Margaret Ruthven Lang

Margaret Ruthven Lang (November 27, 1867 – May 29, 1972) was an American composer, affiliated with the Second New England School. Lang was also one of the first two women composers (along with Amy Beach) to have compositions performed by American symphony orchestras: Lang's Dramatic Overture, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1893; Beach's Grand Mass in E-flat, 1892, by the Handel and Haydn Society; and Beach's Gaelic Symphony, 1896, by the Boston Symphony..

Margaret Lang was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the eldest child of Frances Morse Burrage Lang, an amateur singer, and Benjamin Johnson "B. J." Lang, a conductor, pianist, organist, composer, and accompanist (later director) of several choral groups including: The Apollo Club, The Cecilia Society, and the Handel and Haydn Society. B. J. Lang was a powerful member of the musical aristocracy of Boston and the Lang home, located at 8 Brimmer Street, saw many guests including Maude Powell, Camilla Urso, Antonín Dvořák, and Paderewski. B. J. Lang was also a friend of Franz Liszt and his daughter Cosima, and of Richard Wagner. Margaret knew Wagner’s children as playmates.

After demonstrating an early talent for composition, B. J. saw to it that Margaret received lessons in harmony, counterpoint and later, orchestration. In 1886, at the age of 19, Margaret, accompanied by her mother, traveled to Munich to study violin with Franz Drechsler and Ludwig Abel and counterpoint and fugue with Victor Gluth. However, she was not allowed to enter the Royal Conservatory of Music, as women were barred from counterpoint classes until 1898.

After returning to Boston, Margaret studied orchestration and composition with George Whitefield Chadwick, who was then professor at the New England Conservatory. She also studied, occasionally, with John Knowles Paine and J. C. D. Parker, who were also members of the Second New England School.

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