Smyth, Ethel M.

Contemporary English composer, the daughter of General J. H. Smyth. She studied music under Heinrich Herzogenberg, late professor of composition at the High School, Berlin. Miss Smyth has had an interesting career as a composer. Her opera, Der Wald, written to a text of her own, was performed at Berlin and also at London in 1902, and was declared by critics to be of more than usual merit. Another opera, Fantasip, was produced at Weimar and again at Carlsruhe under the direction of the celebrated Wagnerian conductor, Felix Mottl. Her overture, Antony and Cleopatra, and a serenade in D for orchestra were given at the Crystal Palace in 1890. A mass in ) is of such merit as to attract the attention of numerous choral societies. It is intensely modern in style, and, according to some musicians, suggests Gounod. She has also composed numerous songs; a quartet for strings, performed at Leipsic in 1884; a sonata for violin and piano, and other works. Much of Miss Smyth's chamber-music has been given at the Abonnement concerts at Leipsic, and her orchestral works at Mr. Henschel's Symphony concerts in London and at the Crystal Palace.