One of the most notable female figures in German music was Maria Theresa von Paradies. Born at Vienna in 1759, she met with an accident when three years old, and became blind for life. Even with this drawback, however, her musical aptitude was so great that her parents were justified in letting her begin regular studies and procuring the best teachers for her. At the age of eleven she appeared in public, singing the soprano part of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, and playing her own accompaniment on the organ. This interested the Empress Maria Theresa, who procured the best of teachers for her. She made such rapid progress in piano that at her first concert she was able to arouse the utmost enthusiasm by her expressive and sympathetic performance. She made a number of concert tours, winning plaudits everywhere. In Paris, where she stayed six months, she appeared at the Concerts Spirituelles, and played frequently before Marie Antoinette. After various royal audiences in England and Germany, she returned to Vienna, where she soon retired from public life, and devoted herself to teaching and composition. Her memory was something phenomenal. It is said that she was able to play no less than sixty concertos with the most absolute accuracy, besides knowing any number of smaller piano works. Her power of concentration is also made evident by the fact that she would dictate her own compositions, note by note, without the slightest alteration. Very few, even among the great composers, have possessed this faculty. Wagner and Mendelssohn were perhaps the most gifted. Beethoven's great works were the result of much careful correction, and in some cases represent as many as six or eight revisions. Her compositions have won praise from the greatest musicians, and show merit of a high order. Among her dramatic works, the most successful in point of performance are "Rinaldo and Alcina," a fairy opera (appreciated in its day much as "Hansel and Gretel" is in our own), the melodrama "Ariadne and Bacchus," and the pastoral operetta "Der Schulcandidat." Her other works include a piano trio, a number of sonatas and variations for piano, several songs and other vocal works, besides a few cantatas. Her remarkable gifts won her the friendship of the foremost musicians of her time. Among others Mozart admired her greatly, and dedicated a concerto to her. Another figure of musical importance was Marianne Martinez. Born at Vienna in 1744, she began her musical studies while still a child. Her first efforts at composition were made when she was twelve years old, and met with a most favourable reception, though of course they cannot compare with her later productions. She was an excellent pianist, or what would correspond to a pianist in our day, and among her teachers on the harpsichord was Haydn himself. She became equally proficient in singing, under the great teacher, Porpora, and the historian Burney speaks of her vocal accomplishments with unstinted praise.