Music: Woman’s Symphony

Woman’s SymphonyOne hundred assorted women got behind musical instruments in Manhattanlast week and let themselves go. In herusual ministerial frock,* Conductor EthelLeginska stood before them, driving, cajoling, exerting all her high-pitched energy toward making them realize, as she obviously did. that the début of a national Woman’s Symphony Orchestra is a highly important occasion.

If the public will support it, or if a backer can be found, the Woman’s National Symphony Orchestra plans to be a permanent, touring organization. Conductor Leginska will pack up her spare frock-coat then. Violinist Eileen Mayo will abandon the schooner aboard which she lives. Horn-playing Suzanne Howitt will leave the women’s club of Teaneck, N. J. Eight other ladies will shoulder their double-basses, pretty Doris Smith her colossal tuba.

But Leginska’s women face severe obstacles. People seem loth to subsidize a woman’s orchestra. No matter how creditably a woman may play, she can rarely get symphonic training.* Women who play wind instruments are additionally handicapped by the fact that they look funny blowing. Until this year the Chicago Woman’s Symphony, conducted by Ebba Sundstrom, a dentist’s wife, had men play the difficult winds. But in Manhattan last week there was stout Edith Swan to play the trombone, Amy Ryder, 60 years old and deaf, to lead the French horns. They did not worry about appearing ridiculous any more than Ethel Leginska did when she decided to become a conductor.

There were no lady conductors then. Leginska was a pianist who felt herself frustrated. She disappeared several times when she was scheduled for concerts— and got headlines. All the time she was studying orchestra, working day after day for 20 hours out of the 24. She got the results she wanted. She was invited to conduct in Manhattan, St. Louis, Los Angeles. Berlin, London, Paris, Munich. She founded a woman’s symphony in Boston, took it on tour for two seasons. She conducted the Chicago Woman’s Symphony, helped instruct Lady Conductor Sundstrom (who last week said that interest in her orchestra has grown each year).

Ethel Leginska still plays the piano far better than most members of her sex. With her new-founded orchestra last week, she played Mozart’s A Major Concerto, bent low over the keys one minute, stood up the next, urging her women to keep to the brisk pace she had set for them. Her showmanship captivated a great audience. Critics thought that her players, considering their inexperience, responded very creditably to her tense, determined leadership.

* For practical reasons Leginska wears a black velvet costume something like a Prince Albert. Frail shoulder straps would never survive the passion she puts into her music. Only Debussy and the like could be conducted with safety by a lady in conventional evening dress.

* Notable exceptions are the few women who play in major U. S. orchestras. Lady harpists preponderate. There are two in Cleveland’s orchestra, one each in the big orchestras in Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Manhattan. . The San Francisco Symphony has three lady violinist?, two lady ‘cellists; Minneapolis has a lady violinist; Los Angeles and Cincinnati a lady pianist each: Cleveland a lady viola player. These fortunates get union wages. When the Chicago Woman’s Symphony feels pinched, its members play for $5 a week. Leginska and her players gave their services.