Chapter XIII: Romanticists and Neo-Classicists (2)

A composer of the younger Boston group is Edward Burlingame Hill (b. in 1872), a music-maker of reflective temperament whose work, always refined and thoughtfully molded, inclines to tints and moods of delicate and subtle texture. His musical studies were conducted at Harvard University, under Professor Paine, but the music of MacDowell, then a resident of Boston, was the chief influencing factor in his earlier work. At this time he wrote several piano sonatas, one in F sharp, one in E after Kipling's 'The Light that Failed,' and a 'Sonata Patriotica,' the title of the latter being far from an indication of any nationalistic tendency in his later work. These works have not been published. Under the same influence he wrote a number of short piano compositions and songs, among the former a set of 'Four Sketches after Stephen Crane', (opus 7), containing an engaging satirical pleasantry on the 'little devils grinning in sin,' and 'Country Idyls' (opus 10), exquisitely tinted and showing a quality of charm which is not the most prominent attribute of American music in general. The titles of some of the above-mentioned works reveal the composer's discriminating literary tastes, which are further borne out in the choice of the poems for his songs, among their authors being the names of Tennyson, Rossetti, Henley, Arthur Symons, Ambrosius, and Dowson. He has written many part-songs to Elizabethan words. A work of much more importance than any of the foregoing is 'The Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration' for chorus and orchestra (opus 15), on the poem by Dowson, which was performed at a concert of the Modern Music Society of New York in 1914, under the direction of Benjamin Lambord. It reveals refined musicianship of a high order and, rather dangerously for the maintenance of interest, though advantageously for an exhibition of the psychological penetration of the composer, sustains a peculiar mood of spiritual aloofness. A pantomime 'Jack Frost in Midsummer' (opus 16), which has been publicly performed, is one of the best of the later works of Hill, who is more distinguished in artistic personality than in the quality of being prolific. Another pantomime is 'Pan and the Star.' He has in manuscript an overture to 'She Stoops to Conquer,' and a set of variations for string quartet. Hill was comparatively early attracted to the modern French school and his later work has been strongly influenced by it, though not to the point of radical ultra-modernity. This tendency is exhibited at its most advanced in the symphonic poem, 'The Parting of Launcelot and Guenevere,' after the poem by Stephen Phillips. As in 'Pan and the Star,' the composer's dramatic instinct comes strongly into play, and the work might be as aptly called a dramatic symphony, since the dramatic aspects of the poem have appealed most strongly to the composer.

Another representative of the Harvard University influence is Philip Greeley Clapp, whose tone-poem 'Norge' and a symphony have been performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the latter in the spring of 1914 under the composer's direction. The former received considerable commendation, but the latter was not greeted with unmixed cordiality. Olin Downes, the critic of the _Post_, pronouncing denunciation upon it in unequivocal fashion, though Philip Hale regarded it with a measure of favor. Clapp is gifted with ideas and temperament, but is considered not yet to have issued from the formative stage or to have acquired a definite and personal style. The forms in which he writes indicate a strong classical tendency, but his sympathies with respect to thematic treatment and harmony are modern. Among his works are a quartet for strings, in C minor, a prelude 'In Summer,' for orchestra, a number of songs for solo voice, as well as part-songs, and several songs with orchestral accompaniment.

John Beach has shown evidence of distinguished sensitiveness and refinement of feeling in a number of songs and piano compositions which, as in the case of Hill, find the composer going to high literary sources for inspiration. While not original in a startling sense, there is a very personal element in Beach's music; without a very abundant technique he succeeds in his best work in getting himself expressed and is singularly free from imitation, both in the emotional content of his music and in his technical presentation of it. He is a true and original melodist, with a sense of beauty of no mean order which is quite his own, and at times shows a considerable and subtle harmonic imagination. 'A Song of the Lilac,' poem by Louise Imogen Guiney, is an inspired little picture of the perfumed and mystic night wind. 'A Woman's Last Word,' on Browning's poem beginning 'Let's contend no more, love,' is very sincere in its emotion, as is also his warmly autumnal ‘'Twas in a World of Living Leaves,’ on Henley's poem. 'In a Gondola,' an extended 'dramatic monologue for baritone,' on Browning's poem, is a complete drama in brief, with some effective and luscious tone painting. Of the piano compositions one remembers with pleasure 'A Garden Fancy,' on lines by Rossetti, an 'Intermezzo' with a very poetic middle section, a 'Monologue' of Schumann-Brahms influence, and the 'New Orleans Miniatures,' reflecting charmingly a series of impressions gained in that city during the composer's residence there as a teacher. Beach comes from Gloversville, N. Y., and was for a time instructor in music at the University of Minnesota.

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One of the most brilliant of the younger American group is Arthur Bergh (b. 1882), the spread of whose fame as the composer of melodramatic music to Poe's 'Raven' has been almost as rapid as was that of the erratic poet-genius himself through his achievement of that immemorially haunting poem. It was first produced by David Bispham, to whom it is dedicated, in 1909, and has become a universal favorite with his audiences everywhere. This music offers no startling problems for the modern theorist, scarcely for the lay musician, in fact, so simple and clear is it in construction; but it has an inner quality not easy to describe, a quality of verity, of directness, of immediacy of expression, seldom attained by composers of the time. Here are no blotches or wastes of mere color, such as Poe might easily invite; the work is everywhere thematic. Three themes, of electrical directness and poignant eloquence (two for the raven and one for the 'lost Lenore'), suffice the composer for the entire work, with a subsidiary theme or two, but there is not a spot of tedious or laborious thematic development in the composition; it is everywhere fresh, crystalline and crisp. It is music that lives and speaks at every point. A little tempered programmatic suggestion is employed, at the rapping on the door, but always with the musical aim above the realistic. The 'Lenore' theme is of haunting loveliness, and the theme of the 'stately raven' is a stroke of genius in the simple expression of mystery and dignity. Everywhere is poetic and idealistic atmosphere, gained always with the simplest of means. It is to the composer's credit that, with a true intuition for the relative values in the content of the poem, he has made, not the gloom of the shadow-haunted chamber, but the dream of the 'lost Lenore,' the dominant note of the work. The composer has made an admirable orchestral score of the composition, which was produced, with Bispham as reader, the composer conducting, at a concert of the 'American Music Society' in New York, on April 18, 1909.

The composer has completed another 'melodrama' of a similar order, on Browning's 'Pied Piper of Hamelin,' also with orchestral score, which, if anything, surpasses the 'Raven.' He has published about thirty songs and about an equal number of piano compositions and some for violin. Of the songs the 'Night Rider,' on a poem by Fullerton Waldo, is the most important, a high-spirited and poetic work. It is scored for orchestra. In most of these smaller works Beach has not embodied a very significant content, but they have ingenuity, charm, and sentiment. 'Plaintive Love' from opus 14 may be mentioned as colorful. He has many unpublished works, among them a light romantic opera, 'Niorada,' some excellent piano suites, two overtures, a 'Festival March,' a recent symphonic choral for orchestra and chorus entitled 'The Unnamed City,' and many songs. Bergh was the conductor of the orchestra in Central Park, New York, in the summer of 1914.

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Joseph Henius, whose untimely death in 1912 cut short the career of a musician of high ideals, has left a published violin sonata of high merit. It was first produced by David and Clara Mannes in New York in 1909 and was enthusiastically received. It is fairly strict sonata form except for the slow movement. This is a romance of deep poetic fervor, alternately sombre and exalted, and reveals a lofty melodic beauty and much warmth of feeling. Henius has aimed at keeping melody plainly in view, and at the same time to gain perfection of the cyclic form. He was a pupil of Dvořák and a determined classicist. Among his manuscripts are a quintet in D major, a quartet in G minor, a comic opera and various songs.

A composer of classical leanings is Frank Edwin Ward (b. 1872), who has been connected with Columbia University as organist since 1904, and as Associate in Music since 1909. His works in the cyclical forms are a published sonata for violin and piano (opus 9), and, in manuscript, a quartet for piano and strings (opus 13), a string quartet (opus 22), and a suite for orchestra (opus 25). Modern in a general way, though not in the latter-day sense of the term, Ward's music exhibits an unusual melodic fluency and a harmonic variety and flexibility which often lend it interest and charm. It is music that is sincere and well-felt, and wholly devoid of strain. The workmanship is clean-cut and musicianly, and the form well-rounded and balanced. A rhapsody for piano and violin or violoncello (opus 10) is effective and spirited with an _andante appassionato_ movement of much warmth. Of a group of short piano pieces (opus 5), 'Prelude' shows a distinguished and refined quality of musical thought, with much modulatory interest, and a MacDowellish 'By the Sea Shore' is very agreeable music. There are also a number of songs and organ pieces, two sacred cantatas, 'The Divine Birth' and 'The Savior of the World,' secular part songs, and over thirty anthems and services.

Carl Busch (b. 1862), although of foreign birth, has long been classed among American composers. He has for many years been identified with the musical life of Kansas City, Mo., where he is conductor of the symphony orchestra and the Philharmonic Choral Society. He has also conducted concerts in his native land, Denmark, where he was knighted by the government in 1912. His early studies were conducted in Copenhagen, but his work as a composer began only with his residence in America, now of twenty-five years' duration. Busch's tendency is almost wholly along romantic lines, and his achievements are of a substantial character. He is best known for his works for chorus and orchestra, impressive compositions conceived on broad lines. Among the most important of these are 'King Olaf,' and 'The Four Winds,' the latter of Indian character. Others are: 'The American Flag,' 'Paul Revere's Ride,' 'The League of the Alps,' and 'The Brown Heather.' Busch has an excellent technical command of orchestral resource, and has produced a number of large orchestral works, among them a prologue, 'The Passing of Arthur,' a rhapsody, 'Negro Carnival,' and a testimony to the persistence of Stephen Foster's fame and influence in string variations on 'The Old Folks at Home' and 'My Old Kentucky Home.' During the last ten years Busch has felt strongly the Indian influence and, aside from 'The Four Winds,' has produced an 'Indian Legend' for violin and piano, two groups of Indian songs, two symphonic poems and several smaller orchestral works, all of Indian character. From an earlier period are many songs and choruses and a number of violin pieces.

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Also foreign born, and famous chiefly through his long and distinguished career as a conductor, Walter Damrosch (b. 1862) has made noteworthy incursions into the field of composition. Wherever David Bispham has sung, his stirring setting of Kipling's 'Danny Deever' is a popular favorite. In 1894 he essayed an American grand opera in 'The Scarlet Letter,' produced in Boston and New York under his own direction, but the work did not hold the stage. Much more favorable comment was evoked by his second opera, 'Cyrano,' text by W. J. Henderson, which was produced at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on February 27, 1913. The critic of the 'New Music Review' wrote of Mr. Damrosch and this work, 'He has written in a well recognizable post-Wagnerian style.... His score is commendable for its coloring, its richness, and for the touch with which he has emphasized and elucidated passages now emotional, now gay, now picturesque, now tragic. The music of "Cyrano" is undoubtedly composed with skill, with verve, and in parts with spontaneity.' In the midst of a busy conductor's life Mr. Damrosch has unquestionably borne his share of the effort to make America an opera-producing nation.

Two other Americans coming within the present classification who have striven in the field of grand opera are Albert Mildenberg and William Legrand Howland. Mildenberg has written three grand operas, 'Michael Angelo,' in one act, and two three-act operas, 'Raffaelo' and 'Angelo,' none of which, however, have yet come to performance. His light operas have been produced at different times, 'The Wood Witch,' by the Bostonians; 'The Weather Vane,' by an independent company; and 'The Princess Delft,' by various American colleges. Howland has also written three grand operas, 'Nita,' 'Sarrona,' and 'Bébé.' These have been produced in Italy, 'Sarrona' being the only one to be heard in America, when given under somewhat trying conditions by an independent company in New York, February 10, 1910. It is a melodious score, rather lightly orchestrated, but not without moments of notable effectiveness.

VII

San Francisco, especially as the home of the Bohemian Club, with its world-famous 'Midsummer High Jinks' or 'Forest Festival,' holds a record as a city of composers that is little appreciated in the Eastern part of the United States. Of this group William J. McCoy has probably made the most significant contribution to musical art. A composer of high ideals and broad artistic vision, of large emotional capacity and wide experience, his work reveals him as an artist of no ordinary stature. Educated in America under William Mason, and in the German schools under Carl Reinecke and Moritz Hauptmann, he nevertheless at an early period made himself familiar with the principles of the French school. His music is characterized by directness of invention, breadth of resource, and an appealing emotional warmth, and shows him, as well, as an adept in orchestration. His virile and dramatic music for 'The Hamadryads,' the 'Midsummer High Jinks' of 1904, text by Will Irwin, was one of the strongest factors in the elevation of the Bohemian Club's festival to the high fame which it enjoys. The themes are all lyrically appealing and of jubilant spontaneity, those of 'hope' and 'supplication' being particularly felicitous, while the final processional march shows an almost Wagnerian breadth and rhythmic swing. The overture was performed in New York, on April 18, 1909, at a concert of the American Music Society at Carnegie Hall. McCoy's music for the 'Jinks' of 1910, 'The Cave Man,' text by Charles K. Field, shows a pronounced advance in the employment of modern resource. One of its chief features is the 'Song of the Flint,' a work of strong dramatic power. A grand opera, 'Egypt,' libretto by Charles K. Field, is the composer's most recently completed work, having been finished in 1914, and is thought to be his most representative and substantial achievement. An early symphony was performed in Leipzig in 1872. There are also an 'Ave Verum' for solo, male chorus and organ, a quintet in G, and various songs and short instrumental pieces. The composer is also the author of a theoretical work, 'Cumulative Harmony.' McCoy was born in Crestline, Ohio, in 1848.

Another veteran 'Jinks' composer of San Francisco is Humphrey J. Stewart, who has been the 'Musical Sire,' as it is termed, of the eleventh (1888), thirteenth (1890), fifteenth (1892), seventeenth (1894), eighteenth (1895), twentieth (1897), twenty-first (1898), twenty-sixth (1903), and twenty-ninth (1906) 'Midsummer High Jinks.' Stewart is of English birth, a composer of high musicianship, and is widely known in the field of church music.

Edward F. Schneider, of San Francisco, has also made a notable contribution to the music of the Bohemian Club, having been the composer of the 'Jinks' drama for 1907, the 'Triumph of Bohemia,' text by George Sterling, which was very cordially received. He is also the composer of the 'Jinks,' or 'Grove Play,' as this festival is sometimes called, to be presented in 1915. It is entitled 'Apollo,' the text being by Frank Pixley. Schneider's tendencies are inclined toward the classic tradition, though not without rather strong romantic influence, and find their chief expression in his symphony, 'In Autumn Time,' which has been produced by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, under Henry Hadley's direction. His music is strongly melodic, an infrequent modern characteristic, warm in emotional quality and of well-balanced and rounded formal construction, though little touched by ultra-modernism. Of a number of songs 'The Deep Sea Pearl' may be singled out for its quality of haunting beauty, and a setting of Tennyson's 'Eagle' for descriptive power. A 'Romantic Fantasy' and 'Midwinter Idyl,' both for violin and piano, are extremely melodious, and show a sympathetic management of violin writing.

Another San Francisco composer of notable ability is Wallace Sabin, who composed the music for the Bohemian Club Grove Play of 1909, 'St. Patrick at Tara,' the text by H. Morse Stephens. This, one of the most famous 'Jinks,' won high favor, and the music, if not striking in originality, was dignified and of firm texture, and carried out admirably the Celtic musical idiom. A wild Irish revel, in the form of a jig, was one of its most striking features, and of much solidity and breadth was the processional chorus at the entrance of the King of Leinster with his retainers. Sabin has written much music for the church.

Herman Perlet, another of the San Francisco group, wrote the music for the Grove Play of 1913, 'The Fall of Ug,' text by Rufus Steele. The themes show a considerable power of characterization and a lively and elastic rhythmic sense. Perlet's tone-poem 'Mount Tamalpais,' was heard, under the composer's direction, in San Francisco in June, 1912, and called forth warm praise from the critic of the 'Call.' While not an avowed nationalist or 'aboriginalist,' he has based this work upon a theme of the Lake County Indians. A 'Symphonic Suite' and a 'Symphonie Spirituelle' are of more recent date.

Edward G. Stricklen is one of the younger San Franciscans, and is regarded as a composer of ability and promise. The music for 'The Green Knight,' text by Porter Garnett, the 'Jinks' of 1911, is his contribution to the art achievement of the Bohemain Club. It is music of distinguished imaginative character and much freshness of inspiration, showing the rich modern harmonic texture which characterizes the younger school of American composers. Stricklen is also the composer of the first 'Parthenia,' the annual festival expressing the passage from girlhood to womanhood, inaugurated by the women students at the University of California.

Theodore Vogt and Arthur Weiss should be mentioned in connection with the San Francisco group, the composers of the 'Jinks' of 1905 and 1908, respectively, 'The Quest of the Gorgon' and 'The Sons of Baldur'; and also Joseph D. Redding, the composer of the first 'Jinks' known as a 'Grove Play,' which was entitled 'The Man in the Forest,' and was produced in 1902. John Harradan Pratt, of San Francisco, has composed, among other works, a trio for pianoforte and strings, which, if conservative, shows genuine classical ideals and considerable charm.

Nathaniel Clifford Page (b. 1866), at one time associated with the San Francisco group, but who later removed to the East, is a composer of a high order of musicianship. He has an early opera, 'The First Lieutenant,' produced in San Francisco in 1889, as well as two later operas, and has written much incidental and entr'acte music for plays. An orchestral 'Caprice' is an astonishing display of orchestral and contrapuntal ingenuity, and his part song on lines from the opening of Keats' 'Endymion' shows a highly refined sense of beauty.

There are many American composers of the younger generation, or, if somewhat older, too infrequently heard, who have shown a greater or less degree of creative capacity along the line of the ideals considered in the present chapter, but of whom it is too early to predict the nature or possible height of their promised achievements. Henry Lang, of Philadelphia, took the first prize in the chamber music class of the prize competition of the National Federation of Musical Clubs in 1911, with a trio for piano and strings, in E major. Henry V. Stearnes, with a very melodious trio in D minor, took the second prize in this class at the same competition. Stanley R. Avery, of Minneapolis, has written a considerable number of songs showing fancy and charm, among them 'When Hazel Comes,' 'There's a Sunny Path,' 'The Shepherdess,' an Easter song called 'The Dawn of Life,' 'On a Balcony,' a graceful song with a warmly emotional climax, and an 'Esquimo Love Song' of curiously chilly atmosphere. He has written also part songs and church music. Arthur Olaf Anderson, of Chicago, who has also written many charming songs, is a purist in his art, gaining exquisite effects with great simplicity and lucidity. Among his songs are 'May-time,' 'Roses,' _In verschwiegener Nacht_, and 'Mother Mine.' He is the composer of two pianoforte sonatas, several short suites and pieces for large and small orchestra, and a number of mixed male and female choruses. Chester Ide, of Springfield, Ill., is a composer of delicate poetic fancy who often shows an unusually poignant sense of beauty. He has written suites for orchestra, vocal works with orchestra, songs, and piano pieces. The songs 'Lovers of the Wild' and 'Names,' on poems by Stevenson and Coleridge, reveal grace and buoyancy of inspiration, and a waltz, 'To Margaret,' gains a singular intensity of dreaminess with the simplest of means. Albert Elkus, of Sacramento, Cal., has written piano pieces showing individuality. Cecil Burleigh is a composer of exceptional promise, who devotes himself chiefly to the violin. His 'Eight Characteristic Pieces' (opus 6) for that instrument are musicianly, well felt, and fanciful, though not showing the character revealed in his later work. The 'Rocky Mountain Sketches' and 'Twelve Short Poems,' also for violin and piano, show a very great advance in imaginative quality, as does also a set of five 'Indian Sketches.' A recent violin and piano sonata, entitled 'Ascension,' is his most ambitious work. Christian Kriens, of Hollandish birth, has written felicitously in various forms. A number of solos for violin and 'cello, with piano accompaniment, show him as a fertile melodist. One of the former, 'Summer Evening,' is a simple mood of considerable loveliness. A composer of piquant and charming individuality is Charles Fonteyn Manney (b. 1872), of Boston, who has written many excellent songs, 'Orpheus with His Lute' being perhaps the best known. Frederick Fleming Beale, of Seattle, has shown originality and noteworthy poetic quality as a song writer. J. Homer Grunn, located at Phœnix, Ariz., has embodied impressions of the 'land of little rain' in a pianoforte suite, 'Impressions of the Desert,' and has written a _Marche Héroïque_ for two pianos, 'Concert Studies,' and 'Garden Pieces.'

Edmund Severn (b. 1862, in England) has given himself extensively to composition for the violin. His concerto for that instrument in D minor is on broadly melodic lines, is, on the whole, conservative, but makes occasional excursions into whole-tone scale effects. A suite for violin and piano, 'From Old New England,' draws upon old tunes and ballads of that region for its thematic material, though scarcely constituting the composer a nationalist. Its movements, 'Pastoral Romance,' 'Rustic Scherzo,' 'Lament,' and 'Kitchen Dance,' are excellent violin writing, and show humor and a sprightly fancy. There is also a sonata for violin and piano and a symphonic poem, 'Launcelot and Elaine,' which has been heard at the Worcester, Mass., festivals.

Certain American composers of distinguished attainments in the sphere of romantic and neo-classic ideals have preferred to spend their lives in Europe, with the result that their work is little known at home. Among these Arthur Bird (b. 1856) is known as the possessor of a fertile and truly musical imagination and a thorough technique. He has composed a symphony, suites, and a 'Carnival,' for orchestra; a ballet, _Rübezahl_; an opera, 'Daphne'; and various works for piano and organ. His decimet for wind instruments won the Paderewski prize for chamber music in 1902. Bird is a musician of German training and French sympathies and calls himself a 'conditional modernist.' He makes his home in Berlin, where he studied under Haupt, Loeschhorn and Urban. Earlier in his career he spent two years with Liszt at Weimar. In 1886 Bird was the conductor of the Milwaukee Musical Festival. Another of the expatriated is Bertram Shapleigh, who has adopted England as his home. His output is enormous and comprises works in many forms, among them orchestral works, cantatas, and choruses, and violin and 'cello solos, though songs constitute by far the greater part of his music. For orchestra he has a 'Ramayana' suite and four symphonic sketches, _Gur Amir_.

VIII

The classical tendency, by which is commonly meant the impulse to compose in the 'cyclic' forms, is seldom manifested by women composers, for reasons which have been variously explained, or for which explanation has been attempted. Whatever the true reason may be, it is, in fact, wholly on the side of romanticism, with the possible exception of literary tendencies in the choice of poems for songs, that all the women composers coming within the scope of this chapter are found. One of the most gifted of these is Mabel Daniels (b. 1878), who has the distinction of having won both prizes offered for women composers in the competition of the National Federation of Musical Clubs for 1911, the first with a song for soprano, 'Villa of Dreams,' poem by Arthur Symons, and the second with two three-part songs for women's voices with accompaniment of pianoforte and two violins, 'Eastern Song,' the author of the text not stated, and 'The Voice of My Beloved,' the text selected from the 'Song of Solomon.' 'Villa of Dreams' is a broadly conceived aria, essentially melodious, and harmonically modern in the general sense of being free in modulatory treatment, without crossing the border line of ultra-modern chord effects. It is fluent in inspiration and authentically poetic. Miss Daniels' most significant work is a poem for baritone and orchestra. 'The Desolate City' (W. S. Blunt), produced at the Peterborough festival in 1913, and later by the Chicago orchestra in Syracuse, the composer conducting. 'Love, When I Sleep,' on original verses which show the composer to have a marked poetic gift, from three 'Songs of Damascus,' is notable for its melodic warmth. A 'Fairy Scherzo' for orchestra was conducted by the composer at the MacDowell Festival at Peterborough, N. H., in August, 1914.

Widely known through her irresistibly lilting 'Boat Song,' Harriet Ware, through many songs of exquisite character, has taken her place as one of the most prominent women composers of America. Her work has assumed a thoroughly modern character, is highly refined in feeling and often subtle in its expressiveness. Among her songs one of the best is 'The Call of Râdha,' which contrasts with poignancy the worlds of sense and spirit. 'The Forgotten Land,' another song which takes high rank, shows a considerable chromatic harmonic fluency, and paints an exquisite tone-picture of a far-away world. 'Rose Moral' has much simple beauty, 'To Lucasta' fine contrasts of mood, and 'My Love is a Rider' is very bold and poetic. A true ecstasy lives in 'Joy of the Morning,' and 'The Last Dance' is rich and warm in sentiment throughout.

Few composers of America, of either sex, have surpassed in quality of spiritual beauty and refinement some of the songs of Gertrude Norman Smith, who commands regions of inspiration to which only a few rare souls have access. One studies and regards with keenest admiration such exquisite and deeply felt inspirations as 'From Afar in the Night,' with its restful motion; 'The Golden Birch,' so melodically beautiful and sensitive in harmony; the somewhat Schubertesque but quaintly charming 'In the Cloister Garden'; the joyously lilting 'In the Vale of Llangollen,' on Arthur Symons' poem; and the mood-heavy and passionate song on the same poet's 'Rain on the Down.'

An extraordinary record is that of Eleanor Everest Freer, of Chicago, who has, in a large number of songs, well-nigh summed up the whole range of the best in English and American lyrical literature, having drawn upon upward of sixty of the greatest poets in the language for her texts. Her opus 22, alone, consists of settings of the entire fourty-four 'Sonnets from the Portuguese,' of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Her music presents the wide variety of expressiveness which such a task would of necessity demand, but, despite the interesting character of much of this music, it may be conceived that a richer musical texture would have been gained by a higher concentration upon a lesser output. The music shows French influence and is laudable for its freedom from the outworn conventions of Germanic tradition.

A melodist of much spontaneity and charm is Celeste Heckscher, who has written a considerable number of songs and piano pieces of appealing lyrical quality, as well as an orchestral suite, 'Dances of the Pyrenees,' which has been very successfully performed at the concerts of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and elsewhere. Among the songs 'Music of Hungary' is characteristic and bold; 'Serenade' is melodically ingratiating; and 'Pastoral Lullaby,' on a melody from the orchestral suite, has a haunting melodic outline and charm of mood. A 'Romance' for 'cello is simple and effective, affording a good opportunity for developing tonal breadth.

Clara A. Korn, ranked by Rupert Hughes as a composer of 'works of serious intention and worthy art,' has written a considerable number of piano pieces in the smaller forms, including a suite, 'Rural Snapshots,' an album of 'Nine Songs,' and for violin and piano a suite, 'Modern Dances,' and an _Air de Ballet_.

With characteristic Western enterprise Mary Carr Moore, of Seattle, composed, produced, and conducted a grand opera, 'Narcissa,' text by Sarah Pratt Carr, in that city in 1912 with pronounced success. The text is based on a romantic episode of local history. Mrs. Moore is the composer of many charming songs.

A complete list of American women composers would be of astonishing length, and beyond the scope of the present work. Helen Hopekirk, of Boston, should be mentioned, who has contributed to song and pianoforte literature much of worth, of beauty and charm, not untouched in its imaginative quality by the composer's Celtic derivation. Fannie Dillon, of Los Angeles, in a number of piano compositions, shows emotional and imaginative force, and a geometrical handling of ideas and grasp of harmonic construction having an almost masculine character. She has given a musical setting to Browning's 'Saul.' Mary Turner Salter (b. in 1856) is widely known for songs of much fineness of spirit and humanity of appeal. Amy Woodford Finden's setting of Lawrence Hope's 'Indian Love Lyrics' have enjoyed a very wide popularity. Lola Carrier Worrell is the composer of many pleasant songs. A peculiar depth and authenticity of mood lurks in several songs of not very formidable technical construction by Katherine Ruth Heyman. Charming songs have been written by Alicia Van Buren, Virginia Roper, Louise Drake Wright, Alice Getty, and Caroline Holme Walker.

A. F.