Madame Rive-King, one of America’s most notable pianists, was asked her opinion of musical advancement during her concert-career. She said: “I find a very noticeable increase of people who hear intelligently, and an artist senses this intelligence as quickly as the hearers themselves. This may be attributed to many causes: Students who listen to learn, and to the influence of the musical clubs, which is beginning to be felt. Whether the latter work on the correct basis or not, somebody imbibes something, if it be only a knowledge of the composers and the names of their works. If the clubs accomplish what they aim for, and they set their aim in the interest of music, there is no doubt that in five or ten years the difference will be obvious, especially in cities less favored than the large centers, where opportunities are manifold if one only takes advantage of them.
“Yes, how to take advantage of opportunities is an art in itself and one which many young workers lose sight of. Listening is an open sesame to more than anyone can conceive who does not understand how to listen with an unprejudiced mind clear of everything but what the composer said, and how the interpreter feels it.”—Emilie Frances Bauer.
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The Girl’s Realm for December, 1900, contains an article entitled “Song-writers Dear to Girls,” by Edith Young, who appreciates Liza Lehmann, Augusta Holmés, Frances Allitsen, Mrs. Alicia Adelaide Needham, Maude Valerie White, and Florence Gilbert, all of them well-known song-writers. In conclusion, Miss Young writes: “This short account of the life and training of some of our best-known women songwriters ought to show girls that no special time of our lives needs to be the culminating point; that great things may happen to a girl in what she looks forward to as the most unromantic period of her existence, as well as in her youngest, most exciting moments; and that in her ambition she must not only see that she does not aim higher than her gifts may carry her, but that she does not ignore the gifts which already may be hers. Above all things she will see from the foregoing that genius and earnestness and hard work are seldom ever separated.—Emilie Frances Bauer.
