Margaret Ruthven Lang, another of Boston's gifted musical women, was
born November 27, 1867. The name of her father, Mr. B. J. Lang, is
familiar to all Americans who can claim to know anything of music. Her
mother was an exquisite amateur singer, and in the musical atmosphere of
the family the daughter's talents have had every opportunity to develop.
She commenced her piano study under a pupil of her father's and
continued it under paternal direction. She took up violin with Louis
Schmidt in Boston, and carried it on with Drechsler and Abel in Munich,
where she also began composition with Victor Gluth. After her return she
continued her work for a time with Prof. John K. Paine and J. C. D.
Parker, finishing her orchestration with George W. Chadwick. Her own
persistent study has been of great advantage to her.
She began composing at the age of twelve, numbering among her early
works several songs and a movement of a piano quintette. Her efforts in
larger forms have been unusually well received. Her "Dramatic Overture"
was given by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1893, and in the same year
Theodore Thomas performed her overture, "Witichis." Still another
overture, "Totila," is in manuscript. Among other works are three
orchestral arias, "Sappho's Prayer to Aphrodite," for alto; "Armida,"
for soprano; and the yet unperformed "Ph[oe]bus," for baritone. An
orchestral ballade won much success in Baltimore in 1901. She has also
written an orchestral cantata, a string quartette, and several works for
violin and piano.
Miss Lang has published a number of successful part-songs for men's,
women's, and mixed voices. Of her fifty or more songs, all are more or
less widely known. The favourites among them seem to be "My Lady
Jacqueminot," "Meg Merrilies," "Deserted," "Eros," and the well-known
sets, "Five Norman Songs," "Six Scotch Songs," "Three Songs of the
Night," and "Three Songs of the East." Her piano music is also
excellent, among the best examples being the Rhapsody, the Meditation, a
poetic revery, the charming Spring Idyll, and her early suite, entitled
"Petit Roman."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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