eu-gene Ysaye and his many pupils.

Mafia wanted to marry de Beriot, butsince she was unable to obtain a divorce

from Malibran, she echoed her father'smarriage situation and had an unrecog-nized "secret marriage" with de Beriot.When a highly prudish France learnedthat she was pregnant with de Beriot'schild, her followers refused to acknowl-edge Maria's relationship and aban-doned her. She moved to Brussels with

de Beriot in 1831, where they built ahandsome villa in a suburb. After her

father's death in 1832, Malibran sup-

ported her mother and sister Pauline.Her son Charles Wilfred was born in

February 1833 and she finally obtainedher annulment from Eugene Malibranin 1836. She was free to marry de Beriotand on March 26 of that year becameMafia Felicia de Beriot (ex Malibran).

Meanwhile her career flourished in

England and Italy where followerscheered her for 30 minutes after a per-formance in Venice. She earned a stag-

gering £2,775 for 24 appearances inLondon in 1835 and her position in theworld of music was secure. Then trag-

edy as dramatic and unlikely as someopera plots struck the young woman inher prime.

In April 1836, while she and deBeriot were visiting England Mafia fell

from a horse, her foot caught in the stir-rup and she was dragged some distancedown the road. She had suffered a seri-

ous head injury but told her husbandthat the accident was the result of a fall

on a step. She was pregnant and notsupposed to be riding. Malibran hadmoved through her life recklessly attimes, spurred on perhaps by the senseshe had that she would die young.

After the accident, she continued to

work, however, and in September re-turned to England to appear at theManchester Festival. The first nightthere she sang 14 pieces and on the sec-ond day, although she was weak and ill,she insisted on singing a duet with Ma-dame Caradori Allan. The audience, not

knowing of Malibran's weakened con-dition, demanded an encore, which shegave them. Then as the applause stillthundered in the hall, she collapsedbackstage, unable to take a final bow.She was taken to her hotel where she

lingered for nine days in "a nervous fe-ver." She died 20 minutes after mid-

night, September 23, 1836, at the ageof 28.

Pauline Garcia was only 15 when hersister died. Like Malibran, she possessedextraordinary gifts and was tri-lingualfrom birth. She grew up in an atmo-sphere of art and adventure (during atrip to Mexico when she was about 7years old the family was robbed by high-way bandits) and displayed a singularintelligence and aptitude for learning

"[Pauline]grew up in an

atmosphere of art andadventure.., and

displayed a singular

intelligence and...possessed

an innate force which she

could apply at will to

anything she undertook."

and retaining everything she learned.Languages came to her as easily as playand she had a facility for painting, par-ticularly portraits, that was equal to herother gifts. Pauline possessed an innateforce which she could apply at will toanything she undertook.

Although she lived primarily in theworld of opera, her first love was thepiano. Her father treated Pauline muchdifferently than he treated his older chil-dren. Pauline cites only one instancewhen he struck her--she had repeatedlymade a mistake playing one of his piecesat the piano. The blow was followed by

an explanation that was almost an apol-ogy.

While waiting for Pauline's voice tomature, Manuel sent her to Meysenbergand Franz Liszt for piano instruction,and to Anton Reicha for counterpoint

and composition. Though Pauline cer-tainly absorbed a good deal from as thepiano accompanist for her father's voicelessons, she never studied formally withhim since he died when she was eleven.

At age 14 Pauline began playing con-certs with Mafia and Charles de Beriot,

Signature 15

Maria Malibran

Pauline Viardot-Garcia

Louise H_ritte-Viardot

Top to bottom:

Maria Malibran became one of opera's firstsuperstars to command huge fees and attractlegions of followers throughout Europe.

Pauline fascinated both men and women.

George Sand's novel Consuelo draws afictional portrait of Pauline while composerslike Saint-Sa_ns, Schumann, Gounod andothers composed music for her.

LouiseH&itte-Viardot was PauJine'seldest

child. As a composer and pianist, she waslargely self-taught but she studied voice withher mother.

but on her fifteenth birthday Joaquinamade her close the piano and she begantraining her daughter's voice.

Thanks to the supreme organizationof her mother, Pauline made her sing-ing debut in Brussels with de Beriot1837, one year after her sister's death.This performance was followed by anappearance in Germany, where Paulinemet Clara Wieck (Schumann) who wrotein her diary that Pauline had the soul ofa genuine artist and "is the most musi-cal singer who exists." Years later in aletter to Brahms, Clara wrote, "[Pauline]is the most gifted woman I have evermet."

Pauline's formal debut took place onMay 9, 1838, at Her Majesty's Theatrein London as Desdemona in Rossini'sOteUo. Her Paris debut that autumnin the same role was immortalized in a

popular poem by Alfred de Musset(1810-1857), who was still recoveringfrom a tumultuous relationship withGeorge Sand (1804-1876). De Mussetwrote a great deal in various publicationsabout Pauline's singing and is largelyresponsible for her public success in Parisand the opening of her career.

Joaquina was grateful to him fbrdoing so much for her daughter, andwhen he made it evident that he wanted

to marry Pauline, she had few reserva-tions. Fortunately, when Pauline wassinging at Charlotte Marliani's Salon, shemet George Sand who discouraged herfrom marrying the brilliant and talentedbut alcoholic and unstable de Musset.

Sand took on the task of "arranging" amarriage with their mutual friend LouisViardot, a politically liberal Hispanophilewho had helped both Sand and MariaMalibran with their divorces.

Sand thought that as an artist Pauline

needed a stable, passionless (on her part)marriage to an older man. The 45-year-old Viardot was already the manager ofthe Theater Italien in Paris, wherePauline was singing, and was quite will-ing to court his 18-year-old primadonna. When they married in 1840, heresigned his post and devoted himselfto managing Pauline's career. Uponreturning to Paris, after their honey-moon trip to Italy, where she met FannyMendelssohn-Hensel in Naples, Paulinefound that she had been replaced byback-biting, mediocre singers. Shefound refuge at Sand's estate Nohant.

Sand began work on Consuelo, anovel whose heroine is modeled on

Pauline: a diligent, hard-working,homely girl with acute intelligence, abeautiful voice, and "sensible shoes,"who travels from 18th-century Venice

through the capitals of the musicalworld. The novel is concerned with the

purpose of art and the role of the artist,religion, and social reform.

Pauline loved this portrait, and heldmany of Sand's ideals, but was not a fic-tional character. When George Sandfound that Pauline had fallen in love with

her son, Maurice, she immediately set

"... in a letter to Brahms,

Clara wrote '[Pauline] is

the most gifted woman I

have ever met. '"

to work on arranging a marriage for herson. Maurice eventually grew out of hisinfatuation, and Pauline and George re-mained lif_-long friends.

In 1843, the Viardots left their 2-

year-old daughter Louise with Sand andChopin in Nohant and journeyed to St.Petersburg, Russia, where Pauline be-came the first tbreigner to sing the Ital-ian repertory and Russian music in Rus-sian. She was so highly respected inRussia that she eventually became thechannel through which Russian musicflowed into Europe.

Throughout her long life, Paulinewas an attractive figure for both men andwomen of letters, artists, composers,musicians and intellectuals who were

fascinated by her and whose imagina-tions she stirred. Berlioz, Gounod and

16 Signature

a Belgian painter Ary Scheffer fell in lovewith her.

During her first visit to Russia,Pauline met Ivan Turgenev, who fellpassionately and publicly in love withher. She appeared in his short stories

and plays, and though later she recipro-cated his love and his friendship, at firstshe saw him as only one of her manyadmirers. Pauline's husband, whosegreatest literary achievement was histranslation of Don Quixote, must havebeen amused by this real-life DonQuixote who held Pauline as his

Dulcinea. Louis eventually welcomedTurgenev as a perpetual house guest attheir castle-estate Courtavenel, and latertheir home in Baden-Baden, where hespent his days hunting with him and hisnights translating Turgenev's works intoFrench.

The nature of Pauline's relationshipwith Turgenev was complicated. Shehad never been in love with her h,lsband,

but also had tremendous "will power"to control her emotions when necessary.Perhaps the most important result of herrelationship with Turgenev was theirmutual support of and respect for eachother's work.

On stage, Pauline's powers of execu-tion were astonishing and original. Shepossessed a remarkable inventive power,intellectual force and consummate mas-

tery over all the resources of her art. A

mezzo soprano, her voice encompassedmore than three octaves, from the bassC to F in alt., and has been described as"expressive" though "thin and some-times even harsh," but she had the abil-ity to turn her deficiencies into art.

She toured Europe until her retire-

ment from opera in 1862, appearing inLondon every season from 1848 to1858, often commanding twice the usualfee for her work. She created the title

role of Sapho in Gounod's opera andMeyerbeer wrote the role of Fid_s in Leproph&e for her. She gave the first per-formances of Brahms's Alto Rhapsody,and Schumann, Saint-Sa_ns and Faur6all dedicated music to her.

In 1863, the Viardots retired toBaden-Baden and Pauline continued to

appear in recitals. She also turned herenergies to composition, spent moretime playing the piano and resumed herfriendship with Clara Schumann who,encouraged by Pauline, had purchaseda cottage at Baden-Baden. Writing inhis memoirs published in 1919, com-poser Camille Saint-Sa_ns recalled

Vivacious, daring and darkly beautiful,Maria lived recklessly and pushed herselfunmercifully, even appearing on stage whenill. She was an avid sportswoman whorode, fenced and swam, but she alsopainted and composed music.

Pauline's great talent as a pianist."We saw this [great talent] one

evening at a concert given by MadameSchumann. After Madame Viardot had

sung some of Schumann's lieder with thegreat pianist playing the accompani-ments, the two great artists played theillustrious author's (Schumann) duet fortwo pianos, which fairly bristles with dif-ficulties, with equal virtuosity." (Saint-Sa_ns' emphasis)

During the Baden-Baden years ad-venture entered Pauline's life again whenthe Franco-Prussian War threatened the

"Pauline's powers ofexecution were

astonishing... She possessed

a remarkable inventive

power, intellectual force

and consummate

mastery..."

calm of their village. After the declara-tion of war, Pauline's husband left Im-mediately for France, but Pauline and

her children (three daughters and a son)stayed behind. Battle raged around

them and the reverberation of heavy gunfire nearby shook the ground in Baden-

Baden. Pauline and her daughters stayedon making clothes and helping woundedsoldiers until Napoleon was captured.According to Clara's daughter Eugenie,as the news of his defeat reached her,Pauline "got up and put down her scis-sors, saying, "Venez, mes enfants,' andwent out with her daughters. A few dayslater they left for Paris, never to returnto Baden."

She joined her husband in Paris, de-voting her time to teaching and compo-sition. She published 60 songs from hercollection of more than 100 and com-

posed operettas including three writtento libretti of Turgenev. In 1904 at theage of 83 she composed CendriUon, agrand opera in the French style.Viardot-Garcia also wrote a great dealof piano music and even composed vio-lin music. Her Sonatine, written in the1890s, is dedicated to her son Paul's

teacher Hubert L_onard. It is very muchin the French style of the 19th century,but her more adventurous SixMorceaux reveal more of her

polycultural life. The Romance is verymuch like Faurr, Bohemienne reflectsthe Franco-Belgian character style popu-larized by de Beriot and Vieuxtemps, theBerceuse is like a Russian ballet scene,the Mazurka plays homage to Chopin,but is more international and gypsy-like,the Vielle Chanson is much like the

writing Kreisler did thirty years later, andthe Tarantella is very much in the styleof opera buffa. Her work was praisedby her contemporaries, particularly byTchaikovsky, and she remained an im-portant friend and adviser to Berlioz,Gounod, and Saint-Saens.

Her compositional style traverses the19th century: dramatic scenes set to

words of Racine, songs set to poetry ofTurgenev, Pushkin, Gautier, and deMusset, and transcriptions of Gluck andJomelli. Her songs are superbly craftedand confident, and the music alwaysseems drawn from the poetry. Viardot'sPushkin songs in German translation,with an energetic Spanish piano part,have the feeling of Zarzuela (19th-cen-tury Spanish operetta), with harmonic

tensions that sound Russian. Chopingreatly admired the vocal transcriptionsshe made of some of his Mazurkas.

Louis Viardot died in 1883 andPauline remained in Paris where she be-

came a highly respected professor ofsinging at the Paris Conservatoire. She

Signature 17

Eugenie Schumann

Remembers Pauline

Viardot-Garcia

She was not beautiful, I even

thought her features plain, but theypossessed an exotic and fascinatingcharm which held the eyes riveted

upon them. Her manner was thatof a great lady, self-assured, viva-cious, and energetic in every move-ment; her conversation was spar-kling and original. Her whole per-sonality expressed joy of life, of ac-tivity and movement.

She once sang a duet with atenor, when her part ended with ashake [trill]. She held on and on;the audience was breathless; her

partner glanced at her in amaze-ment, then he offered her a chair.She smiled and continued her shake.

He drew out his watch and held ittowards her. When at last she ended

with a perfect appogiatura, the au-dience broke into thunderous ap-plause. An encore was insistedupon; she sat down at the piano andsang a Chopin mazurka to Frenchwords. Turning sideways to heraudience, she gave a performancesuch as I have never seen or heard

since. She sang, spoke, acted, smiledso that each individual felt she wassinging, speaking, smiling for himalone. Not a muscle in her face re-mained inactive; vitality, fire,

charm animated every feature.Had it been done for mere effect by

anyone not agenius, one would havethought it grotesque, but no onecould ever have felt this aboutPauline Viardot. She studied effectsin minutest detail; but is not thatthe highest art which, after havinggiven the artist sleepless nights andmany hours of strenuous work, ap-pears perfectly simple and sponta-neous? Pauline Viardot's art was

like this. She gave herself, expressedher own personality to perfection.

From The Memoirs of EugenieSchumann, English edition, 1927

lived her remaining years teaching, com-

posing, entertaining, painting and add-ing to her important collection of auto-graphs which included the original scoreof Mozart's Don Giovanni, Bach's can-tata Schmucke dich, Mendelssohn's set-ting of the 42nd Psalm and a scherzo byBeethoven among others. She died qui-etly in Paris on May 18, 1910, at theage of 89 having herself produced an-other generation of musicians.

Her son Paul (1857-1941) won earlysuccess as a violinist and also became a

composer, conductor and writer whosebooks include a history of music in Paris,a study of Scandinavian music and an au-tobiography.

Pauline's oldest daughter Louise,born in 1841, was also a composer anda professional singer. Though she spentlittle of her childhood with her family,times between their tours and her board-

ing school were filled with visits from

adult friends who enjoyed Louise's dili-gence and talent. Like her father, sheenjoyed hunting and writes as percep-tively in her Memories and Adventuresabout the natural world as she does themusical one.

As a pianist and composer she wasself-taught, but she studied voice withher mother. Louise served as the pia-nist for Pauline's popular Thursday Sa-lon, often sight reading for an audienceof Europe's most critical and importantmusicians and writers. She married a

diplomat and traveled to South Africa.Eventually she joined the faculty of theSt. Petersburg Conservatory and afterestablishing her own opera school inBerlin, spent the rest of her life inHeidelberg.

Louise wrote five piano quartets,four string quartets, two piano trios,some lieder, an operetta, and some can-tatas. Her 1883 piano quartet "ImSommer" was published in 1912 underthe name L. H&itte-Viardot. This work

has German structure and harmony,French texture and color, and Russian-influenced melodic material. This quar-tet is a fine work that is virtually un-known, at least in America (the score isin the Washington University of St.Louis Library).

Louise's sister Claudie (1852-1914)had more childhood time with her fam-

ily and extended family. She was the fa-vorite Viardot child of Turgenev and anexcellent painter. She married a printerand had three children. Her youngersister Marianne is primarily known as the

woman who broke the heart of Gabriel

Faur& Faur_ dedicated many works tothe Viardots: the songs, opus 4 and 7,to Pauline, and opus 8 and 10 to Claudieand Marianne, and his first violin sonatato the youngest Viardot child Paul.

Pauline Viardot-Garcia was a remark-

able woman, a genius and visionary ofthe highest spiritual order who tracedher deep "innate faith" to earliest child-hood. She held the firm conviction that

the soul is immortal, and that all lovesshall one day be united: "[I]n order toreach the goal, one must be put to thetest of several existences in the spheres,in worlds ever lovelier and better .... I DOknow...that there is within us a divine

spark which does not perish, and whichwill end in becoming part of the greatlife. Do you believe so, my friend? Oh,try to have confidence and faith likeme--you will see how good and beauti-ful it is!"

Elaine Fine is a native of Boston now

living in Charleston, Illinois, where sheis classical music director of WEIU-FM

and plays viola in the LaVeck StringQuartets.

Resources on the Garcia Family

Select Discography

Pauline Viardot-Garcia Songs, Karin Ott,soprano, Christoph Keller, piano, CPO #999044-2

Lieder (also features Clara Schumann,Fanny Mendelssohn, Josephine Lang),Katherine Ciesinski, mezzo-sopranoJohn Ostendorf, bass-baritoneRudolph Palmer, piano(Leonarda LPI 107 record issued 1981)Women's Work, Works by Famous WomenComposers, features 3 songs by PaulineViardot-Garcia (Dites, Que Faut-II Faire,Fluestern, athemscheues Lauschen, DieSterne), one song by Malibran (Le Reveild'un Beau Jour) and the Serenada fromQuartet, Op. 11 by Heritte-Viardot

Mertine Johns, mezzo-soprano, RogerRundle, piano, Yvonne Cable, cello, MichaelMay, piano, The Vieuxtemps Quartet

Gemini Hall, RAP- 1010 / 2-record set withexcellent notes issued in 1975

Select Compositions in PrintHildegard Publishing Company, Box 332,Bryn Mawr, PA 10010 offers a selection ofViardot-Garcia's lieder and works for violinand piano and H6ritte-Viardot's PianoQuartet. Phone 610-649-8649 forinformation.

Other compositions by Viardot-Garcia werepublished by Breitkopfand H_rtel, Schirmerand Hamelle.

18 Signature

After her retirement from the opera, Paulinetaught and composed. She was such a finepianist that Saint-Sa_ns once declared herability equal to that of the great virtuosoClara Schumann.

Boosey and Hawkes, Peters and Hofmeister

published works by Hrritte-Viardot in 1883and 1909.

During her life, Malibran composed and

published nocturnes and songs. A collection

of her unpublished music was collected and

published by Troupenas in Paris under thetitle, "Derni_res Pensees musicales de Marie-

Frlicit6 Garcia de Brtiot" (date not available).

Select Bibliography

For a detailed bibiliography of PaulineViardot-Garcia and Maria Malibran see

entries in The New Grove Dictionary of Music

and Musicians, 1980.

Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians,

1926 edition contains long biographies ofMalibran and Viardot-Garcia as well as an

important entry on the Garcia family.

FitzLyon, April, The Price of Genius: ABiography of Pauline Viardot-Garcia, New

York: Appleton, Century-Crofts, 1964.

, Maria Malibran: Diva

of the Romantic Age, London: Souvenir

Press, 1987.

Bushnell, Howard, Maria Malibran: A

Biography of the Singer, University Park:

Pennsylvania State University Press, 1979.

Hrritte-Viardot, Louise, Memories and

Adventures, London: Mills and Boon, 1913;

reprinted New York: DaCapo, 1978. Alsoprinted in German edition.

Schumann, Eugenie, The Memoirs of Eugenie

Schumann, London: William Heinemann,1927.

The gift that lasts a lifetime...

The Maud Powell

SJh atur¢Women in Music

_In all our years of performing and teaching, we have

never come across a magazine about women in classical

music as resourceful, informative, and beautiful as The

Maud Powell Signature. We believe no musician or mu-

sic library should be without it!"

--Jaime Laredo & Sharon Robinson

TheMaud Powell Signature gives you newinsights and perspectives into the world ofwomen in classical music through profiles oncomposers and performers, past andpresent...features about women in other rolesin music---as educators, writers, patrons of thearts, historians and entrepreneurs.

_............ Signature is named for Maud Powell (1867-___ut__ 1920), America's first great violin virtuoso ofw.... inMos_c international standing who premiered the

Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius concertos inAmerica and was the first solo instrumentalist

to record for the Victor Red Seal label.Each quarterly issue is illustrated with photographs and documents, andfeatures regular columns on music and education, a commentary by anoted woman in music, articles by prominent scholars, notes about books,recordings and research.

Please send gift subscription to: From:

Name Name

Address Address

One year, 4 issues Two years, 8 issues

[] U.S./Canado $28 [] U.S./Canada$54[] Europe/UK $38 SAVEEVENMOREl[] elsewhere

(U.S.dollarsONLY)

I'veenclosedmycheckintheamountof $madepayableto:

TheMaudPowellSignature4942 N. Old DominionDrive

Arlington,VA22207{703)536-7826

Signature 19

o**oBY LISA HANSEN AND WENDY KERNER LUCAS

AMusicalPortrait

C&ile Chaminade

HEN CI_CILE LouiseSTI_PHANIE CHAMINADE

reached the pinnacle ofher fame as a composer in

the early 1900s, she scaled heights fewwoman had ever reached. Her 1908tour of the United States was hailed in a

Washington Post article entitled: "Mme.Chaminade, Greatest Woman Com-

poser, Who Is Now Visiting America,Tells Of Her Dreams."

Chaminade was feted by kings,queens, and heads of governments.Among her many honors, she receivedthe Diamond Jubilee Medal in Englandfrom Queen Victoria, the Chefekat fromthe Sultan of Constantinople, andFrance's highest award, the Chevalier ofthe Legion of Honor.

In the United States as many as twohundred Chaminade Clubs sprang up,yet she died in relative obscurity in 1944.Less than forty years later an article ap-peared in her hometown magazine, LeVesinet, entitled "Who was C4cileChaminade?"

Today few musicians, professional oramateur, could answer that question.Upon reopening the pages into the lifeof one of the most fascinating womenin the annals of music history, one can-not help but recall these lines from thepoem "Ozymandias," by Percy ByssheShelley:

And on the pedestal these words ap-pear:"My name is Ozymandias, the kingof kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, anddespair!"Nothing besides remains. Roundthe decayOf that colossal wreck, boundlessand bareThe lone and level sands stretch faraway.C&ile Chaminade was born on Au-

gust 8, 1857, in Paris, although she listedher birth year as 1861. Her family wasupper-middle class and her father,

Chaminade was a savvy businesswoman who

sensed momentous changes awaiting women.

She believed "There is no sex in art. Genius is

an independent quality."

u

p_

20 Signature

Discovering Chaminade:

Lisa Hansen and Wendy

Kerner Lucas

Lisa: The inspiration and implemen-tation of this article was similar to achamber music performance. It actuallygrew out of a concert program our trio,Serenata, performed commemorating thelOOth anniversary of the New YorkChaminade Club on April 2, 1995.Wendy and I decided to divide our tasks:she would do the research and I wouldwrite the article.

As a flutist, I already knew ofChaminade's lovelypiece Concertino, butI had no idea she had been sofamous atone point. While on vacation I was brows-ing in an antique store in New Hope,Pennsylvania, and came across a stack ofold Etude magazines dating from the1880s. There were frequent references toChaminade up to a certain point, andthen it was as though she vanished.

I was astounded that she garneredsuch incredible honor and then she diedin near obscurity, and Shelley's poem,Ozymandias, came to mind. For me, thetrajectory of Chaminade's life poignantlyevoked the evanescent quality of fame andthis became thefocal point of both the pro-gram and this article.

Wendy: I had known that C_cileChaminade was a female composer whowrote the Concertino for Flute and Or-chestra, hut not much more. When theprogram manager for the New YorkChaminade Club contacted us about per-forming for their 100th anniversarygala,I began to read about C_cile Chaminade,her life and her music, and I became in-trigued. This woman was immensely fa-mous in her time and now few musicianseven know her name.

I read what I could about

Chaminade in the library and I began tosearch for her music but found that fewworks are currently in print. I sent que-ries tovarious music publications and justas I was starting to get discouraged, Iheard from agentleman in Arizona withan interest in 19th century composers whohas a collection of Chaminade's music.Eventually I had five "Chaminade Cor-respondents" across the United States,three compact discs of her music, and alarge stack of compositions.

I have enjoyed the connections andcommunication around the country, get-ting to know Chaminade's music, andlearning about this fascinating and tal-ented individual. C_cile Chaminade be-came, for me, a real personality for whomI feel agreat warmth and admiration. Ihope this article can bring her alive to oth-ers as well.

Hippolyte, was the Paris branch man-ager of a British insurance firm. Bothparents were amateur musicians -- herfather, a violinist, and her mother, a pia-nist, who taught Chaminade the piano.

Before she was three, little C6cile wasfound in her bed singing the Andanteof one of Beethoven's sonatas for pianoand violin that her parents were fond ofplaying. She wrote her first composi-tion when she was seven and as a child

was introduced to many important mu-sical figures in her parents' countryhome at Le Vesinet.

"One evening," she recalled, "I wascalled to the drawing room and intro-duced to a stout, swarthy gentlemanwho made me play all the compositionsI knew. My childish compositionsamused him very much, and he submit-ted me to such a musical examination ....

When I had finished, the gentleman saidto my father, 'She undoubtedly has thegift. Give her all the opportunity forcoming to the front, and she cannot fail,but, above all, do not bore her.'"

The gentleman was Georges Bizet.Besides Bizet, Chaminade was en-

couraged by the composer BenjaminGodard while tutored privately by FelixLe Couppey in piano, Martin Marsickin violin and Augustin Savard in theory.Although Le Couppey recommendedthat she study at the Paris Conservatoire,the idea ran contrary to her father's senseof female decorum. At sixteen,Chaminade began to work seriously,composing a trio, opus 11, and trainingherself by "writing whole scores overagain" -- producing her own versionsof Gounod's Faust and Meyerbeer'sHuguenots. At the same time she con-tinued her general education -- onwhich her father insisted.

In 1875, Chaminade attended the

disastrous premiere of Bizet's Carmen.This experience may have affected herown opera career, for in 1882, she di-rected and mounted a private version ofher op&a-comique, La S&illane, whichwas never staged, perhaps because of thedread instilled in her by the Carmemdebacle.

In 1880, at age eighteen, Chaminadepresented her first recital, at the SalleErard, devoted solely to her composi-tions. The programming became themodel for future concerts on tour.

"Ambroise Thomas [composer] wasamong the audience," she remembered."When he had heard some of my works,he said aloud: 'It is not a woman who

composed these, it's a man!'"The 1880s ushered in a period of

creativity and expansion into largerforms, including her first work for pi-ano and orchestra, Concertstiick; herfirst symphony, Les Amazones; and herfirst ballet, CallirhoE. A piano arrange-ment of the Scarf Dance from this bal-

let reportedly sold over a million copies.In 1886 Chaminade's younger sis-

ter, Louise Henriette, became engaged

"There is no sex in art.

Genius is an independent

quality."

to the pianist and composer MoritzMoszkowski, completing, as Chaminadewrote, "the circle of musicians who wereon intimate terms at our home." How-

ever their father Hippolyte could notabide her marriage to both a Germanand a Jew and broke off all ties withLouise.

Hippolyte's unexpected death thefollowing year created severe financialpressures, causing Chaminade to shifther artistic direction away t_om compos-ing in the larger forms toward the morecommercially viable piano solos andsongs. She was also spurred into a ca-reer as a concert pianist.

Chaminade considered the piano"the first of instruments." "It is the one

which forms the ear best, it is the most

complete instrument; it is also the onlyone that can be a reduction of the or-

chestra," she observed during an inter-

view that appeared in The Strand Musi-cal Magazine.

In the early 1890s, Chaminade be-came internationally known as a pianistand composer. She toured the Conti-nent and from 1892, appearing annu-ally in England, where she was receivedat Windsor Castle by Queen Victoria.She was in demand for performances ofher Concertstiick with orchestra and

recitals of her piano pieces and songs.Audiences encountered a brunette,although... "not very dark; her eyes arevery large, round and brown, with thatabsent-minded look in them so peculiarto artists; her hair...she wears short and

Signature 21

curled; her underlip is rather large andprotruding, and her chin very short. Sheis of medium height and good build; herhands, however, are very delicate-look-ing things, and when she plays you won-der where the strength comes from .... "

In the following decade Chaminade'spopularity spread to the United States,where numerous Chaminade clubs

formed, and leading publications includ-ing Ladies" Home Journal and The Etudefeatured her. Twice, she was commis-

"Her songs were

performed by opera singersLillian Nordica, Emma

Calve, and Nellie Melbawith Chaminade at the

piano."

sioned to compose piano works for pub-lication in the Ladies" Home Journal:February 1906, New Debutante Waltz;November 1908, Rosemary: A Pastel.

The French composer was especiallyfamous for her songs -- settings of ro-mantic poetry to lyric themes gracefullysupported by fluent, tasteful, finelyblended harmonies. Her songs were per-formed by opera singers Lillian Nordica,Emma Calvr, and Nellie Melba withChaminade at the piano.

"How do I compose?" she once re-sponded to an interviewer. "Sometimestravelling, sometimes at the piano, of-ten at my table, but never in the morn-ing. I must gradually warm to my work.I prelude for ten days or a fortnight, andwhen the ideas come I set to work. I

cannot work to order, but only by fitsand starts." ( The Strand Musical Maga-zine)

"When I complete a work I am re-luctant to have it published immediately,preferring to keep it hidden in adrawer...until I come across it again andfind that I have confidence in it," sheobserved in another conversation.

"If...it continues to please me I send itto the publisher."

To her family's surprise, on August29, 1901, Chaminade married Louis

Mathieu Carbonel, a music publisherfrom Marseilles who was twenty years

her senior. Prior to the marriage sheinsisted on an agreement which stipu-lated that each person reside in his orher former home, (she at Le Vesinet,near Paris, and he in Marseilles), and al-though he could visit her periodicallyand accompany her on tours, therewould be no sexual relations.

A year after Carbonel's death in

1907, Chaminade mused that "marriagemust adapt itself to one's career...usuallyit ruins the woman's art .... A womanshould choose one or the other. Whena woman of talent marries a man who

appreciates that side of her, such a mar-riage may be ideally happy for both."

In the fall of 1908, Chaminade em-barked on a highly successful UnitedStates tour that began and ended in NewYork's Carnegie Hall. Chaminade wasgreeted with a luncheon at the FrenchEmbassy, and received the next day atthe White House by President and Mrs.Theodore Roosevelt. To honor the

French composer, the American violin-ist Maud Powell announced that her

Trio would perform Chaminade's pianotrios during their 1908-09 United Statestour.

During the tour Chaminade wasasked to speak about contemporarycomposers and while she praised CamilleSaint-SaChs, she was less glowing aboutDebussy: "Debussy, of course, dependsvery heavily on his orchestra for his ef-

".. marriage must adapt

itself to one's career...

usually it ruins a woman's

art."

fects, and his music is to my ears, well,...insincere."

Chaminade's failure to embrace the

rising waves of Impressionism which ul-timately revolutionized the course ofmusic history, washing away the genteeltide of "La Belle Epoque," ultimatelydoomed her own compositions. Herprofessional decline was mirrored by aseries of personal disasters beginning in1912 with the death of her mother, who

had been her lifelong companion.Chaminade, who had previously em-braced mysticism, attended seances tosummon her mother's spirit.

During the mid-1920s Chaminademoved to Monte Carlo where she was

diagnosed with severe decalcification ofher left foot. Two years later, thecomposer's foot was amputated, butChaminade, at 72, her spirit indomi-table, refused a wheelchair and became

an invalid. At that time, in 1928, herlast composition was published.

For her 80th birthday in 1939Chaminade received several thousand

letters written at the urging of The Etudemagazine. Yet she wrote to an Ameri-can friend of her isolation: "I see that

you haven't been forgetting you musi-cal friends. Not to be forgotten...is thesupreme consolation for an artist .... "

Chaminade's life was ultimately aparadox. Mthough her music waspraised for its "feminine" charm andgrace, she herself stepped far outside thefeminine role dictated by her era in hercareer, her unique marriage, and her roleas savvy businesswoman. With her pre-scient sense of the momentous changesawaiting women, she reflected in TheWashington Post, "There is no sex in art.

Genius is an independent quality. Thewoman of the future, with her broaderoutlook, her greater opportunities, will

go far...in creative work of every descrip-tion."

Chaminade died on April 13, 1944,at the age of 86. Ironically, given themultitude of solo piano works and songsshe wrote, the piece most known todayis the Concertino for Flute, which isknown to virtually all flutists. TimeMagazine reported her death, ironicallyridiculing the art of the world's once

most famous woman composer:In Monte Carlo last week death came

to the most famous woman composerwho ever lived .... IS]he died in com-parative obscurity. The era that her frag-ile, saccharine little piano pieces.., rep-resented had long since closed. Hershad been the age of rubber plants, ste-reoscopic views, and parlor trances ....

Shelley's Ozymandias suggests thatone never knows how the sands of time

will shift. As they shifted for GeorgesBizet, burying the critics who pilloriedCarmen, perhaps the sands will shiftonce again for C&ile Chaminade in thenot too distant future.

Lisa Hansen, flutist, and Wendy KernerLucas, harpist, are members of thechamber music trio Serenata that per-formed for the centennial celebration

22 Signoture

C6cile Chaminade was a successful pianistand composer who was honored for herwork by kings and queens yet she died inobscurity in 1944.

concert of the New York Chaminade

Club.

The authors thank Albert Fillmore,

Enid Katahn, Jeannine Morrison,

Charles P. Phillips, Del Rosenfield, Ri-chard Turk for their assistance in the

preparation of this article.

o:.Resources on C_cile Chaminade

Select Bibliography

Chaminade, Crcile. "How to Play MyCompositions." Ladies Home Journal

(October 1908).

Chaminade, C&ile. "How to Play My Best

Known Pieces." The Etude (December 1908):759.

Citron, Marcia J. C_cile Chaminade: A Bio-

Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood

Press, 1988. (narrative with comprehensive

bibliography, discography and list of works).

"Exit Chaminade." Time Magazine (1 May1944): 54.

"Holm_s-Chaminade," Famous Composersseries, (n.d., circa 1898- 1900).

"Interview with Mdlle. Chaminade." The

Strand Musical Magazine (n.d.) (In the Maud

Powell Archive, Arlington, VA).

Jerrould, John. "Piano Music of CrcileChaminade." The American Music Teacher

(January 1988).

Stephens, Ward. "C&ile Chaminade." The

Etude (June 1899): 184-85.

Women &Music, A History, Edited by Karin

Pendle. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press,1991: 126-129.

Music in Print

C&ile Chaminade wrote over 400 works:

about 200 for piano, about 130 for voice and

piano, as well as 2 piano trios, an opera, aballet, a dramatic symphony, and other works.

Very few are in print today, though many

music library collections include Chaminade's

previously published works. Currently in

print (partial listing):

Concertino, Op. 107, for flute and orchestra

C3cile Chaminade, Selected Compositions for

Piano, published by Kalmus, Belwin MillsPublishing Corp. K09219

Select Discography

Piano Works:

P. Jacobs, piano (Hyperion CDA 66584)

C_cile Chaminade: Music for Piano, Enid

Katahn, piano (Gasparo Records #GSCD-

247)

C_eile Chaminade: Piano Works, Eric Parkin,

piano (Chandos CHAN 8888)

Concertstiick for Piano and Orchestra, Rosario

Marciano, piano; Vienna CO, Kurt Rapf,

conductor (Vox/Turnabout TV 34754, LP)

Woman's Work, Works by Famous Women

Composers, Caprice Espagnole by Chaminade;

M. May, piano (Gemini Hall Records, RAP

1010, LP)

Piano, Violin and Cello: Trio No. 1 in G

Minor, Op. 11

Chamber Works by Women Composers, TheMacalester Trio (Vox Box 2-CDX 5029)

Flute and Piano: Concertino, Op. 107, A.G.and M. Duchenim, flute and piano (Musica

Viva MVCD-1025)

Laurel Zucker, Virtuoso Flutist, I_ Sutherland,piano (Cantilena 660012)

Flute and Orchestra: Concertino, Op. 107

La Fl_teEnchant_e, S. Milan; R. Hickox, City

of London Sinfonia (Chandos CHAN 8840)

ICB. Sebon; U. Lajovic, Berlin RSO (Koch

Treasure #3-1613-2)

M. Wiesler; E Auguin, Helsingborg SO (BisCD-529)

Orchestra: Autumn, Michael Guttman,

violin, Jos6 Serebrier,

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, ASV

Quicksilva, The Four Seasons Series, CD QS6115

Violin and Piano: Romanza appassionata,

Op. 31, S_r3nade espagnole

A. Steinhardt; V. Eskin, Northeastern

(Classical Arts), NR 222-C

Voice and Piano: Rosemonde, Chanson

Br_tonne, L "f_t_

Women at an Exposition (music composed by

women and performed at the 1893 World's

Fair in Chicago), S. Mentzer, mezzo-soprano;

S.J. Langton, soprano; K. Schmidt, piano

(Koch International Classics #3-7240-2H1)

Discography of Lisa Hansen & WendyKerner Lucas

Concierto Pastoral-- for flute and orchestra,

L. Hansen, flute, Royal Philharmonic

Orchestra (EMI Classics, CZS 7674352)

Suite de Ballet-- works for flute and piano,

L. Hansen, flute; Allison Brewster, piano

(Musical Heritage Society 312029 M)

Fantasia para un gentilhombre-- transcribedfor flute & orchestra, L. Hansen, flute; State

of Mexico Symphony (EMI - to be released)

Sounds of the Seine -- French chamber

music works, W.IC Lucas, harp; The Glorian

Duo (Delos International, DE 3143)

For more information about the Serenata

Ensemble, contact them at 116 Pinehurst

Ave., #C-14, New York, NY 10033; 212/

795-8967 phone; 212/781-4248 fax.

Signature 23

o_oBY ANGELA ADDARIO-MCLEAN

Julianne McLean-- Her Music Never Stopped

At the height of a career that seemed "unstoppable," critics

throughout Europe praised Julianne for her "force,"

"intelligence" and "extremely rich expressiveness."

Y EARLIEST MEMORIES ARE OF

Music, which occupiedsuch an ubiquitous andnatural part of my early life

that I grew up under the privileged "il-lusion" that music is as basic and essen-tial to the sustenance of human life as

eating, drinking, sleeping, and breath-ing. Not until well into my adult lifedid I discover with dismay that every-one else in the entire world had not

grown up under the same impression. Iam still trying to figure out why not.

In my mother's household, the mu-sic never stopped. My mother is JulianneMcLean.

Julianne McLean's most vivid child-

hood memory is of the extraordinaryplaying of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-

1943) in recital in Wichita. YoungJulianne felt as though Rachmaninoffperformed his music with her in mind,so personal was his playing. While tak-ing his bows, Rachmaninoff did noticethe attentive child seated in a front row

and looking directly at her, nodded his

head to acknowledge her presence. Asmall but gracious gesture by a giantmusical figure. Soon after this experi-ence, the six-year-old Julianne beganformal, private lessons on the piano.

My mother was born in 1928 inMassachusetts into an atmosphere ofactive involvement with and a deep,abiding appreciation for the classics, thehumanities and all artistry. Julianne'smother, Anna Mabry, a Canadian ofFrench and British descent, enjoyedcomposing her own songs as a child andaccompanying her father, an accom-plished violinist, on the organ. She wenton to study at New York's NationalAcademy of Design and became a no-table painter in her own right, winningmany coveted awards for her Rembrandtstudies.

24 Signature

Julianne's father, Benjamin DrewMcLean, a Harvard graduate, taughtEnglish literature at an East coast col-lege for men. He was a fine writer andplayed the piano.

Shortly after Julianne's arrival, herfamily relocated to Wichita, Kansas,where her father would eventually fol-low in his father's prominent footstepsas a leading public figure and as direc-tor of what was then and remains todaythe largest bank in Kansas. Julianne'spaternal grandfather, Benjamin FranklinMcLean, is still remembered as one of

the city's best loved "founding fathers"and "pioneers," who played a key roleat all levels in the development of thecity. Arriving in Wichita in the late1800s "with nothing other than his un-ending capacity for hard work and hisinnate honesty," this "hardy Scot" soonacquired his own business, became presi-dent of a leading bank, and later waselected mayor three times.

In Wichita, Julianne's first two pi-ano instructors were women who pro-vided her with the solid technical foun-

dation and the encouragement sheneeded as a child. But the youngsterwas driven onward in her music by therealization that she "loved music above

all else in the world." This was a per-ception, whether conscious or subcon-scious, of which she was always aware.

There was never a time when she

wondered or had any doubts about whatshe would do "when she grew up" --she always knew. When a child, she wasalready thinking in "professional" terms,choosing music as her career or, perhapsmore accurately, knowing that music hadchosen her.

Serving as her constant, underlyinginspiration was the memory of hearingRachmaninoff play. Yet from the start,lacking female role models, Julianne (asother women have had to do) createdherself as an artist.

Progressing rapidly, her talentseemed to emerge naturally and pervadeall aspects of her life. Her mother re-calls a time when Julianne had been out-

side playing."Suddenly she burst into the house

and without uttering a word chargeddirectly towards the piano. She instantlythrust herself full force into a Beethoven

sonata." The precocious child playedwith such an unrestrained, impassioned

intensity that her mother's eyes welledwith tears. When she stopped, hermother approached to say how she had

never heard her play with such beautybefore. Tears were streaming from the

youngster's eyes as she turned from thepiano. Julianne was covered from headto toe with hornet stings! At this earlyage, Julianne's immediate and mostnatural reaction was to express herselfthrough her music.

During her piano studies in Wichita,

the young hopeful won all the local com-petitions. At sixteen, she graduated fromhigh school. Her audition, including aperformance of Les Adieux(Beethoven's Sonata, Opus 81a), for Dr.

Julianne continued her studies withRosinna Lhevinne (1880-1976) at theJuilliard School. "Madame" Lhevinne

and her late husband Josef (1874 - 1944 )had brought with them to New York therich legacy of the Russian Romanticmusical tradition of the late 19th- and

early 20th-centuries which was theirheritage. They imbued their studentswith the legendary artistic richness ofthat Golden Age ofTchaikovsky (1840-1893 ), Anton Rubinstein ( 1830-1894 ),and Paderewski (1860-1941). Mostthrilling to Julianne was the knowledge

Anna McLean, Julianne and Angela in a 1982 photograph.

Wiktor Labunski, Dean of the KansasCity Conservatory of Music, won her afull scholarship.

At the Conservatory, Dean Labunskiintroduced his students to the leadingmusicians of the day. He summonedJulianne to play the Rachmaninoff 4thPiano Concerto for William Kapell's(1922-1953) master class. Julianne re-ceived individual instruction during asummer seminar with pianist OlgaSamaroff (1882-1948). Even Dr.Labunski's brother-in-law, ArthurRubinstein (1886-1982), visited the

Conservatory occasionally and offeredwords of wisdom to the students.

At twenty, Julianne completed herBachelor's Degree in Music, as valedic-torian, with a minor in voice. At twenty-one, she received her Master's Degree.Both degrees required performances ofconcerti with the Kansas City Philhar-monic, recorded live.

On the advice of Dr. Labunski,

that Rosinna and Josefhad worked inti-

mately with their cherished friend SergeiRachmaninoff at the famed Moscow

Conservatory.The Lhevinnes were noted for de-

manding from their pupils a severe andunforgiving physical and mental disci-

pline which was inseparable from thecomplete, rigorous, austere training ofthat era and which the faint-of-heart sim-

ply did not survive. Josef Lhevinne'sPrinciples of Pianoforte Technique re-mains one of the more enlightened andauthoritative gems in music's pedagogi-cal literature.

Among Julianne's classmates to ben-efit from this training were Van Cliburnand John Browning. Through MadameLhevinne's influence, Julianne's playingreflects a thorough integration of theRussian tradition of the Golden Era, as

Washington Star critic Robert Evettnoted in an early 1970s Washington,

D.C., performance: "...Miss McLean

Signature 25

_'_ BY ANGELA ADD_O-MCLEAN

A HAUNT G

nna McLean found hersetf standing by a large body of_'l water that she sensed was the ocean. But the darkness

and dense fog swirling around her made it impossible forher to ident_ where shewas. She walked up to a figure, asailor dressed in a blue uniform.

"Is everyone all right? _ she asked."We're trying to save as many people as we can," he

replied Suddenly, the thiek blanket offog lifted like a stage

sunk in _f_edeep wate_ off Nantucket Island Anna_s daugh.ten l_tianne, was on theAndrea Doria, returnlng hamefrom twoy_arsof music _dy andperforming in E_rope.:: :_e newsl report was Vague and gave no indication of the numberOfcasualties_ .........................................................._ "

Dazed and tremb!ing with fear, Anna McLean entered _he ehurch and sat in the backrow. :As the word_ of ihe_ies_ floatedpast her unheard, shegave wayto herfeelings and shebegan to.cry_ The priest.observed her distress and in a rare act atn_uptlystopped the Mass.H_ walkod back roih_ andgently asked h_ wha_ was _roubling he_ After she described the

on the stricken Andrea Do_.

An unbearable tension _tled the res_ of the day be_ause Anna had no way of receivingnews on the fate _her onty remaining chitd: StilI reco_cring from the loss of her son Benwho was killed in the Battle of the Bu_qe in World War tt, Anna kept praying: _'Dear l_rd,nor my other ehild, not myother chitdk._ "

Halfway.a_ross the :€oun_ry, Jutianne MeLean had been en[oying her last night aboardthe luxury h'ner with fm'ends in the ship_s e!egant main lounge when the StoCkh_tm rammedtheAndrea Doria a_i ltii.5,

i Therewas _i _rific:_rash and jolt whichthrew Jutianneacross.the room and _'tched

hands and managed ta pult eachother up an incline to the deck._e stood on the de_:in the fog and the darkne_ no_ knowing what had happen#d, on&

final absolutian. That ma_ us all feel awfu!ly Strange."Befieving she vvaSgoing to die; Julianne sat on the deck in the darkness looking on, into

the impenetrable wali-_of_. Then something happened thatJuh'anne believes was a miracle.Suddenly the dense fog lifred like a stage curtain and vanished. Fog never lifts at night; itneeds the warm rays of the sun _o burn it off the water.

And in _theClear night, the survivors saw a "heavenly vision" moving _oward them --_he bright light_ of th_ liner; the Ite de France. .....

_Every tighten i_was lit_ and what a glorious Sigh_ it wa_ " said.Julianne: "Theydropped all theirlifeboats in_o the water and _ookus off the Doria__'i She lost everything sheawned --her clothes, her money, ull her music and her shoe_,.A passenger aboard the Ile deFrance ga_e he_ a pair af slippers and a stranger in New Tork CitygaVe her a dime __0makea local-pho_ecal!_'tO_ends who ealled _nna McLean in Wichiia_:i i ::: _ ::. iii il i:: i ::i_u!ian_a_.her motherwer_ reunitedafewda_!ateE: :!n:eeeO_nting the _tS Ofthetragic night_i.Shedi d hOt'Urn the loss of he;possmsionS. PinhOle passengemhad died andShe wasgra_ful: it_ibealive.

Anna McLean listened quietly as her daughte_ described haunting images that werealreaity familia_ to her.' ithe:d_nSe fog on the Wate_ m_raculouily !ifting in _he ma'ddle ofthenight4iand :the sai_ on tlae Ite de Franee_ sailors wearing:it_!ne Uniforms_

is a fire-breathing pianist of The OldSchool."

"Madame" Lhevinne sent her topstudents to Carl Friedburg (1872-1955), a rare sage with doctorates inmedicine, philosophy and music, of con-siderably advanced years, who alsotaught at the Juilliard. Friedburg hadbeen a student of Johannes Brahms(1833-1892) and Clara Schumann(1819-1896) when he was a child. Heimbued Julianne with his own insightsinto the interpretation of the Romanticmusic literature, passing on his directknowledge of the music of Brahms andSchumann.

While at the Juilliard, Julianne sangin the Collegiate Chorale, which fre-quently performed at Carnegie Hall.The Chorale was formed and directed

by Robert Shaw, who later established"The Robert Shaw Chorale" and be-

came director of the Atlanta SymphonyOrchestra. From Shaw, Julianne learned

invaluable refinements of phrasing andprinciples of "breathing" which are ascritial to the interpretation of pianomusic as they are to vocal works.

How well she learned them is re-flected in a critic's assessment of

Julianne's performance of Chopin'sFour Ballades and Barcarolle in the

1980s: "It was here, and indeed in allof the Ballades that the pianist showedher wealth of maturity, sensitivity to line,and her special gift for preparing andmolding the beginning and end ofphrases. Here the artist took confidenttime to 'breath' the phrase, much like asinger with a vocal line."

Julianne's Town Hall debut washailed by New York critics. "A distin-guished showing .... her delineation ofthe composers' ideas was clear and me-ticulous .... " (New York Herald Tri-bune). The Staatszeitung und Herold

pronounced her "a born pianist, with anintelligently selected and dramaticallybuilt program for Town Hall .... an ex-cellent musician, with hands that seem

created for the piano .... very well able totake the highest hurdle! .... the audiencewas full of enthusiasm!"

Following a round of performances-- at Avery Fischer and Carl FischerConcert Halls, over radio stationWNYC, among others -- the nativeKansan was granted a scholarship to con-tinue her piano studies with Carlo Zecchiand Rodolfo Caporali at the SantaCecilia Academy in Rome. Zecchi car-ried forward the Beethoven/Czerny

26 Signature

lineage from his teacher Artur Schnabel(1882-1951).

During this time, lulianne partici-pated in the Salzburg Mozarteum inAustria and became a semi-finalist in the

Queen Elizabeth InternationalConcours in Brussels, Belgium -- thegold medalist was Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Concertizing for ten years through-out Europe, she was hailed as a "Vola-tile American Pianist" who conveysmuch "force and intelligence...taste andextremely rich expressiveness...a warm,cordial capacity for performance..." (I1Popolo, Rome). Her performances weremarked by "much charm anddelicateness...suppleness and a fleettouch...much sensibility..." ( La Cit_,Brussels).

The Italians rifled her "The [Renata]Tebaldi of the piano," no doubt for hertall and slender figure as well as for herdynamic range on the piano. Her nu-merous performances, especially withinthe Italian capital, included concerts atCastel Sant'Angelo. Most notably, thisAmerican pianist became the first womanconcert pianist whose performance waspermitted to be broadcast live overVatican radio. Julianne McLean's career

seemed unstoppable.With the entry of the United States

into World War II, Juliarme's world be-gan to change. Her only sibling, an el-der brother who had shown exceptionalartistic talent, fought as a paratrooperin the Battle of the Bulge. At the age of23, he was numbered among the count-less soldiers who never returned home.

Then, on July 25, 1956, during oneof her regular trans-Atlantic crossingsbetween Italy and the United States,Julianne found herself aboard the ill-fated Italian liner Andrea Doria, when

it was struck by the Swedish linerStockholm and sank. Less than 100 pas-sengers aboard the Doria lost their lives.Julianne (along with actress Ruth Ro-man) was rescued by the French linerlie de France, which deposited her safelyin New York. Undaunted, she contin-ued her trans-Adantic voyages and hermusic.

In 1958, the year that her Juilliardclassmate Van Cliburn caused a sensa-

tion winning the Tchaikowsky Interna-tional Competition in Moscow, Juliannemarried an Italian physician from Romein St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Her

career never skipped a beat during thethree years preceding my birth in 1961.A few months later my mother was faced

with rearing her child alone. Despiteher diminished freedom, her music con-tinued and expanded to include me.

Before I was two, my mother tookme to the piano and taught me what todo, beginning formal lessons. I learnedto read music before I learned to read

words. With three pianos in the house,it was not possible for me to crawl orwalk from one room to the other with-

out at least being tempted to play the

piano!My earliest performances were with

my mother's other students at her "re-citals" and before my classmates atschool. These increased in frequency andin level throughout the years, and I re-call that from an early age the relativelyadvanced level of my playing seemed tosurprise my superiors as well as my peers.To me, I was doing nothing more com-plex than eating, drinking, sleeping orbreathing.

At nine, my violin studies began andfor the next few years I performed onthis instrument in local student trios,quartets, competitions, and eventually as"concert mistress" of a city-wide studentorchestra. Several years in a row, mymother and I performed music for vio-lin and piano for my classmates in theelementary school named after my great-grandfather Ben F. McLean. I remem-ber my mother giving solo recitals to theclasses almost every year.

My mother continued to performpublicly during those years. She lostnone of her artistry to the duties ofmotherhood. In 1965, a critic observed:"[P]ianist Julianne McLean was pre-sented in recital before an overflow au-dience... Miss McLean has mellowed

considerably during the few brief yearsI have heard her since her return from

Europe. She used to give the impres-sion of a Goddess on a monument, un-touchable, as her technique was flawless.That technique remains as finely chis-eled as her classic features. Added now

is a warmth, a soul, a participation andcommunication with the audience."

She performed at the 1964 World's

Fair and made two overseas trips as a"cultural ambassador." Her perfor-mances were broadcast over New York

radio station WNYC, and she was spot-lighted weekly on a local television pro-gram in Wichita.

Not only did Julianne's music never• stop during these years, it did not even

appear to slow down. Her music seemedindeed to flourish -- although, no

doubt, not as fully as it could have with-out her increasing maternal responsibili-ties.

Sometime during my earliest years,the young concert pianist faced the needto earn a more reliable income from

another line of work. Perhaps becauseof the mathematical skill that musicians

have, Julianne made a smooth transition

into the work force as a computer pro-grammer. To the amazement of all whoknew her, her progress in this fieldseemed as rapid as her earlier progressin music. Within a couple of years shewas employed at the Pentagon as a sys-tems analyst, first with Naval Intelli-

Rachmaninoff did notice the

attentive child seated in the

front row.., and nodded.., to

acknowledge her presence.

gence, and finally with the Joint Chiefsof Staff.

Yet her music never stopped.Even during those years in the Wash-

ington, D.C., area when we no longerhad even one piano in our home, I re-call most vividly -- in addition to manylate nights in the recesses of the Penta-gon -- my mother practicing on the pi-anos of local schools and churches, con-tinuing to teach students on weekends,and most of all giving public perfor-mances on a continuous, regular andvigorous basis. As a young child, I re-call attending her performances for theAmbassador and his entourage at theWest German Embassy, for the DAR inConstitution Hall, and at the NationalGallery of Art. It was from this time

(1971) that the critic Robert Evettwrote:

"Last night Julianne McLean helda large audience spellbound at the Na-tional Gallery and received a standingovation at the end of her program .... herplaying began to soar.., in a truly for-midable Liszt group. For Miss McLeanis a fire-breathing pianist of The OldSchool... and the more forbidding thetechnical difficulties, the more she rev-els in the music... In the piece after the123rd sonnet of Petrarch (Liszt), thereis a great deal of tenderness, and sheplayed it in a supple, sensuous style. TheGrand Concert Etude in f-minor is

Signature 27

Julianne and her daughter Angela in 1964.

largely a study in pianissimo and allowedMiss McLean to show how absolute her

control is at a high velocity and a lowdynamic. The Mephisto Waltz is, ofcourse, a lexicon of brilliant pianistic de-vices and it was her sizzling performanceof the piece that brought the audienceto its feet. In this late Romantic music,

she is an altogether sensational pianist."Her ostensible "career" as a pro-

grammer/analyst spanned almost 20years -- from the time when I enteredthe third grade until my sophomore yearof college -- yet the primacy of her ca-reer as a concert pianist never dimmed.Throughout these years, her music --along with the rave reviews -- neverstopped. In fact, they always continued,progressed and endured as THE vitalelement of her life and, consequently, ofmine.

From her every move on stage, crit-ics readily perceived that her art was herlife: "The picture of grace and elegance,visiting artist Julianne McLean walkedonto the stage of the Pan American Uni-versity Fine Arts Auditorium...and witha commanding presence sat down andassumed control of the piano. Perform-

ing a compendium of masterworks thatrepresent the very finest of Romanticpiano literature .... " (Texas, 1980s)

Her versatility lifted audiences rightout of their seats: "Miss McLean seems to

have a special feeling for Chopin. She isstrong enough and she has the agile tech-nique he requires. More than that, she issensitive to the nuances that set this music

apart. And how she can pedal. Her footwork was like an artist's brush, produc-ing tonal shading essential to Chopin."

Today, as throughout Julianne's life,the music of the figure who had im-pressed her so memorably as a child con-tinues to occupy a special place in herheart as well as in her repertoire: "...theRachmaninoffVariations on a theme of

Corelli...show the incisive tightening ofthe composer's harmonic idiom, and theetched clarity of his final essays in com-position. Here the pianist relished theopportunity to highlight the autumnalcolors of this work so well-fitted for the

instrument. The maturity, scintillatingbrilliance, and color of the artist werenowhere better demonstrated than in

her first encore, the Liebeslied by theAustrian violinist Fritz Kreisler, and ar-

ranged for the piano in transcription byRachmaninoff."

In 1975, when I entered high school,my mother resigned from her positionat the Pentagon and returned to herhome in Wichita, continuing howeverto work as a computer analyst until the

early 1980s. She then turned to teach-ing piano full-time once again. But herconcert life continued as always.

Julianne most recently performed abenefit recital for the Ben F. McLean

Elementary School in Wichita, theschool I attended that is named in

honour of her grandfather. The institu-tion is now designated a "magnet"school for the sciences and technology.Farther downtown from the site of theconcert at the Center for the Arts and

across the river on the main avenue,McLean Boulevard, stands a carved, il-luminated fountain with the inscription:"In memory of Benjamin F. McLean,whose life and labors contributed greatlyto developing Wichita." Among thoseattending the poignant concert on Sep-tember 10 were Julianne's mother, onlytwo years shy of her centennial birth-day, and I, Julianne's daughter -- themost privileged of all the guests. Mostnotable among her program selectionswas the monumental Handel Variations

and Fugue, composed for ClaraSchumann by Johannes Brahms, re-minding me of the distinguished artis-tic lineage that she carries forward.

My mother's primary wish at thisstage of her life is that all children, ev-erywhere and at all times, could have theopportunity to study music. She believesthat music study can provide each hu-man being with a life-long creative out-let and with "the imperative necessity toexpress oneself." She knows that thesound mental and physical discipline in-volved in music study will serve each in-dividual well throughout their lives, re-gardless of what other paths they maychoose to follow.

I know the validity of her vision, forI have lived it from the beginning.Thanks to my first piano teacher and firstmusician role-model -- my mother --the music in my life will never stop.

Angela Addario-McLean, a mathema-tician/physicist and pianist/composer,is studying the metaphysical connectionbetween music, science and medicine.

i!

!!

28 Signature

Amy Faycontinued from page 7

members, all professional musicians. TheSociety supported an all-women's or-chestra and a chorus, presenting fourlarge concerts each season (usually inCarnegie Hall) as well as monthly musi-cales. As she attended business meetings,wrote reports, organized concerts andoversaw the activities of the Society,Amy's writing increasingly focused onthe position of women in music as teach-ers, performers, and composers. Her ar-ticles in The Etude, Music and MusicalCourier reflect her strong feminist sym-pathies.

Amy's health began failing in 1916and in 1919 she moved back home to

Cambridge to live with her brotherNorman and sister Rose. She died at age84 on February 28, 1928, in Watertown,Massachusetts, in the same nursinghome in which her sister Zina had diedin 1923.

Music remained the wellspring ofAmy's life and her music reached frui-tion through her grit and humor thatsprang from her Yankee sense of duty.In one of her letters, she recalls to hersister this little rhyme that jingles hermorning walk around a hill:

Curved is the line of beauty,Straight is the line of duty;Follow the last and thou shalt see

The other ever following thee.

It is her devotion to beauty that bothguides Amy and defines her difference.Hearing the passionate call of beauty, shewas stirred to a life of achievement inmusic. It made the difference between

her and a young Count she describes ina letter as "a perfect materialist, untroubledby the souffle vers le beau (the drift to-ward beauty) which torments so many."

Amy Fay, with her keen intelligence,executive ability, acute powers of obser-vation, balanced perspective, genuinecharacter, and devotion to music madenotable contributions to the musical life

of generations of Americans. As a per-former, writer, lecturer, teacher andclubwoman, this extraordinary womanwon a significant place in music historyfor boldly advancing the place of womenin music and the place of music in Ameri-can society.

Robert Dumm was Dean of the Bos-

ton Conservatory, Professor of Piano at

The Catholic University, and foundingmember of the American Liszt Society.He has spent his life teaching piano andteachers, through national workshopsand columns on technique and expres-sion for Piano Today and Sheet MusicMagazine, with lessons and features forClavier. His first book, Pumping Ivory(New York: EKAY Music, Inc., 1989)has had three printings, and his forth-coming Composers" Clues to Musical Ex-pression will be published by the samefirm.

Karen A. Shaffer is Maud Powell's bi-

ographer and president of The MaudPowell Foundation in Arlington, VA.

Resources on Amy Fay and the Fay Family

Select Bibliography

Fay Family Papers, Schlesinger Library,Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hopkins Family and HopkinsCanfield FamilyPapers, University of Vermont.

Amy, Rose and Melusina:

Ammer, Christine. Unsung, A History ofWomen in American Music. Westport, CT:Greenwood Press, 1980.

Amy Fay: The American Years, 1879-1916.Edited by S. Margaret William McCarthy.Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1986.

Atkinson, Norma Periera. An examination ofthe Life and Thought of Zina Fay Peirce, anAmerican Reformer and Feminist. DoctoralDissertation, 1983.

"Fay, Amy," The New Grove Dictionary ofAmerican Music. Edited by H. WileyHitchcock and Stanley Sadie. London:Macmillan Press Limited: 1986.

Fay, Amy. Music-Study in Germany. NewYork: Dover Publications, 1965.

Fay, Amy. Letter to Franz Liszt dated August21, 1880. "Comment & Chronicle," 19thCentury Music. n.d. Maud Powell Archive,Arlington, VA.

Fay, Amy. "Musical Hours in Weimar," Inter-American Music Review. (1986) Vol. VII,No. 2: 79-83.

McCarthy, S. Margaret William. Amy Fay:America's Notable Woman of Music. Warren,Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 1995.

Women in Music. Edited by Carol Neuls-Bates. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers,1982.

"The Four Day's Convention of the Women'sAmateur Musical Clubs in Recital Hall," TheMusical Courier. (July-Dec. 1893) 27: 21-22.

"The Musical Congresses in Chicago,"AmericanArtJournal. (July 15, 1893): 317-321.

"Official Program of the Department ofMusic," The World's Congress Auxiliary of theWorld's Columbian Exposition of 1893.Chicago Historical Society.

Rose and Norman:

Schabas, Ezra. Theodore Thomas, America'sConductor and Builder of Orchestras, 1835-1905. Urbana/Chicago: University of IllinoisPress: 1989.

Thomas, Rose Fay. The Memoirs of TheodoreThomas. New York: Moffat, Yard andCompany, 1911.

Charles Sanders Peirce:

Brent, Joseph. Charles Sanders Peirce, A Life.Bloomington: 1993.

Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism, TexasTech University, Lubbock, Texas. (repositoryof some photographs of Fay family members)

Libby Larsencontinued from page 3

LIBBY LARSEN/SELECT DISC-OGRAPHY--Aubade, Ulloa's Ring,Eugenia Zukerman, flute, Music for Flute,Pro Arte PAC 1086 Intersound Interna-tional, Hembree Crest Center, P.O. Box1724, Roswell, Georgia 30077-1724 ,_ InA Winter Garden, Plymouth Festival Or-chestra, Philip Brunelle, Pro Arte PAD 151,Plymouth Music Series, 1900 Nichollet Av-enue, Minneapolis, MN 55403 ,0, Massfor the Earth, Oregon Reperatory Singers,Koch International, 3-7279-2H1 ,_ HowIt Thrills Us, The Kings College Choir,Stephen Cleobury, director, EMI Classics,American Choral Music, CDC 7 54188 2,D567 FPM518 ,0' Coming Forth IntoDay, The Plymouth Festival Orchestra andChorus, Bel Canto Singers, Philip Brunelle,conductor, Jehan El Sadat, narrator; Jubi-lant Sykes, baritone, Linda Russell, soprano,Plymouth Music Series Label, PMS003 ,0' Sonnets from the Portuguese,Members of the St. Paul Chamber Orches-tra and Minnesota Orchestra, The Art ofArlene Auger, Arlene Auger, soprano, JoelRevzen, conductor, Koch International KICCD 7248

PUBLISHERS--Oxford University Press,Inc., New York, 1-800-334-4249; ECS Pub-lishing, Boston, 1-800-777-1919 €, Per-forming Rights Society, One Lincoln Plaza,New York, NY 10023

Signature 29

Special for the holidays...

Two pioneering books

Maud Powell, Pioneer American Violinist by Karen A. Shaffer and Neva

Garner Greenwood. The dynamic life of America's first violin virtuoso, molder of

American musical taste, crusader for sexual equality in music, humanist, and consummate

tps from the pages of this important biographic work. Powell's life and

achievements laid the foundation for the classical music tradition in America and her

legacy still influences the musical world and women in music today. "As a document to

the art of violin playing, it isfirst-rate. "Joseph Gingold, the late violinist and teacher, 520

pp. plus index, 6 x 9, illus, w/122 photographs, hardcover/jacket; published by Iowa

State Univ. Press and The Maud Powell Foundation.

Special Rate: $23 incl. postage

"Maud Powell bequeathed a legacy to me:

the very truth she had lived and died for and her commitment

to her violin, to her music, and to humanity."

--Yehudi Menuhin, from the Preface

Maud Powell, Legendary American Violinist by Karen A. Shaffer is "...a

wonderful children's book.., an inspiration to all children to follow their dreams...a delightful

and inspiring portrait of Maud Powell, a great woman whose courage, artistry and actions

helped shape the course of American history." Theresa Hutchinson, Children's Museum of

Indianapolis. The first in the Women in Music series of biographies for children. Here is

the exciting and inspiring story of a courageous girl who became the first great

American violinist of international standing who premiered violin concertos of

Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Sibelius in America and was the first solo instrumentalist to

record for the Victor Red Seal label. 20 pp. illus, w/rare photos, 8 x 10 softcover,

ages 8-12.

Special Rate $5.00 incl. postage--ORDER NOW-

Please send me:

__ copy(ies)Maud Powell, Pioneer American Violinistat $23 per copy

__ copy(ies) Maud Powell, Legendary American Violinist at $5 per copy

Name

Address

PleasemakeyourcheckpayabletoTheMaudPowellFoundationandmailto:TheMaudPowellFoundation,4942 N. Old DominionDrive,Arlington,VA22207

Forinformationcall (703)536-7826Proceedsadvance thework of TheMoud Powell Foundation,a non-profiteducational organization

iii_i

30 Signature