Among the works of her maturer period, her church music ranks highest
of all. Her oratorio "Isacco," with words by Metastasio, is her
worthiest production, and met with deserved success when performed at
Vienna in 1788. Besides this work, she composed two other oratorios, a
successful mass, a four-part Miserere, a number of psalms for four and
eight voices, with orchestral accompaniment, several motets, and many
other pieces of a religious character. The list of her works does not
end here, but comprises symphonies, overtures, and other orchestral
numbers, including several piano concertos. Taken as a whole, her works
entitle her to a worthy place among women composers of all time.
Leaving the eighteenth century, the next woman composer of note is
Emilie Zumsteeg. Born at Stuttgart in 1796, she soon showed that she had
inherited the musical taste of her father, himself a well-known
composer. On his death, six years later, the widow supported herself by
keeping a music-store, where the growing daughter absorbed much
knowledge of the art. Soon she began regular study, and won her way into
notice by her singing and piano-playing. Her sight-reading abilities
were something phenomenal, and she could play from full instrumental
scores with ease. Her home became the centre of a brilliant circle,
including Weber, Hummel, Lindpaintner, and poets as well as musicians.
She was much prized as a teacher of piano and singing, and a personal
favourite in her native city. Of her compositions, the most ambitious is
an overture to the play "Die Geister Insel." She wrote also several
piano pieces, among them three polonaises. But according to German
authority,[7] it is her songs that have made her memory honoured. Her
originality and her skill in metrical treatment have won her high
praise, and many of the songs achieved wide popularity.
Leopoldine Blahetka, the Austrian pianist, was one of the most prolific
of women composers. Born near Vienna in 1811, she made such rapid
progress under her mother's tuition that by Beethoven's advice she was
placed under Czerny in her fifth year. She pursued composition as well
as piano, and when twelve years old was able to appear in Vienna and
play a set of variations with her own orchestral accompaniment. Among
her later teachers were Moscheles, Kalkbrenner, and Sechter. She made
frequent tours, and met with universal success. The criticisms of her
work include an extremely favourable notice by Schumann. In 1840 she
settled in Boulogne, where she became renowned as a teacher, and led a
successful career until her death in 1887.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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