Ina Boyle: The Magic Harp – a contemporary review

Further to my post about Ina Boyle’s beautiful tone pome The Magic Harp, I discovered this review in The Musical Time. I have to say that I find it somewhat patronising. I have included the notice of S.H. Braithwaite’s Symphonic Scherzo, 'A Night by Dalegarth Bridge' as it is one of a number of works that I hope are rediscovered.

‘The date (December 16) of the eleventh concert of the series coinciding with the anniversary of Beethoven's birth, it was only natural and fitting that Mr Dan Godfrey should include in the programme one of the master's finest works-the Seventh Symphony.

Another interesting feature of the afternoon was the first performance here of a I920 Carnegie award composition: Ina Boyle's Rhapsody, 'The Magic Harp.' It is a pleasure to welcome the advent of another recruit to the small company of women composers, and though 'The Magic Harp' cannot be accounted a work of great significance or originality, yet it yields no small measure of fragrance and charm.

One of the cleverest novelties of the present season was produced at this concert- the Symphonic Scherzo, 'A Night by Dalegarth Bridge' (S. H. Braithwaite), which had its first public performance. A composition of the most delicate fancy - and, too, of mature workmanship -it reaped an instantaneous success, creating an impression that Mr. Braithwaite will go far as a composer. The delightful music was beautifully played’.

The Musical Times, February 1921 [with minor edits]