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diff --git a/23800.txt b/23800.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11e2a12 --- /dev/null +++ b/23800.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8633 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Contemporary American Composers, by Rupert Hughes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Contemporary American Composers + Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present + Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and + Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an + Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and + Compositions + +Author: Rupert Hughes + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23800] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN COMPOSERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Newman, Jeffrey Johnson, Suzanne Lybarger, +Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Transcriber's Notes: Printer errors have been corrected. Full-page +illustrations have been moved so as not to interrupt the flow of the +text.] + + + + +CONTEMPORARY +AMERICAN COMPOSERS + +BEING A STUDY OF THE MUSIC OF THIS +COUNTRY, ITS PRESENT CONDITIONS AND ITS +FUTURE, WITH CRITICAL ESTIMATES AND +BIOGRAPHIES OF THE PRINCIPAL LIVING +COMPOSERS; AND AN ABUNDANCE OF PORTRAITS, +FAC-SIMILE MUSICAL AUTOGRAPHS, +AND COMPOSITIONS + + +By + +Rupert Hughes, M.A. + + +_ILLUSTRATED_ + + +Boston +L.C. Page and Company +(Incorporated) +1900 + +_Copyright, 1900_ +BY L.C. PAGE & COMPANY +(INCORPORATED) + +_All rights reserved_ + +Colonial Press +Electrotyped and Printed by C.H. Simonds & Co. +Boston, U.S.A. + + + + +TO + +James Huneker + +MUSICIAN TO THE TIP OF HIS PEN + + + + +FOREWORD. + + +One day there came into Robert Schumann's ken the work of a young +fellow named Brahms, and the master cried aloud in the wilderness, +"Behold, the new Messiah of music!" Many have refused to accept Brahms +at this rating, and I confess to being one of the unregenerate, but +the spirit that kept Schumann's heart open to the appeal of any +stranger, that led him into instant enthusiasms of which he was +neither afraid nor ashamed, enthusiasms in which the whole world has +generally followed his leading--that spirit it is that proves his true +musicianship, and makes him a place forever among the great critics +of music,--a small, small crowd they are, too. + +It is inevitable that a pioneer like Schumann should make many +mistakes, but he escaped the one great fatal mistake of those who are +not open to conviction, nor alert for new beauty and fresh truth, who +are willing to take art to their affections or respect only when it +has lost its bloom and has been duly appraised and ticketed by other +generations or foreign scholars. And yet, even worse than this +languorous inanition is the active policy of those who despise +everything contemporary or native, and substitute sciolism for +catholicity, contempt for analysis. + +While the greater part of the world has stayed aloof, the problem of a +national American music has been solving itself. Aside from +occasional attentions evoked by chance performances, it may be said in +general that the growth of our music has been unloved and unheeded by +anybody except a few plodding composers, their wives, and a retainer +or two. The only thing that inclines me to invade the privacy of the +American composer and publish his secrets, is my hearty belief, lo, +these many years! that some of the best music in the world is being +written here at home, and that it only needs the light to win its meed +of praise. + +Owing to the scarcity of printed matter relating to native composers, +and the utter incompleteness and bias of what exists, I have based +this book almost altogether on my own research. I studied the +catalogues of all the respectable music publishers, and selected such +composers as seemed to have any serious intentions. When I heard of a +composer whose work, though earnest, had not been able to find a +publisher, I sought him out and read his manuscripts (a hideous task +which might be substituted for the comparative pastime of breaking +rocks, as punishment for misdemeanors). In every case I secured as +many of each composer's works as could be had in print or in +manuscript, and endeavored to digest them. Thousands of pieces of +music, from short songs to operatic and orchestral scores, I studied +with all available conscience. The fact that after going through at +least a ton of American compositions, I am still an enthusiast, is +surely a proof of some virtue in native music. + +A portion of the result of this study was published _au courant_ in a +magazine, awakening so much attention that I have at length decided to +yield to constant requests and publish the articles in more accessible +form. The necessity for revising many of the opinions formed hastily +and published immediately, the possibility now of taking the work of +our musicians in some perspective, and the opportunity of bringing my +information up to date, have meant so much revision, excision, and +addition, that this book is really a new work. + +The biographical data have been furnished in practically every case by +the composers themselves, and are, therefore, reliable in everything +except possibly the date of birth. The critical opinions gain their +possibly dogmatic tone rather from a desire for brevity than from any +hope--or wish--that they should be swallowed whole. No attempt to set +up a standard of comparative merit or precedence has been made, though +it is inevitable that certain music-makers should interest one more +than certain others even more worthy in the eyes of eminent judges. + +It may be that some inspectors of this book will complain of the +omission of names they had expected to find here. Others will feel a +sense of disproportion. To them there is no reply but a pathetic +allusion to the inevitable incompleteness and asymmetry of all things +human. + +Many will look with skepticism at the large number of composers I have +thought worthy of inclusion. I can only say that the fact that an +artist has created one work of high merit makes him a good composer in +my opinion, whether or no he has ever written another, and whether or +no he has afterward fallen into the sere and yellow school of trash. +So Gray's fame is perennial,--one poem among many banalities. + +Besides, I do not concur in that most commonplace fallacy of +criticism, the belief that not more than one genius is vouchsafed to +any one period of an art, though this opinion can be justified, of +course, by a very exclusive definition of the word genius. To the +average mind, for instance, the whole literary achievement of the +Elizabethan era is condensed into the name of Shakespeare. +Contemporary with him, however, there were, of course, thirty or forty +writers whose best works the scholar would be most unwilling to let +die. There were, for instance, a dozen playwrights, like Jonson, +Fletcher, Ford, Marlowe, and Greene, in whose works can be found +literary and dramatic touches of the very highest order. There were +poets less prolific than Spenser, and yet to be credited with a few +works of the utmost beauty, minor geniuses like Ralegh, Sidney, Lodge, +Shirley, Lyly, Wotton, Wither, John Donne, Bishop Hall, Drayton, +Drummond, Herbert, Carew, Herrick, Breton, Allison, Byrd, Dowland, +Campion--so one might run on without naming one man who had not +written something the world was better for. + +All periods of great art activity are similarly marked by a large +number of geniuses whose ability is not disproved, because +overshadowed by the presence of some titanic contemporary. It would be +a mere impertinence to state such an axiom of art as this, were it not +the plain truth that almost all criticism of contemporaries is based +upon an arrant neglect of it; and if it were not for the fact that I +am about to string out a long, long list of American music-makers +whose ability I think noteworthy,--a list whose length may lead many a +wiseacre to pull a longer face. + +Parts of this book have been reprinted from _Godey's Magazine_, the +_Century Magazine_, and the _Criterion_, to whose publishers I am +indebted for permission. For the music reproduced here I have to +thank the publishers whose copyrights were loaned for the occasion. + +If the book shall only succeed in arousing in some minds an interest +or a curiosity that shall set them to the study of American music (as +I have studied it, with infinite pleasure), then this fine white paper +and this beautiful black ink will not have been wasted. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + +FOREWORD vii + +A GENERAL SURVEY 11 + +THE INNOVATORS 34 + +THE ACADEMICS 145 + +THE COLONISTS 267 + +THE WOMEN COMPOSERS 423 + +THE FOREIGN COMPOSERS 442 + +POSTLUDE 447 + +INDEX 449 + + + + +LIST OF MUSIC. + + + PAGE + +AUTOGRAPH OF EDWARD MACDOWELL 34 + +"CLAIR DE LUNE," BY EDWARD MACDOWELL 46 + +AUTOGRAPH OF EDGAR STILLMAN KELLEY 58 + +"ISRAFEL" (fragment), BY EDGAR STILLMAN KELLEY 74 + +AUTOGRAPH OF HARVEY WORTHINGTON LOOMIS 77 + +"SANDALPHON" (fragment), BY H.W. LOOMIS 82 + +AUTOGRAPH OF ETHELBERT NEVIN 93 + +"HERBSTGEFUeHL" (fragment), BY ETHELBERT NEVIN 102 + +AUTOGRAPH OF JOHN PHILIP SOUSA 112 + +A PAGE FROM "EL CAPITAN," BY JOHN PHILIP SOUSA 127 + +AUTOGRAPH OF JOHN K. PAINE 145 + +POSTLUDE TO "OEDIPUS TYRANNUS," BY JOHN K. PAINE 158 + +"SPRING'S AWAKENING" (fragment), BY DUDLEY BUCK 172 + +AUTOGRAPH OF HORATIO W. PARKER 174 + +"NIGHT-PIECE TO JULIA" (fragment), BY HORATIO W. PARKER 180 + +"DIE STUNDE SEI GESEGNET" (fragment), BY FRANK VAN DER STUCKEN 194 + +"A LOVE SONG" (fragment), BY W.W. GILCHRIST 205 + +AUTOGRAPH OF G.W. CHADWICK 210 + +"FOLK SONG" (NO. 1), BY G.W. CHADWICK 216 + +AUTOGRAPH OF ARTHUR FOOTE 221 + +"IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS," BY ARTHUR FOOTE 230 + +"IDYLLE" (fragment), BY ARTHUR WHITING 287 + +"BALLADE" (fragment), BY HOWARD BROCKWAY 303 + +AUTOGRAPH OF HARRY ROWE SHELLEY 304 + +"SPRING" (fragment), BY GERRIT SMITH 314 + +"WHEN LOVE IS GONE," BY C.B. HAWLEY 330 + +"SONG FROM OMAR KHAYYAM," BY VICTOR HARRIS 339 + +"HYMN OF PAN" (fragment), FRED FIELD BULLARD 352 + +"PEACE," BY HOMER A. NORRIS 362 + +AUTOGRAPH OF G.W. MARSTON 367 + +EXCERPT FROM AN ORCHESTRAL SCORE, BY F.G. GLEASON 378 + +"IDYLLE" (fragment), BY WILLIAM H. SHERWOOD 385 + +AUTOGRAPH OF WILSON G. SMITH 395 + +"ARABESQUE," BY WILSON G. SMITH 404 + +FRAGMENT OF THE SCORE OF "SALAMMBO," BY JOHANN H. BECK 408 + +AUTOGRAPH OF JAMES H. ROGERS 412 + +"BLACK RIDERS" (fragment), BY WILLIAM SCHUYLER 416 + +"PHANTOMS" (fragment), BY MRS. H.H.A. BEACH 429 + +"GHOSTS," BY MARGARET RUTHVEN LANG 436 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + +Edward MacDowell _Frontispiece_ + +Edgar Stillman Kelley 57 + +Harvey Worthington Loomis 77 + +Ethelbert Nevin 92 + +John Philip Sousa 112 + +Henry Schoenefeld 128 + +John Knowles Paine 145 + +Horatio W. Parker 174 + +Frank van der Stucken 188 + +George Whitefield Chadwick 210 + +Arthur Foote 221 + +Henry K. Hadley 241 + +Adolph M. Foerster 248 + +Charles Crozat Converse 256 + +Louis Adolphe Coerne 262 + +Henry Holden Huss 291 + +Harry Rowe Shelley 304 + +Frederick Field Bullard 351 + +Homer A. Norris 357 + +Frederic Grant Gleason 367 + +William H. Sherwood 383 + +A.J. Goodrich 388 + +Wilson G. Smith 395 + +Mrs. H.H.A. Beach 426 + +Margaret Ruthven Lang 432 + + + + +CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN COMPOSERS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A GENERAL SURVEY. + + +Coddling is no longer the chief need of the American composer. While +he still wants encouragement in his good tendencies,--much more +encouragement than he gets, too,--he is now strong enough to profit by +the discouragement of his evil tendencies. + +In other words, the American composer is ready for criticism. + +The first and most vital flaw of which his work will be accused is the +lack of nationalism. This I should like to combat after the sophistic +fashion of Zeno,--showing, first, why we lack that desideratum, a +strictly national school; secondly, that a strictly national school is +not desirable; and thirdly, that we most assuredly have a national +school. + +In building a national individuality, as in building a personal +individuality, there is always a period of discipleship under some +older power. When the rudiments and the essentials are once thoroughly +mastered, the shackles of discipleship are thrown off, and personal +expression in an original way begins. This is the story of every +master in every art: The younger Raphael was only Perugino junior. +Beethoven's first sonatas were more completely Haydn's than the word +"gewidmet" would declare. The youthful Canova was swept off his feet +by the unearthing of old Greek masterpieces. Stevenson confesses +frankly his early efforts to copy the mannerisms of Scott and others. +Nations are only clusters of individuals, and subject to the same +rules. Italy borrowed its beginnings from Byzantium; Germany and +France took theirs from Italy; we, ours, from them. + +It was inconceivable that America should produce an autocthonous art. +The race is one great mixture of more or less digested foreign +elements; and it is not possible to draw a declaration of artistic, as +of political, independence, and thenceforward be truly free. + +Centuries of differentiated environment (in all the senses of the word +environment) are needed to produce a new language or a new art; and it +was inevitable that American music should for long be only a more or +less successful employment of European methods. And there was little +possibility, according to all precedents in art history, that any +striking individuality should rise suddenly to found a school based +upon his own mannerism. + +Especially was this improbable, since we are in a large sense of +English lineage. As the co-heirs, with those who remain in the British +Isles, of the magnificent prose and poetry of England, it was possible +for us to produce early in our own history a Hawthorne and a Poe and +an Emerson and a Whitman. But we have had more hindrance than help +from our heritage of English music, in which there has never been a +master of the first rank, Purcell and the rest being, after all, +brilliants of the lesser magnitude (with the permission of that +electric Englishman, Mr. John F. Runciman). + +A further hindrance was the creed of the Puritan fathers of our +civilization; they had a granite heart, and a suspicious eye for +music. Here is a cheerful example of congregational lyricism, and a +lofty inspiration for musical treatment (the hymn refers to the fate +of unbaptized infants): + + "A crime it is! Therefore in Bliss + You may not hope to dwell; + But unto you I shall allow + The easiest room in Hell." + +It was only at the end of the seventeenth century that singing by +note began to supplant the "lining-out" barbarism, and to provoke such +fierce opposition as this: + + "First, it is a new way--an unknown tongue; 2d, it is not so + melodious as the old way; 3d, there are so many tunes that + nobody can learn them; 4th, the new way makes a disturbance + in churches, grieves good men, exasperates them, and causes + them to behave disorderly; 5th, it is popish; 6th, it will + introduce instruments; 7th, the names of the notes are + blasphemous; 8th, it is needless, the old way being good + enough; 9th, it requires too much time to learn it; 10th, it + makes the young disorderly." + +At the time when such puerility was disturbing this cradle of freedom +and cacophony, Bach and Haendel were at work in their contrapuntal +webs, the Scarlattis, Corelli and Tartini and Porpora were alive. +Peri, Josquin and Willaert and Lassus were dead, and the church had +had its last mass from the most famous citizen of the town of +Palestrina. Monteverde was no longer inventing like an Edison; Lulli +had gone to France and died; and Rameau and Couperin were alive. + +At this time in the world's art, the Americans were squabbling over +the blasphemy of instruments and of notation! This is not the place to +treat the history of our music. The curious can find enlightenment at +such sources as Mr. Louis C. Elson's "National Music of America." It +must be enough for me to say that the throttling hands of Puritanism +are only now fully loosened. Some of our living composers recall the +parental opposition that met their first inclinations to a musical +career, opposition based upon the disgracefulness, the heathenishness, +of music as a profession. + +The youthfulness of our school of music can be emphasized further by a +simple statement that, with the exception of a few names like Lowell +Mason, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Stephen A. Emery (a graceful writer as +well as a theorist), and George F. Bristow, practically every American +composer of even the faintest importance is now living. + +The influences that finally made American music are chiefly German. +Almost all of our composers have studied in Germany, or from teachers +trained there; very few of them turning aside to Paris, and almost +none to Italy. The prominent teachers, too, that have come from +abroad have been trained in the German school, whatever their +nationality. The growth of a national school has been necessarily +slow, therefore, for its necessary and complete submission to German +influences. + +It has been further delayed by the meagre native encouragement to +effort of the better sort. The populace has been largely +indifferent,--the inertia of all large bodies would explain that. A +national, a constructive, and collaborative criticism has been +conspicuously absent. + +The leaders of orchestras have also offered an almost insurmountable +obstacle to the production of any work from an American hand until +very recently. The Boston Symphony Orchestra has been a noble +exception to this rule, and has given about the only opening possible +to the native writer. The Chicago Orchestra, in eight seasons under +Theodore Thomas, devoted, out of a total of 925 numbers, only +eighteen, or something less than two per cent., to native music. Yet +time shows a gradual improvement, and in 1899, out of twenty-seven +orchestral numbers performed, three were by Americans, which makes a +liberal tithe. The Boston Symphony has played the compositions of John +Knowles Paine alone more than eighteen times, and those of George W. +Chadwick the same number, while E.A. MacDowell and Arthur Foote each +appeared on the programs fourteen times. The Kaltenborn Orchestra has +made an active effort at the promulgation of our music, and especial +honor is due to Frank Van der Stucken, himself a composer of marked +abilities; he was among the first to give orchestral production to +American works, and he was, perhaps, the very first to introduce +American orchestral work abroad. Like his offices, in spirit and +effect, have been the invaluable services of our most eminent pianist, +Wm. H. Sherwood, who was for many years the only prominent performer +of American piano compositions. + +Public singers also have been most unpatriotic in preferring endless +repetition of dry foreign arias to fresh compositions from home. The +little encore song, which generally appeared anonymously, was the +opening wedge for the American lyrist. + +Upon the horizon of this gloom, however, there is a tremor of a +dawning interest in national music. Large vocal societies are giving +an increasing number of native part songs and cantatas; prizes are +being awarded in various places, and composers find some financial +encouragement for appearing in concerts of their own work. Manuscript +societies are organized in many of the larger cities, and these clubs +offer hearing to novelty. There have latterly appeared, from various +publishers, special catalogues vaunting the large number of American +composers represented on their lists. + +Another, and a most important sign of the growing influence of music +upon American life, is seen in the place it is gaining in the college +curriculum; new chairs have been established, and prominent composers +called to fill them, or old professorships that held merely nominal +places in the catalogue have been enlarged in scope. In this way music +is reestablishing itself in something like its ancient glory; for the +Greeks not only grouped all culture under the general term of +"Music," but gave voice and instrument a vital place in education. +Three of our most prominent composers fill the chairs at three of the +most important universities. In all these cases, however, music is an +elective study, while the rudiments of the art should, I am convinced, +be a required study in every college curriculum, and in the common +schools as well. + +Assuming then, for the nonce, the birth--we are too new a country to +speak of a Renascence--of a large interest in national music, there is +large disappointment in many quarters, because our American music is +not more American. I have argued above that a race transplanted from +other soils must still retain most of the old modes of expression, or, +varying them, change slowly. But many who excuse us for the present +lack of a natural nationalism, are so eager for such a differentiation +that they would have us borrow what we cannot breed. + +The folk-music of the negro slaves is most frequently mentioned as the +right foundation for a strictly American school. A somewhat +misunderstood statement advanced by Dr. Antonin Dvorak, brought this +idea into general prominence, though it had been discussed by American +composers, and made use of in compositions of all grades long before +he came here. + +The vital objection, however, to the general adoption of negro music +as a base for an American school of composition is that it is in no +sense a national expression. It is not even a sectional expression, +for the white Southerners among whose slaves this music grew, as well +as the people of the North, have always looked upon negro music as an +exotic and curious thing. Familiar as it is to us, it is yet as +foreign a music as any Tyrolean jodel or Hungarian czardas. + +The music of the American Indian, often strangely beautiful and +impressive, would be as reasonably chosen as that of these imported +Africs. E.A. MacDowell had, indeed, written a picturesque and +impressive Indian suite, some time before the Dvorakian invasion. He +asserts that the Indian music is preferable to the Ethiopian, because +its sturdiness and force are more congenial with the national mood. + +But the true hope for a national spirit in American music surely lies, +not in the arbitrary seizure of some musical dialect, but in the +development of just such a quality as gives us an individuality among +the nations of the world in respect to our character as a people; and +that is a Cosmopolitanism made up of elements from all the world, and +yet, in its unified qualities, unlike any one element. Thus our music +should, and undoubtedly will, be the gathering into the spirit of the +voices of all the nations, and the use of all their expressions in an +assimilated, a personal, a spontaneous manner. This need not, by any +means, be a dry, academic eclecticism. The Yankee, a composite of all +peoples, yet differs from them all, and owns a sturdy individuality. +His music must follow the same fate. + +As our governmental theories are the outgrowth of the experiments and +experiences of all previous history, why should not our music, voicing +as it must the passions of a cosmopolitan people, use cosmopolitan +expressions? The main thing is the individuality of each artist. To be +a citizen of the world, provided one is yet spontaneous and sincere +and original, is the best thing. The whole is greater than any of its +parts. + +Along just these lines of individualized cosmopolitanism the American +school is working out its identity. Some of our composers have shown +themselves the heirs of European lore by work of true excellence in +the larger classic and romantic forms. + +The complaint might be made, indeed, that the empty, incorrect period +of previous American music has given place to too much correctness and +too close formation on the old models. This is undoubtedly the result +of the long and faithful discipleship under German methods, and need +not be made much of in view of the tendency among a few masters toward +original expression. For, after all, even in the heyday of the +greatest art periods, only a handful of artists have ever stood out as +strongly individual; the rest have done good work as faithful +imitators and past masters in technic. It is, then, fortunate that +there is any tendency at all among any of our composers to forsake +academic content with classical forms and text-book development of +ideas. + +Two things, however, are matters for very serious disappointment: the +surprising paucity of musical composition displaying the national +sense of humor, and the surprising abundance of purest namby-pamby. +The presence of the latter class might be explained by the absence of +the former, for namby-pamby cannot exist along with a healthy sense +of the ludicrous. There has been a persistent craze among native +song-writers for little flower-dramas and bird-tragedies, which, +aiming at exquisiteness, fall far short of that dangerous goal and +land in flagrant silliness. This weakness, however, will surely +disappear in time, or at least diminish, until it holds no more +prominent place than it does in all the foreign schools, where it +exists to a certain extent. + +The scherzo, however, must grow in favor. It is impossible that the +most jocose of races, a nation that has given the world an original +school of humor, should not carry this spirit over into its music. And +yet almost none of the comparatively few scherzos that have been +written here have had any sense of the hilarious jollity that makes +Beethoven's wit side-shaking. They have been rather of the Chopinesque +sort, mere fantasy. To the composers deserving this generalization I +recall only two important exceptions, Edgar S. Kelley and Harvey +Worthington Loomis. + +The opportunities before the American composer are enormous, and only +half appreciated. Whereas, in other arts, the text-book claims only to +be a chronicle of what has been done before, in music the text-book is +set up as the very gospel and decalogue of the art. The theorists have +so thoroughly mapped out the legitimate resources of the composer, and +have so prescribed his course in nearly every possible position, that +music is made almost more of a mathematical problem than the free +expression of emotions and aesthetics. "Correct" music has now hardly +more liberty than Egyptian sculpture or Byzantine painting once had. +Certain dissonances are permitted, and certain others, no more +dissonant, forbidden, quite arbitrarily, or on hair-splitting +theories. It is as if one should write down in a book a number of +charts, giving every scheme of color and every juxtaposition of values +permissible to a painter. The music of certain Oriental nations, in +which the religious orders are the art censors, has stuck fast in its +rut because of the observance of rules purely arbitrary. Many of the +conventions of modern European music are no more scientific or +original or consistent; most of them are based upon the principle that +the whim of a great dead composer is worthy to be the law of any +living composer. These Blue Laws of music are constantly assailed +surreptitiously and in detail; and yet they are too little attacked as +a whole. But music should be a democracy and not an aristocracy, or, +still less, a hierarchy. + +There is a great opportunity for America to carry its political +principles into this youngest of the arts. It is a gratifying sign +that one of the most prominent theorists of the time, an American +scholar, A.J. Goodrich, is adopting some such attitude toward music. +He carries dogma to the minimum, and accepts success in the individual +instance as sufficient authority for overstepping any general +principle. He refers to a contemporary American composer for authority +and example of some successful unconventionality with the same respect +with which he would quote a European's disregard of convention. His +pioneering is watched with interest abroad as well as here. + +Worthy of mention along with Mr. Goodrich' original work is the effort +of Homer A. Norris to instil French ideas of musical theory. As a +counterweight to the German monopoly of our attention, his influence +is to be cordially welcomed. + +Now that Americanism is rife in the land, some of the glowing interest +in things national might well be turned toward an art that has been +too much and too long neglected among us. + +The time has come to take American music seriously. The day for +boasting is not yet here,--if indeed it ever comes; but the day of +penitent humility is surely past. + +A student of the times, Mr. E.S. Martin, shortly before the Spanish +War, commented on the radical change that had come over the spirit of +American self-regard. We were notorious in the earlier half of the +century for boasting, not only of the virtues we indubitably had, but +of qualities that existed solely in our own imagination. We sounded +our barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. A century of almost +unanimous European disapproval, particularly of our artistic estate, +finally converted us from this attitude to one of deprecation almost +abject. Having learned the habit of modesty, it has clung to us even +now, when some of the foremost artists in the world are Americans. + +Modesty, is, of course, one of the most beautiful of the virtues, but +excess is possible and dangerous. As Shakespeare's Florio's Montaigne +has it: "We may so seize on vertue, that if we embrace it with an +over-greedy and violent desire, it may become vitious." In the case of +the American composer it is certainly true that we "excessively +demeane ourselves in a good action." If, then, the glory of our late +successes in the field of battle shall bring about a recrudescence of +our old vanity, it will at least have its compensations. + +Meanwhile, the American artist, having long ago ceased to credit +himself with all the virtues, has been for years earnestly working out +his own salvation in that spirit of solemn determination which makes +it proverbial for the American to get anything he sets his heart on. +He has submitted himself to a devout study of the Old Masters and the +New; he has made pilgrimage after pilgrimage to the ancient temples of +art, and has brought home influences that cannot but work for good. +The American painter has won more European acceptance than any of our +other artists, though this is partly due to his persistence in +knocking at the doors of the Paris salons, and gaining the universal +prestige of admission there. There is, unfortunately, no such place +to focus the attention of the world on a musician. Yet, through the +success of American musical students among their rivals abroad; +through the concerts they are giving more and more frequently in +foreign countries; through the fact that a number of European music +houses are publishing increasing quantities of American compositions, +he is making his way to foreign esteem almost more rapidly than at +home. + +A prominent German critic, indeed, has recently put himself on record +as accepting the founding of an American school of music as a _fait +accompli_. And no student of the times, who will take the trouble to +seek the sources of our art, and observe its actual vitality, need be +ashamed of looking at the present state of music in America with a +substantial pride and a greater hope for the future. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE INNOVATORS. + + +_Edward Alexander MacDowell._ + +[Illustration: Autograph of Edward MacDowell] + +The matter of precedence in creative art is as hopeless of solution as +it is unimportant. And yet it seems appropriate to say, in writing of +E.A. MacDowell, that an almost unanimous vote would grant him rank as +the greatest of American composers, while not a few ballots would +indicate him as the best of living music writers. + +But this, to repeat, is not vital, the main thing being that MacDowell +has a distinct and impressive individuality, and uses his profound +scholarship in the pursuit of novelty that is not cheaply sensational, +and is yet novelty. He has, for instance, theories as to the textures +of sounds, and his chord-formations and progressions are quite his +own. + +His compositions are superb processions, in which each participant is +got up with the utmost personal splendor. His generalship is great +enough to preserve the unity and the progress of the pageant. With him +no note in the melody is allowed to go neglected, ill-mounted on +common chords in the bass, or cheap-garbed in trite triads. Each tone +is made to suggest something of its multitudinous possibilities. +Through any geometrical point, an infinite number of lines can be +drawn. This is almost the case with any note of a melody. It is the +recognition and the practice of this truth that gives the latter-day +schools of music such a lusciousness and warmth of harmony. No one is +a more earnest student of these effects than MacDowell. + +He believes that it is necessary, at this late day, if you would have +a chord "bite," to put a trace of acid in its sweetness. With this +clue in mind, his unusual procedures become more explicable without +losing their charm. + +New York is rather the Mecca than the birthplace of artists, but it +can boast the nativity of MacDowell, who improvised his first songs +here December 18, 1861. He began the study of the piano at an early +age. One of his teachers was Mme. Teresa Carreno, to whom he has +dedicated his second concerto for the piano. + +In 1876 he went to Paris and entered the Conservatoire, where he +studied theory under Savard, and the piano under Marmontel. He went to +Wiesbaden to study with Ehlert in 1879, and then to Frankfort, where +Carl Heyman taught him piano and Joachim Raff composition. The +influence of Raff is of the utmost importance in MacDowell's music, +and I have been told that the great romancist made a _protege_ of him, +and would lock him in a room for hours till he had worked out the most +appalling musical problems. Through Raff's influence he became first +piano teacher at the Darmstadt Conservatorium in 1881. The next year +Raff introduced him to Liszt, who became so enthusiastic over his +compositions that he got him the honor of playing his first piano +suite before the formidable _Allgemeiner Deutscher Musik Verein_, +which accorded him a warm reception. The following years were spent in +successful concert work, till 1884, when MacDowell settled down to +teaching and composing in Wiesbaden. Four years later he came to +Boston, writing, teaching, and giving occasional concerts. Thence he +returned to New York, where he was called to the professorship of +music at Columbia University. Princeton University has given him that +unmusical degree, Mus. Doc. + +MacDowell has met little or none of that critical recalcitrance that +blocked the early success of so many masters. His works succeeded from +the first in winning serious favor; they have been much played in +Germany, in Vienna, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, and Paris, one of them +having been performed three times in a single season at Breslau. + +MacDowell's Scotch ancestry is always telling tales on him. The +"Scotch snap" is a constant rhythmic device, the old scale and the old +Scottish cadences seem to be native to his heart. Perhaps one might +find some kinship between MacDowell and the contemporary Glasgow +school of painters, that clique so isolated, so daring, and yet so +earnest and solid. Says James Huneker in a monograph published some +years ago: "His coloring reminds me at times of Grieg, but when I +tracked the resemblance to its lair, I found only Scotch, as Grieg's +grand-folk were Greggs, and from Scotland. It is all Northern music +with something elemental in it, and absolutely free from the heavy, +languorous odors of the South or the morbidezza of Poland." + +Some of MacDowell's most direct writing has been in the setting of the +poems of Burns, such as "Deserted" ("Ye banks and braes o' bonnie +Doon," op. 9), "Menie," and "My Jean" (op. 34). These are strongly +marked by that ineffably fine melodic flavor characteristic of +Scottish music, while in the accompaniments they admit a touch of the +composer's own individuality. In his accompaniments it is noteworthy +that he is almost never strictly contramelodic. + +The songs of opera 11 and 12 have a decided Teutonism, but he has +found himself by opus 40, a volume of "Six Love Songs," containing +half a dozen flawless gems it is a pity the public should not know +more widely. A later book, "Eight Songs" (op. 47), is also a cluster +of worthies. The lilt and sympathy of "The Robin Sings in the +Apple-tree," and its unobtrusive new harmonies and novel effects, in +strange accord with truth of expression, mark all the other songs, +particularly the "Midsummer Lullaby," with its accompaniment as +delicately tinted as summer clouds. Especially noble is "The Sea," +which has all the boom and roll of the deep-brooding ocean. + +His collections of flower-songs (op. 26) I confess not liking. Though +they are not without a certain exquisiteness, they seem overdainty +and wastefully frail, excepting, possibly, the "Clover" and the +"Blue-bell." It is not at all their brevity, but their triviality, +that vexes an admirer of the large ability that labored over them. +They are dedicated to Emilio Agramonte, one of MacDowell's first +prophets, and one of the earliest and most active agents for the +recognition of the American composer. + +In the lyrics in opus 56 and opus 58 MacDowell has turned song to the +unusual purposes of a landscape impressionism of places and moods +rather than people. + +For men's voices there are some deftly composed numbers curiously +devoted to lullaby subjects. The barcarolle for mixed chorus and +accompaniment on the piano for four hands obtains a wealth of color, +enhanced by the constant division of the voices. + +Studying as he did with Raff, it is but natural that MacDowell should +have been influenced strongly toward the poetic and fantastic and +programmatic elements that mark the "Forest Symphony" and the "Lenore +Overture" of his master. + +It is hard to say just how far this descriptive music can go. The +skill of each composer must dictate his own limits. As an example of +successful pieces of this kind, consider MacDowell's "The Eagle." It +is the musical realization of Tennyson's well-known poem: + + "He clasps the crag with crooked hands; + Close to the sun in lonely lands, + Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. + The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; + He watches from his mountain walls, + And like a thunderbolt he falls." + +Of course the crag and the crooked hands and the azure world must be +granted the composer, but general exaltation and loneliness are +expressed in the severe melody of the opening. The wrinkling and +crawling of the sea far below are splendidly achieved in the soft, +shimmering liquidity of the music. Then there are two abrupt, but +soft, short chords that will represent, to the imaginative, the quick +fixing of the eagle's heart on some prey beneath; and there follows a +sudden precipitation down the keyboard, _fortississimo_, that +represents the thunderous swoop of the eagle with startling effect. + +On the other hand, the "Moonshine" seems to be attempting too much. +"Winter" does better, for it has a freezing stream, a mill-wheel, and +a "widow bird." These "four little poems" of opus 32 had been preceded +by six fine "Idylls" based on lyrics of Goethe's. The first, a forest +scene, has a distinct flavor of the woods, the second is all laziness +and drowsiness, and the third is moonlight mystery. The fourth is as +intense in its suppressed spring ecstasy as the radiant poem itself +singing how + + "Soft the ripples spill and hurry + To the opulent embankment." + +The six short "Poems" (op. 31) based on poems of Heine's are +particularly successful, especially in the excellent opportunity of +the lyric describing the wail of the Scottish woman who plays her harp +on the cliff, and sings above the raging of sea and wind. The third +catches most happily the whimsicality of the poet's reminiscences of +childhood, but hardly, I think, the contrasting depth and wildness of +his complaint that, along with childhood's games, have vanished Faith +and Love and Truth. In the last, however, the cheery majesty that +realizes Heine's likening of Death to a cool night after the sultry +day of Life, is superb. + +Then there are some four-hand pieces, two collections, that leave no +excuse for clinging to the hackneyed classics or modern trash. They +are not at all difficult, and the second player has something to +employ his mind besides accompanying chords. They are meaty, and +effective almost to the point of catchiness. The "Tale of the Knights" +is full of chivalric fire and martial swing, while the "Ballad" is as +exquisitely dainty as a peach-blossom. The "Hindoo Maiden" has a deal +of the thoroughly Oriental color and feeling that distinguish the +three solos of "Les Orientales," of which "Clair de Lune" is one of +his most original and graceful writings. The duet, "In Tyrol," has a +wonderful crystal carillon and a quaint shepherd piping a faint +reminiscence of the Wagnerian school of shepherds. This is one of a +series of "Moon Pictures" for four hands, based on Hans Christian +Andersen's lore. Two concertos for piano and orchestra are dazzling +feats of virtuosity; one of them is reviewed at length in A.J. +Goodrich' book, "Musical Analysis." He has written also a book of +artistic moment called "Twelve Virtuoso-Studies," and two books of +actual gymnastics for piano practice. + +[Music: CLAIR DE LUNE. + + La lune etait sereine et jouait sur les flots. + La fenetre enfin libre est ouverte a la brise; + La sultane regarde, et la mer qui se brise, + La-bas, d'un flot d'argent brode les noir ilots. + (Victor Hugo, "Les Orientales.") + +E.A. MACDOWELL, Op. 37, No. 1. + +Copyright, 1889, Arthur P. Schmidt.] + +But MacDowell did not reach his freedom without a struggle against +academia. His opus 10 is a piano suite published at the age of +twenty-two, and opus 14 is another; both contain such obsolescences as +a presto, fugue, scherzino, and the like. But for all the classic +garb, the hands are the hands of Esau. In one of the pieces there is +even a motto tucked, "All hope leave ye behind who enter here!" Can he +have referred to the limbo of classicism? + +It is a far cry from these to the liberality that inspired the new +impressionism of "Woodland Sketches" (op. 51) and "Sea Pieces" (op. +55), in which he gives a legitimate musical presentation of a faintly +perfumed "Wild Rose" or "Water Lily," but goes farther, and paints, +with wonderful tone, the moods inspired by reverie upon the uncouth +dignity and stoic savagery of "An Indian Lodge," the lonely New +England twilight of "A Deserted Farm," and all the changing humors of +the sea, majesty of sunset or star-rise, and even the lucent emerald +of an iceberg. His "From Uncle Remus" is not so successful; indeed, +MacDowell is not sympathetic with negro music, and thinks that if we +are to found a national school on some local manner, we should find +the Indian more congenial than the lazy, sensual slave. + +He has carried this belief into action, not only by his scientific +interest in the collection and compilation of the folk-music of our +prairies, but by his artistic use of actual Indian themes in one of +his most important works, his "Indian Suite" for full orchestra, a +work that has been often performed, and always with the effect of a +new and profound sensation, particularly in the case of the deeply +impressive dirge. + +A proof of the success of MacDowell as a writer in the large forms is +the fact that practically all of his orchestral works are published +in Germany and here, not only in full score, but in arrangement for +four hands. They include "Hamlet;" "Ophelia" (op. 22); "Launcelot and +Elaine" (op. 26), with its strangely mellow and varied use of horns +for Launcelot, and the entrusting of the plaintive fate of "the lily +maid of Astolat" to the string and wood-wind choirs; "The Saracens" +and "The Lovely Alda" (op. 30), two fragments from the Song of Roland; +and the Suite (op. 42), which has been played at least eight times in +Germany and eleven times here. + +The first movement of this last is called "In a Haunted Forest." You +are reminded of Siegfried by the very name of the thing, and the music +enforces the remembrance somewhat, though very slightly. + +Everything reminds one of Wagner nowadays,--even his predecessors. +Rudyard Kipling has by his individuality so copyrighted one of the +oldest verse-forms, the ballad, that even "Chevy Chace" looks like an +advance plagiarism. So it is with Wagner. Almost all later music, and +much of the earlier, sounds Wagnerian. But MacDowell has been reminded +of Bayreuth very infrequently in this work. The opening movement +begins with a _sotto voce_ syncopation that is very presentative of +the curious audible silence of a forest. The wilder moments are +superbly instrumented. + +The second movement, "Summer Idyl," is delicious, particularly in the +chances it gives the flautist. There is a fragmentary cantilena which +would make the fortune of a comic opera. The third number, "In +October," is particularly welcome in our music, which is strangely and +sadly lacking in humor. There is fascinating wit throughout this +harvest revel. "The Shepherdess' Song" is the fourth movement. It is +not precieuse, and it is not banal; but its simplicity of pathos is a +whit too simple. The final number, "Forest Spirits," is a brilliant +climax. The Suite as a whole is an important work. It has detail of +the most charming art. Best of all, it is staunchly individual. It is +MacDowellian. + +While the modern piano sonata is to me anathema as a rule, there are +none of MacDowell's works that I like better than his writings in this +form. They are to me far the best since Beethoven, not excepting even +Chopin's (_pace_ his greatest prophet, Huneker). They seem to me to be +of such stuff as Beethoven would have woven had he known in fact the +modern piano he saw in fancy. + +The "Sonata Tragica" (op. 45) begins in G minor, with a bigly +passionate, slow introduction (metronomed in the composer's copy, +[quarter-note]-50). The first subject is marked in the same copy, +though not in the printed book, [half-note]-69, and the appealingly +pathetic second subject is a little slower. The free fantasy is full +of storm and stress, with a fierce pedal-point on the trilled +leading-tone. In the reprise the second subject, which was at first in +the dominant major, is now in the tonic major, though the key of the +sonata is G minor. The allegro is metronomed [quarter-note]-138, and +it is very short and very wild. Throughout, the grief is the grief of +a strong soul; it never degenerates into whine. Its largo is like the +tread of an AEschylean _choros_, its allegro movements are wild with +anguish, and the occasional uplifting into the major only emphasizes +the sombre whole, like the little rifts of clearer harmony in +Beethoven's "Funeral March on the Death of a Hero." + +The last movement begins with a ringing _pomposo_, and I cannot +explain its meaning better than by quoting Mrs. MacDowell's words: +"Mr. MacDowell's idea was, so to speak, as follows: He wished to +heighten the darkness of tragedy by making it follow closely on the +heels of triumph. Therefore, he attempted to make the last movement a +steadily progressive triumph, which, at its climax, is utterly broken +and shattered. In doing this he has tried to epitomize the whole work. +While in the other movements he aimed at expressing tragic details, +in the last he has tried to generalize; thinking that the most +poignant tragedy is that of catastrophe in the hour of triumph." + +The third sonata (op. 57) is dedicated to Grieg and to the musical +exploitation of an old-time Skald reciting glorious battles, loves, +and deaths in an ancient castle. The atmosphere of mystery and +barbaric grandeur is obtained and sustained by means new to piano +literature and potent in color and vigor. The sonata formula is warped +to the purpose of the poet, but the themes have the classic ideal of +kinship. The battle-power of the work is tremendous. Huneker calls it +"an epic of rainbow and thunder," and Henry T. Finck, who has for many +years devoted a part of his large ardor to MacDowell's cause, says of +the work: "It is MacDowellish,--more MacDowellish than anything he has +yet written. It is the work of a musical thinker. There are harmonies +as novel as those we encounter in Schubert, Chopin, or Grieg, yet with +a stamp of their own." + +The "Sonata Eroica" (op. 50) bears the legend "Flos regum Arthurus." +It is also in G minor. The spirit of King Arthur dominates the work +ideally, and justifies not only the ferocious and warlike first +subject with its peculiar and influential rhythm, but the +old-fashioned and unadorned folk-tone of the second subject. In the +working out there is much bustle and much business of trumpets. In the +reprise the folk-song appears in the tonic minor, taken most +unconventionally in the bass under elaborate arpeggiations in the +right hand. The coda, as in the other sonata, is simply a strong +passage of climax. Arthur's supernatural nature doubtless suggested +the second movement, with its elfin airs, its flibbertigibbet +virtuosity, and its magic of color. The third movement might have been +inspired by Tennyson's version of Arthur's farewell to Guinevere, it +is such a rich fabric of grief. The finale seems to me to picture the +Morte d'Arthur, beginning with the fury of a storm along the coast, +and the battle "on the waste sand by the waste sea." Moments of fire +are succeeded by exquisite deeps of quietude, and the death and +apotheosis of Arthur are hinted with daring and complete equivalence +of art with need. + +Here is no longer the tinkle and swirl of the elf dances; here is no +more of the tireless search for novelty in movement and color. This is +"a flash of the soul that can." Here is Beethoven _redivivus_. For +half a century we have had so much pioneering and scientific +exploration after piano color and tenderness and fire, that men have +neglected its might and its tragic powers. Where is the piano-piece +since Beethoven that has the depth, the breadth, the height of this +huge solemnity? Chopin's sensuous wailing does not afford it. +Schumann's complex eccentricities have not given it out. Brahms is too +passionless. Wagner neglected the piano. It remained for a Yankee to +find the austere peak again! and that, too, when the sonata was +supposed to be a form as exhausted as the epic poem. But all this is +the praise that one is laughed at for bestowing except on the graves +of genius. + +The cautious Ben Jonson, when his erstwhile taproom roisterer, Will +Shakespeare, was dead, defied "insolent Greece or haughty Rome" to +show his superior. With such authority, I feel safe in at least +defying the contemporary schools of insolent Russia or haughty Germany +to send forth a better musicwright than our fellow townsman, Edward +MacDowell. + + +_Edgar Stillman Kelley._ + +[Illustration: EDGAR STILLMAN KELLEY.] + +While his name is known wherever American music is known in its better +aspects, yet, like many another American, his real art can be +discovered only from his manuscripts. In these he shows a very +munificence of enthusiasm, scholarship, invention, humor, and +originality. + +[Illustration: Autograph of Edgar Stillman Kelley] + +Kelley is as thorough an American by descent as one could ask for, his +maternal ancestors having settled in this country in 1630, his +paternal progenitors in 1640, A.D. Indeed, one of the ancestors of +his father made the dies for the pine-tree shilling, and a +great-great-grandfather fought in the Revolution. + +Kelley began his terrestrial career April 14, 1857, in Wisconsin. His +father was a revenue officer; his mother a skilled musician, who +taught him the piano from his eighth year to his seventeenth, when he +went to Chicago and studied harmony and counterpoint under Clarence +Eddy, and the piano under Ledochowski. It is interesting to note that +Kelley was diverted into music from painting by hearing "Blind Tom" +play Liszt's transcription of Mendelssohn's "Midsummer Night's Dream" +music. I imagine that this idiot-genius had very little other +influence of this sort in his picturesque career. + +After two years in Chicago, Kelley went to Germany, where, in +Stuttgart, he studied the piano with Kruger and Speidel, organ with +Finck, composition and orchestration with Seiffritz. While in Germany, +Kelley wrote a brilliant and highly successful concert polonaise for +four hands, and a composition for strings. + +In 1880 he was back in America and settled in San Francisco, with +whose musical life he was long and prominently identified as a +teacher and critic. Here he wrote his first large work, the well-known +melodramatic music to "Macbeth." A local benefactor, John Parrot, paid +the expenses of a public performance, the great success of which +persuaded McKee Rankin, the actor, to make an elaborate production of +both play and music. This ran for three weeks in San Francisco to +crowded houses, which is a remarkable record for many reasons. A +shabby New York production at an ill-chosen theatre failed to give the +work an advantageous hearing; but it has been played by orchestras +several times since, and William H. Sherwood has made transcriptions +of parts of it for piano solo. + +The "Macbeth" music is of such solid value that it reaches the dignity +of a flowing commentary. Beyond and above this it is an interpretation, +making vivid and awesome the deep import of the play, till even the +least imaginative auditor must feel its thrill. + +Thus the gathering of the witches begins with a slow horror, which is +surely Shakespeare's idea, and not the comic-opera _can-can_ it is +frequently made. As various other elfs and terrors appear, they are +appropriately characterized in the music, which also adds mightily to +the terror of the murder scene. Throughout, the work is that of a +thinker. Like much of Kelley's other music, it is also the work of a +fearless and skilled programmatist, especially in the battle-scenes, +where it suggests the crash of maces and swords, and the blare of +horns, the galloping of horses, and the general din of huge battle. +Leading-motives are much used, too, with good effect and most +ingenious elaboration, notably the _Banquo_ motive. A certain amount +of Gaelic color also adds interest to the work, particularly a +stirring Gaelic march. The orchestration shows both scholarship and +daring. + +An interesting subject is suggested by Kelley's experience in hunting +out a good motif for the galloping horses of "Macbeth." He could find +nothing suitably representative of storm-hoofed chargers till his +dreams came to the rescue with a genuinely inspired theme. Several +other exquisite ideas have come to him in his sleep in this way; one +of them is set down in the facsimile reproduced herewith. On one +occasion he even dreamed an original German poem and a fitting musical +setting. + +Dr. Wm. A. Hammond, in his book on "Sleep and Its Derangements," is +inclined to scout the possibility of a really valuable inspiration in +sleep. He finds no satisfactory explanation for Tartini's famous +"Devil's Sonata" or Coleridge' proverbial "Kubla Khan." He takes +refuge in saying that at least the result could not be equal to the +dreamer's capabilities when awake; but Kelley's "Macbeth" music was +certainly an improvement on what he could invent out of the land of +Nod. + +After composing a comic opera, which was refused by the man for whom +it was written because it was too good, he drifted into journalism, +and wrote reviews and critiques which show a very liberal mind capable +of appreciating things both modern and classic. + +Kelley was again persuaded to write a comic opera to the artistic +libretto, "Puritania," by C.M.S. McLellan, a brilliant satirist, +who has since won fortune by his highly successful and frequently +artistic burlesquery. The work won excellent praise in Boston, where +it had one hundred performances. The work musically was not only +conscientious, but really graceful and captivating. It received the +most glowing encomiums from people of musical culture, and largely +enhanced Kelley's musical reputation in its run of something over a +year. On its tour Kelley was also the musical conductor, in which +capacity he has frequently served elsewhere. + +Kelley plainly deserves preeminence among American composers for his +devotion to, and skill in, the finer sorts of humorous music. No other +American has written so artfully, so happily, or so ambitiously in +this field. A humorous symphony and a Chinese suite are his largest +works on this order. + +The symphony follows the life of "Gulliver in Lilliput." In +development and intertwining of themes and in brilliance of +orchestration, it maintains symphonic dignity, while in play of fancy, +suggestive programmaticism, and rollicking enthusiasm it is infectious +with wit. Gulliver himself is richly characterized with a burly, +blustering English theme. The storm that throws him on the shores of +Lilliput is handled with complete mastery, certain phrases picturing +the toss of the billows, another the great roll of the boat, others +the rattle of the rigging and the panic of the crew; and all wrought +up to a demoniac climax at the wreck. As the stranded Gulliver falls +asleep, the music hints his nodding off graphically. The entrance of +the Lilliputians is perhaps the happiest bit of the whole delicious +work. By adroit devices in instrumentation, their tiny band toots a +minute national hymn of irresistible drollery. The sound of their wee +hammers and the rest of the ludicrous adventures are carried off in +unfailing good humor. The scene finally changes to the rescuing ship. +Here a most hilarious hornpipe is interrupted by the distant call of +Gulliver's aria, and the rescue is consummated delightfully. + +In nothing has Kelley showed such wanton scholarship and such +free-reined fancy as in his Chinese suite for orchestra, "Aladdin." It +is certainly one of the most brilliant musical feats of the +generation, and rivals Richard Strauss in orchestral virtuosity. + +While in San Francisco, where, as every one knows, there is a +transplanted corner of China, Kelley sat at the feet of certain +Celestial cacophonists, and made himself adept. He fathomed the, to +us, obscure laws of their theory, and for this work made a careful +selection of Chinese musical ideas, and used what little harmony they +approve of with most quaint and suggestive effect upon a splendid +background of his own. The result has not been, as is usual in such +alien mimicries, a mere success of curiosity. + +The work had its first accolade of genius in the wild protests of the +music copyists, and in the downright mutiny of orchestral performers. + +On the first page of the score is this note: "This should be played +with a bow unscrewed, so that the hairs hang loose--thus the bow never +leaves the string." This direction is evidently meant to secure the +effect of the Chinese violin, in which the string passes between the +hair and the wood of the bow, and is played upon the under side. But +what self-respecting violinist could endure such profanation without +striking a blow for his fanes? + +The first movement of the suite is made up of themes actually learned +from Chinese musicians. It represents the "Wedding of Aladdin and the +Princess," a sort of sublimated "shivaree" in which oboes quawk, muted +trumpets bray, pizzicato strings flutter, and mandolins (loved of +Berlioz) twitter hilariously. + +The second movement, "A Serenade in the Royal Pear Garden," begins +with a luxurious tone-poem of moonlight and shadow, out of which, +after a preliminary tuning of the Chinese lute (or sam-yin), wails a +lyric caterwaul (alternately in 2-4 and 3-4 tempo) which the Chinese +translate as a love-song. Its amorous grotesque at length subsides +into the majestic night. A part of this altogether fascinating +movement came to Kelley in a dream. + +The third chapter is devoted to the "Flight of the Genie with the +Palace," and there is a wonderfully vivid suggestion of his struggle +to wrest loose the foundations of the building. At length he heaves it +slowly in the air, and wings majestically away with it. + +It has always seemed to me that the purest stroke of genius in +instrumentation ever evinced was Wagner's conceit of using tinkling +bells to suggest leaping flames. And yet quite comparable with this +seems Kelley's device to indicate the oarage of the genie's mighty +wings as he disappears into the sky: liquid _glissandos_ on the upper +harp-strings, with chromatic runs upon the elaborately divided +violins, at length changed to sustained and most ethereally fluty +harmonics. It is very ravishment. + +The last movement, "The Return and Feast of the Lanterns," is on the +sonata formula. After an introduction typifying the opening of the +temple gates (a gong giving the music further locale), the first theme +is announced by harp and mandolin. It is an ancient Chinese air for +the yong-kim (a dulcimer-like instrument). The second subject is +adapted from the serenade theme. With these two smuggled themes +everything contrapuntal (a fugue included) and instrumental is done +that technical bravado could suggest or true art license. The result +is a carnival of technic that compels the layman to wonder and the +scholar to homage. + +A transcription for a piano duet has been made of this last movement. + +In Chinese-tone also is Kelley's most popular song, "The Lady Picking +Mulberries," which brought him not only the enthusiasm of Americans +but the high commendation of the Chinese themselves. It is written in +the limited Chinese scale, with harmonies of our school; and is a +humoresque of such catchiness that it has pervaded even London and +Paris. + +This song is one of a series of six lyrics called "The Phases of +Love," with this motive from the "Anatomy of Melancholy": "I am +resolved, therefore, in this tragi-comedy of love, to act several +parts, some satirically, some comically, some in a mixed tone." The +poems are all by American poets, and the group, opus 6, is an +invaluable addition to our musical literature. The first of the +series, "My Silent Song," is a radiantly beautiful work, with a +wondrous tender air to a rapturous accompaniment. The second is a +setting of Edward Rowland Sill's perfect little poem, "Love's Fillet." +The song is as full of art as it is of feeling and influence. "What +the Man in the Moon Saw" is an engaging satire, "Love and Sleep" is +sombre, and "In a Garden" is pathetic. + +Besides two small sketches, a waltz and a gavotte, and his own +arrangements, for two and for four hands, of the Gaelic March in +"Macbeth," Kelley has published only three piano pieces: opus 2, "The +Flower Seekers," superb with grace, warm harmony, and May ecstasies; +"Confluentia," whose threads of liquidity are eruditely, yet +romantically, intertangled to represent the confluence of the Rhine +and the Moselle; and "The Headless Horseman," a masterpiece of +burlesque weirdness, representing the wild pursuit of Ichabod Crane +and the final hurling of the awful head,--a pumpkin, some say. It is +relieved by Ichabod's tender reminiscences of Katrina Van Tassel at +the spinning-wheel, and is dedicated to Joseffy, the pianist, who +lives in the region about Sleepy Hollow. + +To supplement his successful, humorously melodramatic setting of "The +Little Old Woman who Went to the Market her Eggs for to Sell," Kelley +is preparing a series of similar pieces called "Tales Retold for +Musical Children." It will include "Gulliver," "Aladdin," and "Beauty +and the Beast." + +Kelley once wrote music for an adaptation of "Prometheus Bound," made +by the late George Parsons Lathrop for that ill-starred experiment, +the Theatre of Arts and Letters. The same thoroughness of research +that gave Kelley such a command of Chinese theories equipped him in +what knowledge we have of Greek and the other ancient music. He has +delivered a course of lectures on these subjects, and this learning +was put to good and public use in his share in the staging of the +novel "Ben Hur." His music had a vital part in carrying the play over +the thin ice of sacrilege; it was so reverent and so appealing that +the scrubwomen in the theatre were actually moved to tears during its +rehearsal, and it gave the scene of the miraculous cure of the lepers +a dignity that saved it from either ridicule or reproach. + +In the first act there is a suggestion of the slow, soft march of a +caravan across the sand, the eleven-toned Greek and Egyptian scale +being used. In the tent of the Sheik, an old Arabian scale is +employed. In the elaborate ballets and revels in the "Grove of Daphne" +the use of Greek scales, Greek progressions (such as descending +parallel fourths long forbidden by the doctors of our era), a +trimetrical grouping of measures (instead of our customary fourfold +basis), and a suggestion of Hellenic instruments,--all this lore has +not robbed the scene in any sense of an irresistible brilliance and +spontaneity. The weaving of Arachne's web is pictured with especial +power. Greek traditions have, of course, been used only for +occasional impressionisms, and not as manacles. Elaborately colored +modern instrumentation and all the established devices from canon up +are employed. A piano transcription of part of the music is promised. +The "Song of Iras" has been published. It is full of home-sickness, +and the accompaniment (not used in the production) is a wonderwork of +color. + +[Music: + + Tottering above + In her highest noon + The enamoured moon blushes with love + While to listen + The red levin + With the rapid pleiads even + Which were seven + Pauses in heaven! + Pauses in heaven! + And they say the starry choir + And the other listening things, + That Israfel's fire is owing to that lyre + By which he sits and sings + The trembling living wire + Of those unusual strings + Of those unusual strings. + +By permission. + +FRAGMENT OF "ISRAFEL," BY EDGAR S. KELLEY.] + +Kelley has two unpublished songs that show him at his best, both +settings of verse by Poe,--"Eldorado," which vividly develops the +persistence of the knight, and "Israfel." This latter poem, as you +know, concerns the angel "whose heart-strings are a lute." After a +rhapsody upon the cosmic spell of the angel's singing, Poe, with a +brave defiance, flings an implied challenge to him. The verse marks +one of the highest reaches of a genius honored abroad as a world-great +lyrist. It is, perhaps, praise enough, then, to say that Kelley's +music flags in no wise behind the divine progress of the words. The +lute idea dictates an arpeggiated accompaniment, whose harmonic beauty +and courage is beyond description and beyond the grasp of the mind at +the first hearing. The bravery of the climax follows the weird and +opiate harmonies of the middle part with tremendous effect. The song +is, in my fervent belief, a masterwork of absolute genius, one of the +very greatest lyrics in the world's music. + + +_Harvey Worthington Loomis._ + +[Illustration: HARVEY WORTHINGTON LOOMIS.] + +[Illustration: Autograph of Harvey Worthington Loomis] + +In the band of pupils that gathered to the standard of the invader, +Antonin Dvorak, when, in 1892, he came over here from Macedonia to +help us, some of the future's best composers will probably be found. + +Of this band was Harvey Worthington Loomis, who won a three years' +scholarship in Doctor Dvorak's composition class at the National +Conservatory, by submitting an excellent, but rather uncharacteristic, +setting of Eichendorff's "Fruehlingsnacht." Loomis evidently won +Doctor Dvorak's confidence, for among the tasks imposed on him was a +piano concerto to be built on the lines of so elaborate a model as +Rubinstein's in D minor. When Loomis' first sketches showed an +elaboration even beyond the complex pattern, Dvorak still advised him +to go on. To any one that knows the ways of harmony teachers this will +mean much. + +Loomis (who was born in Brooklyn, February 5, 1865, and is now a +resident of New York) pursued studies in harmony and piano in a +desultory way until he entered Doctor Dvorak's class. For his musical +tastes he was indebted to the artistic atmosphere of his home. + +Though Loomis has written something over five hundred compositions, +only a few works have been published, the most important of which are +"Fairy Hill," a cantatilla for children, published in 1896 (it was +written on a commission that fortunately allowed him liberty for not a +little elaboration and individuality), "Sandalphon," and a few songs +and piano pieces. + +A field of his art that has won his especial interest is the use of +music as an atmosphere for dramatic expression. Of this sort are a +number of pantomimes, produced with much applause in New York by the +Academy of Dramatic Arts; and several musical backgrounds. The 27th of +April, 1896, a concert of his works was given by a number of +well-known artists. + +These musical backgrounds are played in accompaniment to dramatic +recitations. Properly managed, the effect is most impressive. Feval's +poem, "The Song of the Pear-tree," is a typically handled work. The +poem tells the story of a young French fellow, an orphan, who goes to +the wars as substitute for his friend Jean. After rising from rank to +rank by bravery, he returns to his home just as his sweetheart, +Perrine, enters the church to wed Jean. The girl had been his one +ambition, and now in his despair he reenlists and begs to be placed in +the thickest of danger. When he falls, they find on his breast a +withered spray from the pear-tree under which Perrine had first +plighted troth. On these simple lines the music builds up a drama. +From the opening shimmer and rustle of the garden, through the +Gregorian chant that solemnizes the drawing of the lots, and is +interrupted by the youth's start of joy at his own luck (an abrupt +_glissando_); through his sturdy resolve to go to war in his friend's +place, on through many battles to his death, all is on a high plane +that commands sympathy for the emotion, and enforces unbounded +admiration for the art. There is a brief hint of the Marseillaise +woven into the finely varied tapestry of martial music, and when the +lover comes trudging home, his joy, his sudden knowledge of Perrine's +faithlessness, and his overwhelming grief are all built over a long +organ-point of three clangorous bride-bells. The _leit-motif_ idea is +used with suggestive clearness throughout the work. + +The background to Longfellow's "Sandalphon" is so fine an arras that +it gives the poet a splendor not usual to his bourgeois lays. The +music runs through so many phases of emotion, and approves itself so +original and exaltedly vivid in each that I put it well to the fore +of American compositions. + +Hardly less large is the--Loomis calls it "Musical Symbolism," for +Adelaide Ann Proctor's "The Story of the Faithful Soul." Of the +greatest delicacy imaginable is the music (for piano, violin, and +voice) to William Sharp's "Coming of the Prince." The "Watteau +Pictures" are poems of Verlaine's variously treated: one as a +head-piece to a wayward piano caprice, one to be recited during a +picturesque waltz, the last a song with mandolin effects in the +accompaniment. + +[Music: + + How, erect, at the outermost gates of the City + Celestial he waits, + With his feet on the ladder of light, + That, crowded with angels unnumbered, + By Jacob was seen as he slumbered + Alone in the desert at night? + The Angels of Wind and of Fire + Chant only one hymn, and expire + With the song's irresistible stress, + Expire in their rapture and wonder, + As harp-strings are broken asunder + By music they throb to express. + But serene in the rapturous throng, + Unmoved by the rush of the song, + With eyes unimpassioned and slow, + Among the dead angels, the deathless + Sandalphon stands listening, breathless, + To sounds that ascend from below,... + +Copyright, 1896, by Edgar S. Werner. + +A FRAGMENT OF "SANDALPHON," BY H.W. LOOMIS.] + +The pantomimes range from grave to gay, most of the librettos in this +difficult form being from the clever hand of Edwin Starr Belknap. +"The Traitor Mandolin," "In Old New Amsterdam," "Put to the Test," +"Blanc et Noir," "The Enchanted Fountain," "Her Revenge," "Love and +Witchcraft" are their names. The music is full of wit, a quality +Loomis possesses in unusual degree. The music mimics everything from +the busy feather-duster of the maid to her eavesdropping. Pouring +wine, clinking glasses, moving a chair, tearing up a letter, and a +rollicking wine-song in pantomime are all hinted with the drollest and +most graphic programmism imaginable. + +Loomis has also written two burlesque operas, "The Maid of Athens" and +"The Burglar's Bride," the libretto of the latter by his brother, +Charles Battell Loomis, the well-known humorist. This latter contains +some skilful parody on old fogyism. + +In the Violin Sonata the piano, while granting precedence to the +violin, approaches almost to the dignity of a duet. The finale is +captivating and brilliant, and develops some big climaxes. The work as +a whole is really superb, and ought to be much played. There are, +besides, a "Lyric Finale" to a sonata not yet written, and several +songs for violin, voice, and piano. + +A suite for four hands, "In Summer Fields," contains some happy +manifestations of ability, such as "A June Roundelay," "The Dryad's +Grove," and, especially, a humoresque "Junketing," which is surely +destined to become a classic. From some of his pantomimes Loomis has +made excerpts, and remade them with new elaboration for two pianos, +under the name of "Exotics." These are full of variety and of actual +novelty, now of startling discord, now of revelatory beauty. A +so-called "Norland Epic," freely constructed on the sonata formula, is +one of Loomis' most brilliant and personal achievements. + +Loomis has an especial aptitude for writing artistic ballet-music, and +for composing in the tone of different nationalities, particularly the +Spanish. His pantomimes contain many irresistible dances, one of them +including a Chinese dance alternating 4-4 with 3-4 time. His +strikingly fleet "Harlequin" has been published. + +The gift of adding art to catchiness is a great one. This Loomis +seems to have to an unusual degree, as is evidenced by the dances in +his pantomimes and his series of six pieces "In Ballet Costume," all +of them rich with the finest art along with a Strauss-like +spontaneity. These include "L'Amazone," "Pirouette," "Un Pas Seul," +"La Coryphee," "The Odalisque," and "The Magyar." One of his largest +works is a concert waltz, "Mi-Careme," for two pianos, with elaborate +and extended introduction and coda. + +A series of Genre Pictures contains such lusciousness of felicity as +"At an Italian Festival," and there are a number of musical moments of +engaging charm, for instance, "N'Importe Quoi," "From a Conservatory +Program," "A Tropical Night," a fascinating "Valsette," a nameless +valse, and "Another Scandal," which will prove a gilt-edged +speculation for some tardy publisher. It is brimming with the +delicious horror of excited gossipry. An example of how thoroughly +Loomis is invested with music--how he thinks in it--is his audacious +scherzo, "The Town Crier," printed herewith. + +In songs Loomis has been most prolific. He has set twenty-two of +Shakespeare's lyrics to music of the old English school, such as his +uproarious "Let me the cannikin clink," and his dainty "Tell me where +is fancy bred." + +"The Lark" is written in the pentatonic scale, with accompaniment for +two flutes and a harp. + +In the same vein are various songs of Herrick, a lyrist whose verse +is not usually congenial to the modern music-maker. Loomis' "Epitaph +on a Virgin" must be classed as a success. Indeed, it reaches positive +grandeur at its climax, wherein is woven the grim persistence of a +tolling bell. In the same style is a clever setting of Ben Jonson's +much music'd "To Celia." + +In German-tone are his veritably magnificent "Herbstnacht" and his "At +Midnight," two studies after Franz. Heine's "Des Waldes Kapellmeister" +has been made into a most hilarious humoresque. + +"Bergerie" is a dozen of Norman Gale's lyrics. "Andalusia" is a +flamboyant duet. + +In Scotch songs there is a positive embarrassment of riches, Loomis' +fancies finding especial food and freedom in this school. I find in +these settings far more art and grace than I see even in Schumann's +many Scotch songs, or those of any other of the Germans. "Oh, for Ane +and Twenty" has bagpipe effects. Such flights of ecstasy as "My Wife's +a Winsome Wee Thing," and "Bonnie Wee Thing," are simply tyrannical in +their appeal. Then there is an irresistible "Polly Stewart;" and "My +Peggy's Heart" is fairly ambrosial. These and several others, like +"There Was a Bonnie Lass," could be made into an album of songs that +would delight a whole suite of generations. + +A number of his songs are published: they include a "John Anderson, My +Jo," that has no particular right to live; a ballad, "Molly," with a +touch of art tucked into it; the beautiful "Sylvan Slumbers," and the +quaint and fascinating "Dutch Garden." + +Aside from an occasional song like "Thistledown," with its brilliantly +fleecy accompaniment, and the setting of Browning's famous "The Year' +at the Spring," for which Loomis has struck out a superb frenzy, and a +group of songs by John Vance Cheney, Loomis has found some of his most +powerful inspirations in the work of our lyrist, Aldrich,--such as +the rich carillon of "Wedded," and his "Discipline," one of the best +of all humorous songs, a gruesome scherzo all about dead monks, in +which the music furnishes out the grim irreverence of the words with +the utmost waggery. + +Chief among the lyrics by Cheney are three "Spring Songs," in which +Loomis has caught the zest of spring with such rapture that, once they +are heard, the world seems poor without them in print. Loomis' +literary culture is shown in the sure taste of his selection of lyrics +for his music. He has marked aptitudes, too, in creative literature, +and has an excellent idea of the arts kindred to his own, particularly +architecture. + +Like Chopin, Loomis is largely occupied in mixing rich new colors on +the inexhaustible palette of the piano. Like Chopin, he is not +especially called to the orchestra. What the future may hold for him +in this field (by no means so indispensable to classic repute as +certain pedants assume) it is impossible to say. In the meantime he is +giving most of his time to work in larger forms. + +If in his restless hunt for novelty, always novelty, he grows too +original, too unconventional, this sin is unusual enough to approach +the estate of a virtue. But his oddity is not mere sensation-mongering. +It is his individuality. He could make the same reply to such +criticism that Schumann made; he thinks in strange rhythms and hunts +curious effects, because his tastes are irrevocably so ordained. + +But we ought to show a new genius the same generosity toward flaws +that we extend toward the masters whose fame is won beyond the +patronage of our petty forgiveness. And, all in all, I am impelled to +prophesy to Loomis a place very high among the inspired makers of new +music. His harmonies, so indefatigably searched out and polished to +splendor, so potent in enlarging the color-scale of the piano; his +patient building up, through long neglect and through long silence, of +a monumental group of works and of a distinct individuality, must +prove at some late day a source of lasting pride to his country, +neglectful now in spite of itself. But better than his patience, than +his courage, than his sincerity, better than that insufficient +definition of genius,--the capacity for taking infinite pains,--is his +inspired felicity. His genius is the very essence of felicity. + + +_Ethelbert Nevin._ + +[Illustration: ETHELBERT NEVIN.] + +It is refreshing to be able to chronicle the achievements of a +composer who has become financially successful without destroying his +claim on the respect of the learned and severe, or sacrificing his own +artistic conscience and individuality. Such a composer is Ethelbert +Nevin. + +His published writings have been altogether along the smaller lines of +composition, and he has won an enviable place as a fervent worker in +diamonds. None of his gems are paste, and a few have a perfection, a +solidity, and a fire that fit them for a place in that coronet one +might fancy made up of the richest of the jewels of the world's +music-makers, and fashioned for the very brows of the Muse herself. + +[Illustration: Autograph of Ethelbert Nevin] + +Nevin was born in 1862, at Vineacre, on the banks of the Ohio, a few +miles from Pittsburgh. There he spent the first sixteen years of his +life, and received all his schooling, most of it from his father, +Robert P. Nevin, editor and proprietor of a Pittsburgh newspaper, and +a contributor to many magazines. It is interesting to note that he +also composed several campaign songs, among them the popular "Our +Nominee," used in the day of James K. Polk's candidacy. The first +grand piano ever taken across the Allegheny Mountains was carted over +for Nevin's mother. + +From his earliest infancy Nevin was musically inclined, and, at the +age of four, was often taken from his cradle to play for admiring +visitors. To make up for the deficiency of his little legs, he used to +pile cushions on the pedals so that he might manipulate them from +afar. + +Nevin's father provided for his son both vocal and instrumental +instruction, even taking him abroad for two years of travel and music +study in Dresden under Von Boehme. Later he studied the piano for two +years at Boston, under B.J. Lang, and composition under Stephen A. +Emery, whose little primer on harmony has been to American music +almost what Webster's spelling-book was to our letters. + +At the end of two years he went to Pittsburgh, where he gave lessons, +and saved money enough to take him to Berlin. There he spent the +years 1884, 1885, and 1886, placing himself in the hands of Karl +Klindworth. Of him Nevin says: "To Herr Klindworth I owe everything +that has come to me in my musical life. He was a devoted teacher, and +his patience was tireless. His endeavor was not only to develop the +student from a musical standpoint, but to enlarge his soul in every +way. To do this, he tried to teach one to appreciate and to feel the +influence of such great minds of literature as Goethe, Schiller, and +Shakespeare. He used to insist that a man does not become a musician +by practising so many hours a day at the piano, but by absorbing an +influence from all the arts and all the interests of life, from +architecture, painting, and even politics." + +The effect of such broad training--enjoyed rarely enough by music +students--is very evident in Nevin's compositions. They are never +narrow or provincial. They are the outpourings of a soul that is not +only intense in its activities, but is refined and cultivated in its +expressions. This effect is seen, too, in the poems Nevin chooses to +set to music,--they are almost without exception verses of literary +finish and value. His cosmopolitanism is also remarkable, his songs in +French, German, and Italian having no trace of Yankee accent and a +great fidelity to their several races. + +In 1885, Hans von Buelow incorporated the best four pupils of his +friend, Klindworth, into an artist class, which he drilled personally. +Nevin was one of the honored four, and appeared at the unique public +_Zuhoeren_ of that year, devoted exclusively to the works of Brahms, +Liszt, and Raff. Among the forty or fifty studious listeners at these +recitals, Frau Cosima Wagner, the violinist Joachim, and many other +celebrities were frequently present. + +Nevin returned to America in 1887, and took up his residence in +Boston, where he taught and played at occasional concerts. + +Eighteen hundred and ninety-two found him in Paris, where he taught, +winning more pupils than here. He was especially happy in imparting to +singers the proper _Auffassung_ (grasp, interpretation, finish) of +songs, and coached many American and French artists for the operatic +stage. In 1893 the restless troubadour moved on to Berlin, where he +devoted himself so ardently to composition that his health collapsed, +and he was exiled a year to Algiers. The early months of 1895 he +spent in concert tours through this country. As Klindworth said of +him, "he has a touch that brings tears," and it is in interpretation +rather than in bravura that he excels. He plays with that unusual +combination of elegance and fervor that so individualizes his +composition. + +Desirous of finding solitude and atmosphere for composition, he took +up his residence in Florence, where he composed his suite, "May in +Tuscany" (op. 21). The "Arlecchino" of this work has much +sprightliness, and shows the influence of Schumann, who made the +harlequin particularly his own; but there is none of Chopin's +nocturnity in the "Notturno," which presents the sussurus and the +moonlit, amorous company of "Boccaccio's Villa." The suite includes a +"Misericordia" depicting a midnight cortege along the Arno, and +modelled on Chopin's funeral march in structure with its hoarse dirge +and its rich cantilena. The best number of the suite is surely the +"Rusignuolo," an exceedingly fluty bird-song. + +From Florence, Nevin went to Venice, where he lived in an old _casa_ +on the Grand Canal, opposite the Browning palazzo, and near the house +where Wagner wrote "Tristan und Isolde." One day his man, Guido, took +a day off, and brought to Venice an Italian sweetheart, who had lived +a few miles from the old dream-city and had never visited it. The day +these two spent gondoliering through the waterways, where romance +hides in every nook, is imaginatively narrated in tone in Nevin's +suite, "Un Giorno in Venezia," a book more handsomely published even +than the others of his works, which have been among the earliest to +throw off the disgraceful weeds of type and design formerly worn by +native compositions. + +The Venetian suite gains a distinctly Italian color from its +ingenuously sweet harmonies in thirds and sixths, and its frankly +lyric nature, and "The Day in Venice" begins logically with the dawn, +which is ushered in with pink and stealthy harmonies, then "The +Gondoliers" have a morning mood of gaiety that makes a charming +composition. There is a "Canzone Amorosa" of deep fervor, with +interjections of "Io t'amo!" and "Amore" (which has the excellent +authority of Beethoven's Sonata, op. 81, with its "Lebe wohl"). The +suite ends deliciously with a night scene in Venice, beginning with a +choral "Ave Maria," and ending with a campanella of the utmost +delicacy. + +After a year in Venice Nevin made Paris his home for a year, +returning to America then, where he has since remained. + +Though he has dabbled somewhat in orchestration, he has been wisely +devoting his genius, with an almost Chopin-like singleness of mind, to +songs and piano pieces. His piano works are what would be called +_morceaux_. He has never written a sonata, or anything approaching the +classical forms, nearer than a gavotte or two. He is very modern in +his harmonies, the favorite colors on his palette being the warmer +keys, which are constantly blended enharmonically. He "swims in a sea +of tone," being particularly fond of those suspensions and inversions +in which the intervals of the second clash passionately, strongly +compelling resolution. For all his gracefulness and lyricism, he makes +a sturdy and constant use of dissonance; in his song "Herbstgefuehl" +the dissonance is fearlessly defiant of conventions. + +[Music: + + ... Rose + Loeset lebenssatt. + Sich, das letzte lose, + Bleiche Blumenblatt. + Goldenes entfaerben, + Schleicht sich durch den Hain, + Auch vergeh'n und sterben, + Daeucht mir suess zu sein. + + ... failing, + From the rose unbound, + Falls, its life exhaling, + Dead upon the ground. + Golden colors flying, + Slant from tree to tree; + Such release and dying, + Sweet would seem to me. + +Copyright, 1889, by G. Schirmer, Jr. + +A FRAGMENT FROM "HERBSTGEFUeHL."] + +Nevin's songs, whose only littleness is in their length, though +treated with notable individuality, are founded in principle on the +_Lieder_ of Schumann and Franz. That is to say, they are written with +a high poetical feeling inspired by the verses they sing, and, while +melodious enough to justify them as lyrics, yet are near enough to +impassioned recitative to do justice to the words on which they are +built. Nevin is also an enthusiastic devotee of the position these +masters, after Schubert, took on the question of the accompaniment. +This is no longer a slavish thumping of a few chords, now and then, +to keep the voice on the key, with outbursts of real expression only +at the interludes; but it is a free instrumental composition with a +meaning of its own and an integral value, truly accompanying, not +merely supporting and serving, the voice. Indeed, one of Nevin's best +songs,--"Lehn deine Wang an meine Wang,"--is actually little more than +a vocal accompaniment to a piano solo. His accompaniments are always +richly colored and generally individualized with a strong +contramelody, a descending chromatic scale in octaves making an +especially frequent appearance. Design, though not classical, is +always present and distinct. + +Nevin's first published work was a modest "Serenade," with a neat +touch of syncopation, which he wrote at the age of eighteen. His +"Sketch-Book," a collection of thirteen songs and piano pieces found +an immediate and remarkable sale that has removed the ban formerly +existing over books of native compositions. + +The contents of the "Sketch-Book" display unusual versatility. It +opens with a bright gavotte, in which adherence to the classic spirit +compels a certain reminiscence of tone. The second piece, a song, "I' +the Wondrous Month o' May," has such a springtide fire and frenzy in +the turbulent accompaniment, and such a fervent reiterance, that it +becomes, in my opinion, the best of all the settings of this poem of +Heine's, not excluding even Schumann's or that of Franz. The "Love +Song," though a piano solo, is in reality a duet between two lovers. +It is to me finer than Henselt's perfect "Liebeslied," possibly +because the ravishing sweetness of the woman's voice answering the +sombre plea of the man gives it a double claim on the heart. The +setting of "Du bist wie eine Blume," however, hardly does justice +either to Heine's poem, or to Nevin's art. The "Serenade" is an +original bit of work, but the song, "Oh, that We Two were Maying!" +with a voice in the accompaniment making it the duet it should +be,--that song can have no higher praise than this, that it is the +complete, the final musical fulfilment of one of the rarest lyrics in +our language. A striking contrast to the keen white regret of this +song is the setting of a group of "Children's Songs," by Robert Louis +Stevenson. Nevin's child-songs have a peculiar and charming place. He +has not been stingy of either his abundant art or his abundant +humanity in writing them. They include four of Stevenson's, the best +being the captivating "In Winter I get up at Night," and a setting of +Eugene Field's "Little Boy Blue," in which a trumpet figure is used +with delicate pathos. + +Nevin's third opus included three exquisite songs of a pastoral +nature, Goethe's rollicking "One Spring Morning" having an immense +sale. Opus 5 contained five songs, of which the ecstatic "'Twas April" +reached the largest popularity. Possibly the smallest sale was enjoyed +by "Herbstgefuehl." Many years have not availed to shake my allegiance +to this song, as one of the noblest songs in the world's music. It is +to me, in all soberness, as great as the greatest of the _Lieder_ of +Schubert, Schumann or Franz. In "Herbstgefuehl" (or "Autumn-mood") +Gerok's superb poem bewails the death of the leaves and the failing of +the year, and cries out in sympathy: + + "Such release and dying + Sweet would seem to me!" + +Deeper passion and wilder despair could not be crowded into so short a +song, and the whole brief tragedy is wrought with a grandeur and +climax positively epic. It is a flash of sheer genius. + +Three piano duets make up opus 6; and other charming works, songs, +piano pieces, and violin solos, kept pouring from a pen whose apparent +ease concealed a vast deal of studious labor, until the lucky 13, the +opus-number of a bundle of "Water Scenes," brought Nevin the greatest +popularity of all, thanks largely to "Narcissus," which has been as +much thrummed and whistled as any topical song. + +Of the other "Water Scenes," there is a shimmering "Dragon Fly," a +monody, "Ophelia," with a pedal-point of two periods on the tonic, and +a fluent "Barcarolle" with a deal of high-colored virtuosity. + +His book "In Arcady" (1892) contains pastoral scenes, notably an +infectious romp that deserves its legend, "They danced as though they +never would grow old." The next year his opus 20, "A Book of Songs," +was published. It contains, among other things of merit, a lullaby, +called "Sleep, Little Tulip," with a remarkably artistic and effective +pedal-point on two notes (the submediant and the dominant) sustained +through the entire song with a fine fidelity to the words and the +lullaby spirit; a "Nocturne" in which Nevin has revealed an +unsuspected voluptuousness in Mr. Aldrich' little lyric, and has +written a song of irresistible climaxes. The two songs, "Dites-Moi" +and "In der Nacht," each so completely true to the idiom of the +language of its poem, are typical of Nevin's cosmopolitanism, referred +to before. This same unusual ability is seen in his piano pieces as +well as in his songs. He knows the difference between a _chanson_ and +a _Lied_, and in "Rechte Zeit" has written with truth to German +soldierliness as he has been sympathetic with French nuance in "Le +Vase Brise," the effective song "Mon Desire," which in profile +suggests Saint-Saens' familiar Delilah-song, the striking "Chanson des +Lavandieres" and "Rapelle-Toi," one of Nevin's most elaborate works, +in which Alfred De Musset's verse is splendidly set with much +enharmonious color. Very Italian, too, is the "Serenade" with +accompaniment a la mandolin, which is the most fetching number in the +suite "Captive Memories," published in 1899. + +Nevin has also put many an English song to music, notably the deeply +sincere "At Twilight," the strenuous lilt "In a Bower," Bourdillon's +beautiful lyric, "Before the Daybreak," the smooth and unhackneyed +treatment of the difficult stanza of "'Twas April," that popular song, +"One Spring Morning," which has not yet had all the charm sung out of +it, and two songs with obbligati for violin and 'cello, "Deep in the +Rose's Glowing Heart" and "Doris," a song with a finely studied +accompaniment and an aroma of Theokritos. + +A suite for the piano is "En Passant," published in 1899; it ranges +from a stately old dance, "At Fontainebleau," to "Napoli," a furious +tarantelle with effective _glissandi_; "In Dreamland" is a most +delicious revery with an odd repetition that is not preludatory, but +thematic. The suite ends with the most poetic scene of all, "At Home," +which makes a tone poem of Richard Hovey's word-picture of a June +night in Washington. The depicting of the Southern moonlight-balm, +with its interlude of a distant and drowsy negro quartette, reminds +one pleasantly of Chopin's Nocturne (op. 37, No. 1), with its +intermezzo of choric monks, though the composition is Nevin's very own +in spirit and treatment. + +In addition to the works catalogued, Nevin has written a pantomime for +piano and orchestra to the libretto of that virtuoso in English, Vance +Thompson; it was called "Lady Floriane's Dream," and was given in New +York in 1898. Nevin has also a cantata in making. + +It needs no very intimate acquaintance with Nevin's music to see that +it is not based on an adoration for counterpoint as an end. He +believes that true music must come from the emotions--the intelligent +emotions--and that when it cannot appeal to the emotions it has lost +its power. He says: "Above everything we need melody--melody and +rhythm. Rhythm is the great thing. We have it in Nature. The trees +sway, and our steps keep time, and our very souls respond." In +Wagner's "Meistersinger," which he calls "a symphonic poem with +action," Nevin finds his musical creed and his model. + +And now, if authority is needed for all this frankly enthusiastic +admiration, let it be found in and echoed from Karl Klindworth, who +said of Nevin: "His talent is _ungeheures_ [one of the strongest +adjectives in the German language]. If he works hard and is +conscientious, he can say for the musical world something that no one +else can say." + + +_John Philip Sousa._ + +[Illustration: Autograph of John Philip Sousa] + +[Illustration: JOHN PHILIP SOUSA.] + +In common with most of those that pretend to love serious music, a +certain person was for long guilty of the pitiful snobbery of rating +march-tunes as the lowest form of the art. But one day he joined a +National Guard regiment, and his first long march was that +heart-breaking dress-parade of about fifteen miles through the wind +and dust of the day Grant's monument was dedicated. Most of the music +played by the band was merely rhythmical embroidery, chiefly in bugle +figures, as helpful as a Clementi sonatina; but now and then there +would break forth a magic elixir of tune that fairly plucked his feet +up for him, put marrow in unwilling bones, and replaced the dreary +doggedness of the heart with a great zest for progress, a stout +martial fire, and a fierce _esprit de corps_; with patriotism indeed. +In almost every case, that march belonged to one John Philip Sousa. + +It came upon this wretch then, that, if it is a worthy ambition in a +composer to give voice to passionate love-ditties, or vague +contemplation, or the deep despair of a funeral cortege, it is also a +very great thing to instil courage, and furnish an inspiration that +will send men gladly, proudly, and gloriously through hardships into +battle and death. This last has been the office of the march-tune, and +it is as susceptible of structural logic or embellishments as the +fugue, rondo, or what not. These architectural qualities Sousa's +marches have in high degree, as any one will find that examines their +scores or listens analytically. They have the further merit of +distinct individuality, and the supreme merit of founding a school. + +It is only the plain truth to say that Sousa's marches have founded a +school; that he has indeed revolutionized march-music. His career +resembles that of Johann Strauss in many ways. A certain body of old +fogies has always presumed to deride the rapturous waltzes of +Strauss, though they have won enthusiastic praise from even the +esoteric Brahms, and gained from Wagner such words as these: "One +Strauss waltz overshadows, in respect to animation, finesse, and real +musical worth, most of the mechanical, borrowed, factory-made products +of the present time." The same words might be applied to Sousa's +marches with equal justice. They have served also for dance music, and +the two-step, borne into vogue by Sousa's music, has driven the waltz +almost into desuetude. + +There is probably no composer in the world with a popularity equal to +that of Sousa. Though he sold his "Washington Post" march outright for +$35, his "Liberty Bell" march is said to have brought him $35,000. It +is found that his music has been sold to eighteen thousand bands in +the United States alone. The amazing thing is to learn that there are +so many bands in the country. Sousa's marches have appeared on +programs in all parts of the civilized world. At the Queen's Jubilee, +when the Queen stepped forward to begin the grand review of the +troops, the combined bands of the household brigade struck up the +"Washington Post." On other important occasions it appeared constantly +as the chief march of the week. General Miles heard the marches played +in Turkey by the military bands in the reviews. + +The reason for this overwhelming appeal to the hearts of a planet is +not far to seek. The music is conceived in a spirit of high martial +zest. It is proud and gay and fierce, thrilled and thrilling with +triumph. Like all great music it is made up of simple elements, woven +together by a strong personality. It is not difficult now to write +something that sounds more or less like a Sousa march, any more than +it is difficult to write parodies, serious or otherwise, on Beethoven, +Mozart, or Chopin. The glory of Sousa is that he was the first to +write in this style; that he has made himself a style; that he has so +stirred the musical world that countless imitations have sprung up +after him. + +The individuality of the Sousa march is this, that, unlike most of the +other influential marches, it is not so much a musical exhortation +from without, as a distillation of the essences of soldiering from +within. Sousa's marches are not based upon music-room enthusiasms, but +on his own wide experiences of the feelings of men who march together +in the open field. + +And so his band music expresses all the nuances of the military +psychology: the exhilaration of the long unisonal stride, the grip on +the musket, the pride in the regimentals and the regiment,--_esprit de +corps_. He expresses the inevitable foppery of the severest soldier, +the tease and the taunt of the evolutions, the fierce wish that all +this ploying and deploying were in the face of an actual enemy, the +mania to reek upon a tangible foe all the joyous energy, the +blood-thirst of the warrior. + +These things Sousa embodies in his music as no other music writer ever +has. To approach Sousa's work in the right mood, the music critic must +leave his stuffy concert hall and his sober black; he must flee from +the press, don a uniform, and march. After his legs and spirits have +grown aweary under the metronomic tunes of others, let him note the +surge of blood in his heart and the rejuvenation of all his muscles +when the brasses flare into a barbaric Sousa march. No man that +marches can ever feel anything but gratitude and homage for Sousa. + +Of course he is a trickster at times; admitted that he stoops to +conquer at times, yet in his field he is supreme. He is worthy of +serious consideration, because his thematic material is almost always +novel and forceful, and his instrumentation full of contrast and +climax. He is not to be judged by the piano versions of his works, +because they are abominably thin and inadequate, and they are not +_klaviermaessig_. There should be a Liszt or a Taussig to transcribe +him. + +When all's said and done, Sousa is the pulse of the nation, and in +war of more inspiration and power to our armies than ten colonels with +ten braw regiments behind them. + +Like Strauss', Mr. Sousa's father was a musician who forbade his son +to devote himself to dance music. As Strauss' mother enabled him +secretly to work out his own salvation, so did Sousa's mother help +him. Sousa's father was a political exile from Spain, and earned a +precarious livelihood by playing a trombone in the very band at +Washington which later became his son's stepping-stone to fame. Sousa +was born at Washington in 1859. His mother is German, and Sousa's +music shows the effect of Spanish yeast in sturdy German rye bread. +Sousa's teachers were John Esputa and George Felix Benkert. The latter +Mr. Sousa considers one of the most complete musicians this country +has ever known. He put him through such a thorough theoretical +training, that at fifteen Sousa was teaching harmony. At eight he had +begun to earn his own living as a violin player at a dancing-school, +and at ten he was a public soloist. At sixteen he was the conductor of +an orchestra in a variety theatre. Two years later he was musical +director of a travelling company in Mr. Milton Nobles' well-known +play, "The Phoenix," for which he composed the incidental music. +Among other incidents in a career of growing importance was a position +in the orchestra with which Offenbach toured this country. At the age +of twenty-six, after having played, with face blacked, as a negro +minstrel, after travelling with the late Matt Morgan's Living Picture +Company, and working his way through and above other such experiences +in the struggle for life, Sousa became the leader of the United States +Marine Band. In the twelve years of his leadership he developed this +unimportant organization into one of the best military bands in the +world. + +In 1892 his leadership had given him such fame that he withdrew from +the government service to take the leadership of the band carrying his +own name. + +A work of enormous industry was his collection and arrangement, by +governmental order, of the national and typical tunes of all nations +into one volume, an invaluable book of reference. + +Out of the more than two hundred published compositions by Sousa, it +is not possible to mention many here. Though some of the names are not +happily chosen, they call up many episodes of parade gaiety and +jauntiness, or warlike fire. The "Liberty Bell," "Directorate," "High +School Cadets," "King Cotton," "Manhattan Beach," "'Sound Off!'" +"Washington Post," "Picador," and others, are all stirring works; his +best, I think, is a deeply patriotic march, "The Stars and Stripes +Forever." The second part of this has some brass work of particular +originality and vim. + +In manuscript are a few works of larger form: a symphonic poem, "The +Chariot Race," an historical scene, "Sheridan's Ride," and two suites, +"Three Quotations" and "The Last Days of Pompeii." + +The "Three Quotations" are: + + (_a_) "The King of France, with twenty thousand men, + Marched up a hill and then marched down again," + +which is the motive for a delightful scherzo-march of much humor in +instrumentation; + + (_b_) "And I, too, was born in Arcadia," + +which is a pastorale with delicious touches of extreme delicacy; + + (_c_) "In Darkest Africa," + +which has a stunning beginning and is a stirring grotesque in the +negro manner Dvorak advised Americans to cultivate. All three are well +arranged for the piano. + +The second suite is based on "The Last Days of Pompeii." It opens with +a drunken revel, "In the House of Burbo and Stratonice;" the bulky +brutishness of the gladiators clamoring for wine, a jolly +drinking-song, and a dance by a jingling clown make up a superbly +written number. The second movement is named "Nydia," and represents +the pathetic reveries of the blind girl; it is tender and quiet +throughout. + +The third movement is at once daring and masterly. It boldly attacks +"The Destruction," and attains real heights of graphic suggestion. A +long, almost inaudible roll on the drums, with occasional thuds, +heralds the coming of the earthquake; subterranean rumblings, sharp +rushes of tremor, toppling stones, and wild panic are insinuated +vividly, with no cheap attempts at actual imitation. The roaring of +the terrified lion is heard, and, best touch of all, under the fury of +the scene persists the calm chant of the Nazarenes, written in one of +the ancient modes. The rout gives way to the sea-voyage of Glaucus and +Ione, and Nydia's swan-song dies away in the gentle splash of ripples. +The work is altogether one of superb imagination and scholarly +achievement. + +Sousa, appealing as he does to an audience chiefly of the popular +sort, makes frequent use of devices shocking to the conventional. But +even in this he is impelled by the enthusiasm of an experimenter and a +developer. Almost every unconventional novelty is hooted at in the +arts. But the sensationalism of to-day is the conservatism of +to-morrow, and the chief difference between a touch of high art and a +trick is that the former succeeds and the latter does not. Both are +likely to have a common origin. + +The good thing is that Sousa is actuated by the spirit of progress and +experiment, and has carried on the development of the military band +begun by the late Patrick S. Gilmore. Sousa's concert programs devote +what is in fact the greater part of their space to music by the very +best composers. These, of course, lose something in being translated +over to the military band, but their effect in raising the popular +standard of musical culture cannot but be immense. Through such +instrumentality much of Wagner is as truly popular as any music +played. The active agents of such a result should receive the +heartiest support from every one sincerely interested in turning the +people toward the best things in music. Incidentally, it is well to +admit that while a cheap march-tune is almost as trashy as an +uninspired symphony, a good march-tune is one of the best things in +the best music. + +Though chiefly known as a writer of marches, in which he has won glory +enough for the average human ambition, Sousa has also taken a large +place in American comic opera. His first piece, "The Smugglers," was +produced in 1879, and scored the usual failure of a first work. His +"Katherine" was never produced, his "Desiree" was brought out in 1884 +by the McCaull Opera Company, and his "Queen of Hearts," a one-act +piece, was given two years later. He forsook opera then for ten years; +but in 1896 De Wolf Hopper produced his "El Capitan" with great +success. + +The chief tune of the piece was a march used with Meyerbeerian +effectiveness to bring down the curtain. The stout verve of this "El +Capitan" march gave it a large vogue outside the opera. Hopper next +produced "The Charlatan," a work bordering upon opera comique in its +first version. Both of these works scored even larger success in +London than at home. + +[Music: Used by permission of the John Church Company, owners of the +copyright. + +A PAGE FROM "EL CAPITAN," BY JOHN PHILIP SOUSA.] + +In "The Bride Elect," Sousa wrote his own libretto, and while there +was the usual stirring march as the piece de resistance, the work as a +whole was less clangorous of the cymbal than the operas of many a +tamer composer. In "Chris and the Wonderful Lamp," an extravaganza, +the chief ensemble was worked up from a previous march, "Hands Across +the Sea." + +But Sousa can write other things than marches, and his scoring is full +of variety, freedom, and contrapuntal brilliance. + + +_Henry Schoenefeld._ + +[Illustration: HENRY SCHOENEFELD.] + +Long before Dvorak discovered America, we aboriginals had been trying +to invent a national musical dialect which should identify us as +completely to the foreigner as our nasal intonation and our fondness +for the correct and venerable use of the word "guess." But Dvorak is +to credit for taking the problem off the shelf, and persuading our +composers to think. I cannot coax myself into the enthusiasm some have +felt for Dvorak's own explorations in darkest Africa. His quartette +(op. 96) and his "New World" symphony are about as full of accent and +infidelity as Mlle. Yvette Guilbert's picturesque efforts to sing in +English. But almost anything is better than the phlegm that says, "The +old ways are good enough for all time;" and the Bohemian missionary +must always hold a place in the chronicle of American music. + +A disciple of Dvorak's, both in advance and in retrospect, is Henry +Schoenefeld, who wrote a characteristic suite (op. 15) before the +Dvorakian invasion, and an overture, "In the Sunny South," afterward. +The suite, which has been played frequently abroad, winning the +praises of Hanslick, Nicode, and Rubinstein, is scored for string +orchestra. It opens with an overly reminiscent waltz-tune, and ends +conventionally, but it contains a movement in negro-tone that gives it +importance. In this the strings are abetted by a tambourine, a +triangle, and a gong. It is in march-time, and, after a staccato +prelude, begins with a catchy air taken by the second violins, while +the firsts, divided, fill up the chords. A slower theme follows in the +tonic major; it is a jollificational air, dancing from the first +violins with a bright use of harmonics. Two periods of loud chorale +appear with the gong clanging (to hint a church-bell, perhaps). The +first two themes return and end the picture. + +The overture (op. 22) has won the high esteem of A.J. Goodrich, and +it seems to me to be one of the most important of native works, not +because of its nigrescence, but because of its spontaneity therein. It +adds to the usual instruments only the piccolo, the English horn, the +tambourine, and triangle and cymbals. The slow introduction gives +forth an original theme in the most approved and most fetching darky +pattern. The strings announce it, and the wood replies. The flutes and +clarinets toss it in a blanket furnished by an interesting passage in +the 'cellos and contrabasses. There is a choral moment from the English +horn, the bassoons, and a clarinet. This solemn thought keeps +recurring parenthetically through the general gaiety. The first +subject clatters in, the second is even more jubilant. In the +development a dance _misterioso_ is used with faithful screaming +repetitions, and the work ends regularly and brilliantly. There is +much syncopation, though nothing that is strictly in "rag-time;" +banjo-figurations are freely and ingeniously employed, and the whole +is a splendid fiction in local color. Schoenefeld's negroes do not +speak Bohemian. + +His determined nationalism is responsible for his festival overture, +"The American Flag," based on his own setting of Rodman Drake's +familiar poem. The work opens with the hymn blaring loudly from the +antiphonal brass and wood. The subjects are taken from it with much +thematic skill, and handled artfully, but the hymn, which appears in +full force for coda, is as trite as the most of its kith. + +Schoenefeld was born in Milwaukee, in 1857. His father was a musician, +and his teacher for some years. At the age of seventeen Schoenefeld +went to Leipzig, where he spent three years, studying under Reinecke, +Coccius, Papperitz, and Grill. A large choral and orchestral work was +awarded a prize over many competitors, and performed at the Gewandhaus +concerts, the composer conducting. Thereafter he went to Weimar, where +he studied under Edward Lassen. + +In 1879 he came back to America, and took up his residence in Chicago, +where he has since lived as a teacher, orchestra leader, and composer. +He has for many years directed the Germania Maennerchor. + +Schoenefeld's "Rural Symphony" was awarded the $500 prize offered by +the National Conservatory. Dvorak was the chairman of the Committee on +Award, and gave Schoenefeld hearty compliments. Later works are: "Die +drei Indianer," an ode for male chorus, solo, and orchestra; a most +beautiful "Air" for orchestra (the air being taken by most of the +strings,--the first violins haunting the G string,--while a harp and +three flutes carry the burden of the accompaniment gracefully); a +pleasant "Reverie" for string orchestra, harp, and organ; and two +impromptus for string orchestra, a "Meditation" representing Cordelia +brooding tenderly over the slumbering King Lear,--art ministering very +tenderly to the mood,--and a cleverly woven "Valse Noble." + +Only a few of Schoenefeld's works are published, all of them piano +pieces. It is no slur upon his orchestral glory to say that these are +for the most part unimportant, except the excellent "Impromptu" and +"Prelude." Of the eight numbers in "The Festival," for children, only +the "Mazurka" is likely to make even the smallest child think. The +"Kleine Tanz Suite" is better. The six children's pieces of opus 41, +"Mysteries of the Wood," make considerable appeal to the fancy and +imagination, and are highly interesting. They show Grieg's influence +very plainly, and are quite worth recommending. This cannot be said of +his most inelegant "Valse Elegante," or of his numerous dances, +except, perhaps, his "Valse Caprice." + +He won in July, 1899, the prize offered to American composers by Henri +Marteau, for a sonata for violin and piano. The jury was composed of +such men as Dubois, Pierne, Diemer, and Pugno. The sonata is _quasi +fantasia_, and begins strongly with an evident intention to make use +of negro-tone. The first subject is so vigorously declared that one is +surprised to find that it is elastic enough to express a sweet pathos +and a deep gloom. It is rather fully developed before the second +subject enters; this, on the other hand, is hardly insinuated in its +relative major before the rather inelaborate elaboration begins. In +the romanza, syncopation and imitation are much relied on, though the +general atmosphere is that of a nocturne, a trio of dance-like manner +breaking in. The final rondo combines a clog with a choral intermezzo. +The work is noteworthy for its deep sincerity and great lyric beauty. + + +_Maurice Arnold._ + +The plantation dances of Maurice Arnold have an intrinsic interest +quite aside from their intrinsic value. Arnold, whose full name is +Maurice Arnold-Strothotte, was born in St. Louis in 1865. His mother +was a prominent pianist and gave him his first lessons in music. At +the age of fifteen he went to Cincinnati, studying at the College of +Music for three years. In 1883 he went to Germany to study +counterpoint and composition with Vierling and Urban in Berlin. The +latter discouraged him when he attempted to imbue a suite with a negro +plantation spirit. + +Arnold now went upon a tramping tour in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. +Some of his compositions show the influence of his journey. He then +entered the Cologne Conservatory, studying under Wuellner, Neitzel, +and G. Jensen. His first piano sonata was performed there at a public +concert. He next went to Breslau, where, under the instruction of Max +Bruch, he wrote his cantata, "The Wild Chase," and gave public +performance to other orchestral work. Returning now to St. Louis, he +busied himself as solo violinist and teacher, travelling also as a +conductor of opera companies. When Dvorak came here Arnold wrote his +"Plantation Dances," which were produced in a concert under the +auspices of the Bohemian composer. Arnold was instructor of harmony at +the National Conservatory under Dvorak. + +The "Plantation Dances" are Arnold's thirty-third opus, and they have +been much played by orchestras; they are also published as a piano +duet; the second dance also as a solo. Arnold has not made direct use +of Ethiopian themes, but has sought the African spirit. The first of +the dances is very nigresque; the second hardly at all, though it is a +delicious piece of music; the third dance uses banjo figures and +realizes darky hilarity in fine style; the fourth is a cake walk and +hits off the droll humor of that pompous ceremony fascinatingly. + +Arnold's "Dramatic Overture" shows a fire and rush very characteristic +of him and likely to be kept up without sufficient contrast. So also +does his cantata, "The Wild Chase." Arnold has written two comic +operas. I have heard parts of the first and noted moments of much +beauty and humor. The Aragonaise, which opens the third act, is +particularly delightful. The orchestration throughout displays +Arnold's characteristic studiousness in picturesque effect. + +For piano there is a czardas, and a "Valse Elegante" for eight hands; +it is more Viennese than Chopinesque. It might indeed be called a +practicable waltz lavishly adorned. The fruits of Arnold's Oriental +journey are seen in his impressionistic "Danse de la Midway +Plaisance;" a very clever reminiscence of a Turkish minstrel; and a +Turkish march, which has been played by many German orchestras. There +is a "Caprice Espagnol," which is delightful, and a "Banjoenne," which +treats banjo music so captivatingly that Arnold may be said to have +invented a new and fertile and musical form. Besides these there are a +fugue for eight hands, a "Minstrel Serenade" for violin and piano, and +six duets for violin and viola. + +There are also a few part songs and some solos, among which mention +should be made of "Ein Maerlein," in the old German style, an +exquisitely tender "Barcarolle," and a setting of the poem, "I Think +of Thee in Silent Night," which makes use of a particularly beautiful +phrase for pre-, inter-, and postlude. Arnold has also written some +ballet music, a tarantelle for string orchestra, and is at work upon a +symphony, and a book, "Some Points in Modern Orchestration." His +violin sonata (now in MS.) shows his original talent at its best. In +the first movement, the first subject is a snappy and taking example +of negro-tone, the second has the perfume of moonlit magnolia in its +lyricism. (In the reprise this subject, which had originally appeared +in the dominant major, recurs in the tonic major, the key of the +sonata being E minor.) The second movement is also in the darky +spirit, but full of melancholy. For finale the composer has flown to +Ireland and written a bully jig full of dash and spirit. + + +_N. Clifford Page._ + +The influence of Japanese and Chinese art upon our world of decoration +has long been realized. After considering the amount of interest shown +in the Celestial music by American composers, one is tempted to +prophesy a decided influence in this line, and a considerable spread +of Japanese influence in the world of music also. Japanese music has a +decorative effect that is sometimes almost as captivating as in +painting. + +The city of San Francisco is the natural gateway for any such impulse, +and not a little of it has already passed the custom house. In this +field Edgar S. Kelley's influence is predominating, and it is not +surprising that he should pass the contagion on to his pupil, +Nathaniel Clifford Page, who was born in San Francisco, October 26, +1866. His ancestors were American for many years prior to the +Revolution. He composed operas at the age of twelve, and has used many +of these immature ideas with advantage in the later years. He began +the serious study of music at the age of sixteen, Kelley being his +principal teacher. His first opera, composed and orchestrated before +he became of age, was entitled "The First Lieutenant." It was produced +in 1889 at the Tivoli Opera House in San Francisco, where most of the +critics spoke highly of its instrumental and Oriental color, some of +the scenes being laid in Morocco. + +In instrumentation, which is considered Page's forte, he has never +had any instruction further than his own reading and investigation. He +began to conduct in opera and concert early in life, and has had much +experience. He has also been active as a teacher in harmony and +orchestration. + +An important phase of Page's writing has been incidental music for +plays, his greatest success having been achieved by the music for the +"Moonlight Blossom," a play based upon Japanese life and produced in +London in 1898. The overture was written entirely on actual Japanese +themes, including the national anthem of Japan. Page was three weeks +writing these twelve measures. He had a Japanese fiddle arranged with +a violin finger-board, but thanks to the highly characteristic +stubbornness of orchestral players, he was compelled to have this +part played by a mandolin. Two Japanese drums, a whistle used by a +Japanese shampooer, and a Japanese guitar were somehow permitted to +add their accent. The national air is used in augmentation later as +the bass for a Japanese song called "K Honen." The fidelity of the +music is proved by the fact that Sir Edwin Arnold's Japanese wife +recognized the various airs and was carried away by the national +anthem. + +Although the play was not a success, the music was given a cordial +reception, and brought Page contracts for other work in England, +including a play of Indian life by Mrs. Flora Annie Steel. + +Previously to the writing of the "Moonlight Blossom" music, Page had +arranged the incidental music for the same author's play, "The Cat +and the Cherub." Edgar S. Kelley's "Aladdin" music was the source from +which most of the incidental music was drawn; but Page added some +things of his own, among them being one of the most effective and +unexpected devices for producing a sense of horror and dread I have +ever listened to: simply the sounding at long intervals of two gruff +single tones in the extreme low register of the double basses and +bassoons. The grimness of this effect is indescribable. + +An unnamed Oriental opera, and an opera called "Villiers," in which +old English color is employed (including a grotesque dance of the +clumsy Ironsides), show the cosmopolitan restlessness of Page's muse. +An appalling scheme of self-amusement is seen in his "Caprice," in +which a theme of eight measures' length is instrumented with almost +every contrapuntal device known, and with psychological variety that +runs through five movements, scherzando, vigoroso, con sentimento, +religioso, and a marcia fantastico. The suite called "Village Fete" is +an experiment in French local color. It contains five scenes: The +Peasants Going to Chapel; The Flower Girls; The Vagabonds; The Tryst; +The Sabot Dance; and the Entrance of the Mayor, which is a pompous +march. + +On the occasion of a performance of this, Louis Arthur Russell wrote: +"His orchestra is surely French, and as modern as you please. The +idiom is Berlioz's rather than Wagner's." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ACADEMICS. + + +_John Knowles Paine._ + +[Illustration: JOHN KNOWLES PAINE.] + +[Illustration: Autograph of John K. Paine] + +There is one thing better than modernity,--it is immortality. So while +I am a most ardent devotee of modern movements, because they are at +worst experiments, and motion is necessary to life, I fail to see why +it is necessary in picking up something new always to drop something +old, as if one were an awkward, butter-fingered parcel-carrier. + +If a composer writes empty stuff in the latest styles, he is one +degree better than the purveyor of trite stuff in the old styles; but +he is nobody before the high thinker who finds himself suited by the +general methods of the classic writers. + +The most classic of our composers is their venerable dean, John +Knowles Paine. It is an interesting proof of the youth of our native +school of music, that the principal symphony, "Spring," of our first +composer of importance, was written only twenty-one years ago. Before +Mr. Paine there had never been an American music writer worthy of +serious consideration in the larger forms. + +By a mere coincidence Joachim Raff had written a symphony called +"Spring" in 1878, just a year before Paine finished his in America. +The first movement in both is called "Nature's Awakening;" such an +idea is inevitable in any spring composition, from poetry up--or down. +For a second movement Raff has a wild "Walpurgis Night Revel," while +Paine has a scherzo called "May Night Fantasy." Where Raff is uncanny +and fiendish, Paine is cheerful and elfin. The third movement of +Raff's symphony is called "First Blossoms of Spring," and the last is +called "The Joys of Wandering." The latter two movements of Mr. +Paine's symphony are "A Promise of Spring" and "The Glory of Nature." +The beginning of both symphonies is, of course, a slow introduction +representing the torpid gloom of winter, out of which spring aspires +and ascends. + +Paine's symphony, though aiming to shape the molten gold of April +fervor in the rigid mold of the symphonic form, has escaped every +appearance of mechanism and restraint. It is program music of the most +legitimate sort, in full accord with Beethoven's canon, "Mehr Ausdruck +der Empfindung als Malerei." It has no aim of imitating springtime +noises, but seeks to stimulate by suggestion the hearer's creative +imagination, and provoke by a musical telepathy the emotions that +swayed the nympholept composer. + + The first movement of the symphony has an introduction + containing two motives distinct from the two subjects of the + movement. These motives represent Winter and the Awakening. + The Winter motive may be again divided into a chill and icy + motif and a rushing wind-motif. Through these the timid + Awakening spirit lifts its head like the first trillium of + the year. There is a silence and a stealthy flutter of the + violins as if a cloud of birds were playing courier to the + Spring. + + Suddenly, after a little prelude, as if a bluebird were + tuning his throat, we are enveloped in the key of the + symphony (A major) and the Spring runs lilting up the 'cellos + to the violins (which are divided in the naif archaic + interval of the tenth, too much ignored in our over-colored + harmonies). The second subject is propounded by the oboes + (in the rather unusual related key of the submediant). This + is a lyrical and dancing idea, and it does battle with the + underground resistance of the Winter motives. There is an + elaborate conclusion of fiercest joy. Its ecstasy droops, and + after a little flutter as of little wings, the elaboration + opens with the Spring motive in the minor. In this part, + scholarship revels in its own luxury, the birds quiver about + our heads again, and the reprise begins (in A major of + course) with new exultance, the dancing second subject + appears (in the tonic), overwhelming the failing strength of + the Winter with a cascade of delight. Then the conclusion + rushes in; this I consider one of the most joyous themes ever + inspired. + + There is a coda of vanishing bird-wings and throats, a + pizzicato chord on the strings--and Spring has had her + coronation. + + "The May Night Fantasy" is a moonlit revel of elves caught by + a musical reporter, a surreptitious "chiel amang 'em takin' + notes." A single hobgoblin bassoon croaks ludicrously away, + the pixies darkle and flirt and dance their hearts out of + them. + + The Romance is in rondo form with love-lorn iteration of + themes and intermezzo, and deftest broidery, the whole + ending, after a graceful Recollection, in a bliss of harmony. + + The Finale is a halleluiah. It is on the sonata formula, + without introduction (the second subject being not in the + dominant of A major, but in C major, that chaste, frank key + which one of the popes strangely dubbed "lascivious"). The + elaboration is frenetic with strife, but the reprise is a + many-hued rainbow after storm, and the coda in A major + (ending a symphony begun in A minor) is swift with delight. + +This symphony has been played much, but not half enough. It should +resist the weariness of time as immortally as Fletcher's play, "The +Two Noble Kinsmen" (in which Shakespeare's hand is glorious), for it +is, to quote that drama, "fresher than May, sweeter than her gold +buttons on the bough, or all th'enamell'd knacks o' the mead or +garden." + +John Knowles Paine is a name that has been held in long and high +honor among American composers. He was about the earliest of native +writers to convince foreign musicians that some good could come out of +Nazareth. + +He was born in Portland, Me., January 9, 1839. He studied music first +under a local teacher, Kotzschmar, making his debut as organist at the +age of eighteen. A year later he was in Berlin, where for three years +he studied the organ, composition, instrumentation, and singing under +Haupt, Wieprecht, and others. He gave several organ concerts in +Germany, and made a tour in 1865-1866. In February, 1867, his "Mass" +was given at the Berlin Singakademie, Paine conducting. Then he came +back to the States, and in 1872 was appointed to an instructorship of +music at Harvard, whence he was promoted in 1876 to a full +professorship, a chair created for him and occupied by him ever since +with distinguished success. + +His first symphony was brought out by Theodore Thomas in 1876. This +and his other orchestral works have been frequently performed at +various places in this country and abroad. + +His only oratorio, "St. Peter," was first produced at Portland in +1873, and in Boston a year later. It is a work of great power and much +dramatic strength. Upton, in his valuable work, "Standard Oratorios," +calls it "from the highest standpoint the only oratorio yet produced +in this country." + +This oratorio, while containing much of the floridity and repetition +of Haendel at his worst, is also marked with the erudition and +largeness of Haendel at his best. The aria for St. Peter, "O God, My +God, Forsake Me Not," is especially fine. + +A much-played symphonic poem is Paine's "The Tempest," which develops +musically the chief episodes of Shakespeare's play. He has also +written a valuable overture to "As You Like It;" he has set Keats' +"Realm of Fancy" exquisitely, and Milton's "Nativity." And he has +written a grand opera on a mediaeval theme to his own libretto. This is +a three-act work called "Azara;" the libretto has been published by +the Riverside Press, and is to be translated into German. This has not +yet been performed. Being, unfortunately, an American grand opera, it +takes very little acuteness of foresight to predict a long wait before +it is ever heard. In it Paine has shown himself more a romanticist +than a classicist, and the work is said to be full of modernity. + +Paine wrote the music for Whittier's "Hymn," used to open the +Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and was fitly chosen to write +the Columbus March and Hymn for the opening ceremonies of the World's +Fair, at Chicago, October 21, 1892. This was given by several thousand +performers under the direction of Theodore Thomas. + +A most original and interesting work is the chorus, "Phoebus, Arise." +It seems good to hark back for words to old William Drummond "of +Hawthornden." The exquisite flavor of long-since that marks the poetry +is conserved in the tune. While markedly original, it smacks agreeably +of the music of Harry Lawes, that nightingale of the seventeenth +century, whose fancies are too much neglected nowadays. + +Paine's strong point is his climaxes, which are never timid, and are +often positively titanic, thrilling. The climax of this chorus is +notably superb, and the voices hold for two measures after the +orchestra finishes. The power of this effect can be easily imagined. +This work is marked, to an unusual extent, with a sensuousness of +color. + +The year eighteen hundred eighty-one saw the first production of what +is generally considered Paine's most important composition, and by +some called the best work by an American,--his setting of the choruses +of the "Oedipus Tyrannos" of Sophokles. It was written for the +presentation by Harvard University, and has been sung, in whole or in +part, very frequently since. This masterpiece of Grecian genius is so +mighty in conception and so mighty in execution that it has not lost +power at all in the long centuries since it first thrilled the Greeks. +To realize its possibilities musically is to give proof enough of the +very highest order of genius,--a genius akin to that of Sophokles. It +may be said that in general Paine has completely fulfilled his +opportunities. + +Mendelssohn also set two Greek tragedies to music, Sophokles' "Oedipus +in Kolonos" and his "Antigone." Mendelssohn is reported to have made a +first attempt at writing Grecian music, or what we suppose it to be, +mainly a matter of unison and meagre instrumentation. He was soon +dissuaded from such a step, however, and wisely. The Greek tragedians, +really writers of grand opera, made undoubted use of the best musical +implements and knowledge they had. Creative emotion has its +prosperity in the minds of its audience, not in the accuracy of its +mechanism. To secure the effect on us that the Greek tragedians +produced on contemporary audiences, it is necessary that our music be +a sublimation along the lines we are accustomed to, as theirs was +along lines familiar to them and effective with them. Otherwise, +instead of being moved by the miseries of Oedipus, we should be +chiefly occupied with amusement at the oddity of the music, and soon +bored unendurably by its monotony and thinness. + +Mendelssohn decided then to use unison frequently for suggestion's +sake, but not to carry it to a fault. His experiments along these +lines have been of evident advantage to Paine, who has, however, kept +strictly to his own individuality, and produced a work that, at its +highest, reaches a higher plane, in my opinion, than anything in +Mendelssohn's noble tragedies,--and I am not, at that, one of those +that affect to look down upon the achievements of the genius that +built "Elijah." + +Paine's prelude is an immense piece of work, in every way larger and +more elaborate than that to Mendelssohn's "Antigone" (the "Oedipus +in Kolonos" begins strongly with only one period of thirteen +measures). The opening chorus of Paine's "Oedipus" is the weakest +thing in the work. The second strophe has a few good moments, but soon +falls back into what is impudent enough to be actually catchy!--and +that, too, of a Lowell Mason, Moody and Sankey catchiness. Curiously +enough, Mendelssohn's "Antigone" begins with a chorus more like a +drinking-song than anything else, and the first solo is pure +_Volkslied_; both of them imbued with a Teutonic flavor that could be +cut with a knife. In Mendelssohn's "Oedipus in Kolonos," however, +the music expresses emotion rather than German emotion, and abounds in +splendors of harmony that are strikingly Wagnerian--in advance. + +[Music: Copyright, 1895, by Arthur P. Schmidt. + +POSTLUDE TO "OEDIPUS TYRANNUS," BY J.K. PAINE.] + +Paine's second chorus describes the imaginary pursuit by Fate of the +murderer of King Laius. It is full of grim fire, and the second +strophe is at first simply terrible with awe. Then it degenerates +somewhat into an arioso, almost Italian. The fourth chorus defends the +oracles from Jocasta's incredulity. It is written almost in march +measure, and is full of robor. + +At this point in the tragedy, where it begins to transpire to +Oedipus that he himself was the unwitting murderer and the +incestuous wretch whose exile the oracle demands before dispelling the +plague,--here the divine genius of Sophokles introduces a chorus of +general merriment, somewhat as Shakespeare uses the maundering fool as +a foil to heighten King Lear's fate. No praise can be too high for +Paine's music here. Its choric structure is masterly, its spirit is +running fire. Note, as an instance, the effect at the words "To save +our land thou didst rise as a tower!" where the music itself is +suddenly uplift with most effective suggestion. + +The sixth chorus shows the effect of Oedipus' divulged guilt and the +misery of this fool of Fate. The music is an outburst of sheer genius. +It is overpowering, frightening. The postlude is orchestral, with the +chorus speaking above the music. Jocasta has hanged herself, Oedipus +has torn out his own eyes with her brooch. The music is a fitting +reverie on the great play, and after a wild tumult it subsides in a +resigned quietude. + +From Greek tragedy to Yankee patriotism is a long cry, yet I think +Paine has not wasted his abilities on his "Song of Promise," written +for the Cincinnati May Festival of 1888. Though the poem by Mr. George +E. Woodberry is the very apotheosis of American brag, it has a +redeeming technic. The music, for soprano solo, mixed chorus, and +orchestra, reaches the very peaks of inspiration. I doubt if any +living composer or many dead masters could grow so epic, as most of +this. In a way it is academic. It shows a little of the influence of +Wagner,--as any decent music should nowadays. But it is not Wagner's +music, and it is not trite academia. There is no finicky tinsel and no +cheap oddity. + +Considering the heights at which both words and music aimed, it is +amazing that they did not fall into utter wreck and nauseating bathos. +That they have proved so effective shows the sure-footedness of +genius. It is all good, especially the soprano solo. + +This music is exquisite, wondrously exquisite, and it is followed by a +maestoso e solenne movement of unsurpassable majesty. I have never +read anything more purely what music should be for grandeur. And it +praises our ain countree! It might well be taken up by some of our +countless vocal societies to give a much needed respite to Haendel's +threadbare "Messiah." + +When one considers the largeness of the works to which Paine has +devoted himself chiefly, he can be excused for the meagreness and +comparative unimportance of his smaller works for piano and vocal +solo. The only song of his I care for particularly is "A Bird upon a +Rosy Bough" (op. 40), which is old-fashioned, especially in +accompaniment, yet at times delicious. The song "Early Spring-time" is +most curiously original. + +Of piano pieces there are a sprightly "Birthday Impromptu" and a fuga +giocosa, which deals wittily with that theme known generally by the +words "Over the Fence Is Out!" The "Nocturne" begins like Schumann, +falls into the style of his second Novellette, thence to the largo of +Beethoven's Sonata (op. 10, No. 3), thence to Chopinism, wherein it +ends, an interesting assemblage withal! + +A long "Romance" for the piano is marked by some excellent incidents +and much passion, but it lacks unity. It is the last work in "An Album +of Pianoforte Pieces," which is otherwise full of rare delights. It is +made up of opera 25, 26, and 39. Opus 25 contains four characteristic +pieces,--a "Dance" full of dance-rapture, a most original "Impromptu," +and a "Rondo Giocoso," which is just the kind of brilliantly witty +scherzo whose infrequency in American music is so lamentable and so +surprising. Opus 26 includes ten sketches, all good, especially +"Woodnotes," a charming tone-poem, the deliciously simple "Wayside +Flowers," "Under the Lindens," which is a masterpiece of beautiful +syncopation, a refreshingly interesting bit in the hackneyed +"Millstream" form, and a "Village Dance," which has much of that +quaint flavor that makes Heller's etudes a perennial delight. + +Besides these, there are a number of motets, organ preludes, string +quartettes, concert pieces for violin, 'cello, piano, and the like, all +contributing to the furtherance of an august fame. + + +_Dudley Buck._ + +Music follows the laws of supply and demand just as the other +necessities of life do. But before a demand could exist for it in its +more austere and unadulterated forms, the general taste for it must be +improved. For this purpose the offices of skilful compromisers were +required, composers who could at the same time please the popular +taste and teach it discrimination. Among these invaluable workers, a +high place belongs, in point both of priority and achievement, to +Dudley Buck. He has been a powerful agent, or reagent, in converting +the stagnant ferment into a live and wholesome ebullition, or as the +old Greek evolutionists would say, starting the first progress in the +primeval ooze of American Philistinism. + +A more thoroughly New England ancestry it would be hard to find. The +founder of the family came over from England soon after the +_Mayflower_ landed. Buck was named after Governor Dudley of the +Plymouth Colony. He was born at Hartford, March 10, 1839. His father +was a prosperous shipping merchant, one of whose boats, during the +Civil War, towed the _Monitor_ from New York to Fortress Monroe on the +momentous voyage that destroyed the _Merrimac's_ usefulness. + +Buck, though intended for commercial life, borrowed a work on +thorough-bass and a flute and proceeded to try the wings of his muse. +A melodeon supplanted the flute, and when he was sixteen he attained +the glory of a piano, a rare possession in those times. (Would that it +were rarer now!) He took a few lessons and played a church-organ for a +salary,--a small thing, but his own. + +After reaching the junior year in Trinity College, he prevailed upon +his parents to surrender him to music, an almost scandalous career in +the New England mind of that day, still unbleached of its Blue Laws. + +At the age of nineteen he went to Leipzig and entered the Conservatory +there, studying composition under Hauptmann and E.F. Richter, +orchestration under Rietz, and the piano under Moscheles and Plaidy. +Later he went to Dresden and studied the organ with Schneider. + +After three years in Germany, he studied for a year in Paris, and came +home, settling down in Hartford as church-organist and teacher. He +began a series of organ-concert tours lasting fifteen years. He played +in almost every important city and in many small towns, popularizing +the best music by that happy fervor of interpretation which alone is +needed to bring classical compositions home to the public heart. In +1869 he was called to the "mother-church" of Chicago. In the Chicago +fire he lost many valuable manuscripts, including a concert overture +on Drake's exquisite poem, "The Culprit Fay," which must be especially +regretted. He moved his family to Boston, assuming in ten days the +position of organist at St. Paul's; and later he accepted charge of +"the great organ" at Music Hall,--that organ of which Artemus Ward +wrote so deliciously. + +In 1875 Theodore Thomas, whose orchestra had performed many of Buck's +compositions, invited him to become his assistant conductor at the +Cincinnati Music Festival and at the last series of concerts at the +Central Park Garden in New York. Buck accepted and made his home in +Brooklyn, where he has since remained as organist of the Holy Trinity +Church, and conductor of the Apollo Club, which he founded and brought +to a high state of efficiency, writing for it many of his numerous +compositions for male voices. + +Buck's close association with church work has naturally led him +chiefly into sacred music, and in this class of composition he is by +many authorities accorded the very highest place among American +composers. He has also written many organ solos, sonatas, marches, a +pastorale, a rondo caprice, and many concert transcriptions, as well +as a group of etudes for pedal phrasing, and several important +treatises on various musical topics. His two "Motett Collections" were +a refreshing relief and inspiration to church choirs thirsty for +religious Protestant music of some depth and warmth. + +In the cantata form Buck also holds a foremost place. In 1876 he was +honored with a commission to set to music "The Centennial Meditation +of Columbia," a poem written for the occasion by the Southern poet, +Sidney Lanier. This was performed at the opening of the Philadelphia +Exhibition by a chorus of one thousand voices, an organ, and an +orchestra of two hundred pieces under the direction of Theodore +Thomas. In 1874 he made a metrical version of "The Legend of Don +Munio" from Irving's "Alhambra," and set it to music for a small +orchestra and chorus. Its adaptability to the resources of the vocal +societies of smaller cities has made it one of his most popular works. + +Another bit of Washington Irving is found in Buck's cantata, "The +Voyage of Columbus," the libretto for which he has taken from Irving's +"Life of Columbus." It consists of six night-scenes,--"The Chapel of +St. George at Palos," "On the Deck of the _Santa Maria_," "The Vesper +Hymn," "Mutiny," "In Distant Andalusia," and "Land and Thanksgiving." +The opportunities here for Buck's skilful handling of choruses and his +dramatic feeling in solos are obvious, and the work has been +frequently used both in this country and in Germany with much success. +Buck, in fact, made the German libretto as well as the English, and +has written the words for many of his compositions. His largest work +was "The Light of Asia," composed in 1885 and based on Sir Edwin +Arnold's epic. It requires two and one-half hours for performance and +has met the usual success of Buck's music; it was produced in London +with such soloists as Nordica, Lloyd, and Santley. It has been +occasionally given here. + +He has found the greater part of his texts in American poetry, +particularly in Lanier, Stedman, and Longfellow, whose "King Olaf's +Christmas" and "Nun of Nidaros" he has set to music, as well as his +"Golden Legend," which won a prize of one thousand dollars at the +Cincinnati Festival in a large competition. His work is analyzed very +fully in A.J. Goodrich' "Musical Analysis." + +[Music: + + High in the purer air, + High as the heart's desire, + In a passion of longing and fire, + A bird sings sweet and fair; + While a sunbeam, cheery and strong, + Answers the joy of the song, + And Spring, fair Spring is coming! + +Copyright, 1893, by G. Schirmer. + +FRAGMENT FROM "SPRING'S AWAKENING," BY MR. BUCK.] + +Here, as in his symphonic overture to Scott's "Marmion," Buck has +adopted the Wagnerian idea of the _leit-motif_ as a vivid means of +distinguishing musically the various characters and their varying +emotions. His music is not markedly Wagnerian, however, in other +ways, but seems to show, back of his individuality, an assimilation of +the good old school of canon and fugue, with an Italian tendency to +the declamatory and well-rounded melodic period. + +It might be wished that in his occasional secular songs Buck had +followed less in the steps of the Italian aria and the English ballad +and adopted more of the newer, nobler spirit of the _Lied_ as Schumann +and Franz represent it, and as many of our younger Americans have done +with thorough success and not a little of exaltation. Note for +instance the inadequacy of the old-style balladry to both its own +opportunity and the otherwise-smothered fire of such a poem as Sidney +Lanier's "Sunset," which is positively Shakespearean in its passionate +perfection. + +In religious music, however, Mr. Buck has made a niche of its own for +his music, which it occupies with grace and dignity. + + +_Horatio W. Parker._ + +[Illustration: Autograph of Horatio W. Parker] + +[Illustration: HORATIO W. PARKER.] + +When one considers the enormous space occupied by the hymn-tune in New +England musical activity, it is small wonder that most of its +composers should display hymnal proclivities. Both Buck and Parker +are natives of New England. + +Parker was born, September 15, 1863, at Auburndale, Mass. His mother +was his first teacher of music. She was an organist, and gave him a +thorough technical schooling which won the highest commendation later +from Rheinberger, who entrusted to him the first performance of a new +organ concerto. After some study in Boston under Stephen A. Emery, +John Orth, and G.W. Chadwick, Parker went to Munich at the age of +eighteen, where he came under the special favor of Rheinberger, and +where various compositions were performed by the Royal Music School +orchestra. After three years of Europe, he returned to America and +assumed the direction of the music at St. Paul's school. He has held +various posts since, and has been, since 1894, the Battell Professor +of Music at Yale. + +His rather imposing list of works includes a symphony (1885), an +operetta, a concert overture (1884), an overture, "Regulus" (1885), +performed in Munich and in London, and an overture, "Count Robert of +Paris" (1890), performed in New York, a ballad for chorus and +orchestra, "King Trojan," presented in Munich in 1885, the +Twenty-third Psalm for female chorus and orchestra (1884), an "Idylle" +(1891); "The Normans," "The Kobolds," and "Harold Harfager," all for +chorus and orchestra, and all dated 1891; an oratorio, three or more +cantatas, and various bits of chamber-music. His opus number has +already reached forty-three, and it is eked out to a very small degree +by such imponderous works as organ and piano solos, hymns, and songs. +In 1893, Parker won the National Conservatory prize for a cantata, and +in 1898 the McCagg prize for an a cappella chorus. + +Parker's piano compositions and secular songs are not numerous. They +seem rather the incidental byplays and recreations of a fanry chiefly +turned to sacred music of the larger forms. + +Opus 19 consists of "Four Sketches," of which the "Etude Melodieuse" +is as good as is necessary in that overworked style, wherein a thin +melody is set about with a thinner ripple of arpeggios. The "Romanza" +is lyric and delightful, while the "Scherzino" is delicious and crisp +as celery; it is worthy of Schumann, whom it suggests, and many of +whose cool tones and mannerisms it borrows. + +The "5 Morceaux Characteristiques" are on the whole better. The +"Scherzo" is shimmering with playfulness, and, in the Beethoven +fashion, has a tender intermezzo amoroso. This seriousness is enforced +with an ending of a most plaintive nature. The "Caprice" is brilliant +and whimsical, with some odd effects in accent. The "Gavotte" makes +unusual employment of triplets, but lacks the precious yeast of +enthusiasm necessary to a prime gavotte. + +This enthusiasm is not lacking however from his "Impromptu," and it +makes his "Elegie" a masterly work, possibly his best in the smaller +lines. This piece is altogether elegiac in spirit, intense in its +sombrest depths, impatient with wild outcries,--like Chopin's "Funeral +March,"--and working up to an immense passion at the end. This +subsides in ravishingly liquid arpeggios,--"melodious tears"?--which +obtain the kindred effect of Chopin's tinkling "Berceuse" in a +slightly different way. This notable work is marred by an interlude in +which the left hand mumbles harshness in the bass, while the right +hand is busy with airy fioriture. It is too close a copy of the finish +of the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" sonata. The +lengthening skips of the left hand are also Beethovenesque trademarks. + +Parker is rather old-fashioned in his forms of musical speech. That +is, he has what you might call the narrative style. He follows his +theme as an absorbing plot, engaging enough in itself, without +gorgeous digressions and pendent pictures. His work has something of +the Italian method. A melody or a theme, he seems to think, is only +marred by abstruse harmony, and is endangered by diversions. One might +almost say that a uniform lack of attention to color-possibilities and +a monotonous fidelity to a cool, gray tone characterize him. His +fondness for the plain, cold octave is notable. It is emphasized by +the ill-success of his "Six Lyrics for Piano, without octaves." They +are all of thin value, and the "Novelette" is dangerously +Schumannesque. + +The "Three Love Songs" are happy, "Love's Chase" keeping up the arch +raillery and whim of Beddoe's verse. "Orsame's Song" is smooth and +graceful, ending with a well-blurted, abrupt "The devil take her!" The +"Night-piece to Julia" is notable. We have no poet whose lyrics are +harder to set to music than good Robin Herrick's. They have a lilt of +their own that is incompatible with ordinary music. Parker has, +however, been completely successful in this instance. A mysterious, +night-like carillon accompaniment, delicate as harebells, gives sudden +way to a superb support of a powerful outburst at the end of the song. + +[Music: + + The stars of the night + Will lend thee their light, + Like tapers without number. + Then, Julia let me woo thee, + Thus to come unto me; + And when I shall meet + Thy silvery feet + My soul I'll pour into thee, + My soul I'll pour into thee, into thee. + +Copyright, 1886, by Arthur P. Schmidt & Co. + +FRAGMENT OF MR. PARKER'S SONG, "NIGHT-PIECE TO JULIA."] + +The "Six Songs" show not a little of that modernity and opulent color +I have denied to the most of Mr. Parker's work. "Oh, Ask Me Not" is +nothing less than inspiration, rapturously beautiful, with a rich use +of unexpected intervals. The "Egyptian Serenade" is both novel and +beautiful. The other songs are good; even the comic-operatic flavor of +the "Cavalry Song" is redeemed by its catchy sweep. + +Among a large number of works for the pipe-organ, few are so marked by +that purposeless rambling organists are so prone to, as the +"Fantaisie." The "Melody and Intermezzo" of opus 20 makes a sprightly +humoresque. The "Andante Religioso" of opus 17 has really an +allegretto effect, and is much better as a gay pastorale than as a +devotional exercise. It is much more shepherdly than the avowed +"Pastorale" (opus 20), and almost as much so as the "Eclogue," +delicious with the organ's possibilities for reed and pipe effects. +The "Romanza" is a gem of the first water. A charming quaint effect +is got by the accompaniment of the air, played legato on the swell, +with an echo, staccato, of its own chords on the great. The interlude +is a tender melody, beautifully managed. The two "Concert Pieces" are +marked by a large simplicity in treatment, and have this rare merit, +that they are less gymnastic exercises than expressions of feeling. A +fiery "Triumphal March," a delightful "Canzonetta," and a noble +"Larghetto," of sombre, yet rich and well-modulated, colors, complete +the list of his works for the organ. None of these are registered with +over-elaboration. + +To sacred music Parker has made important contributions. Besides a +dignified, yet impassioned, complete "Morning and Evening Service for +the Holy Communion," he has written several single songs and anthems. + +It is the masterwork, "Hora Novissima," however, which lifts him above +golden mediocrity. From the three thousand lines of Bernard of Cluny's +poem, "De Contemptu Mundi," famous since the twelfth century, and made +music with the mellowness of its own Latin rhyme, Mrs. Isabella G. +Parker, the composer's mother, has translated 210 lines. The English +is hardly more than a loose paraphrase, as this random parallel +proves: + + Pars mea, Rex meus, Most Mighty, most Holy, + In proprio Deus, How great is the glory, + Ipse decore. Thy throne enfolding. + +Or this skilful evasion: + + Tunc Jacob, Israel, All the long history, + Et Lia, tunc Rachel All the deep mystery + Efficietur. Through ages hidden. + +But it is perhaps better for avoiding the Charybdis of literalness. + +Those who accuse Rossini's "Stabat Mater" of a fervor more theatric +than religious, will find the same faults in Parker's work, along with +much that is purely ecclesiastical. Though his sorrow is apt to become +petulance, there is much that is as big in spirit as in handling. The +work is frequently Mendelssohnian in treatment. An archaism that might +have been spared, since so little of the poem was retained, is the sad +old Haendelian style of repeating the same words indefinitely, to all +neglect of emptiness of meaning and triteness. Thus the words "_Pars +mea, Rex meus_" are repeated by the alto exactly thirteen times! +which, any one will admit, is an unlucky number, especially since the +other voices keep tossing the same unlucky words in a musical +battledore. + +The especially good numbers of the work (which was composed in 1892, +and first produced, with almost sensational success, in 1893) are: the +magnificent opening chorus; the solo for the soprano; the large and +fiery finale to Part I.; the superb tenor solo, "Golden Jerusalem," +which is possibly the most original and thrilling of all the numbers, +is, in every way, well varied, elaborated, and intensified, and +prepares well for the massive and effective double chorus, "Stant Syon +Atria," an imposing structure whose ambition found skill sufficing; an +alto solo of original qualities; and a finale, tremendous, though +somewhat long drawn out. Of this work, so careful a critic as W.J. +Henderson was moved to write: + + "His melodic ideas are not only plentiful, but they are + beautiful, ... graceful and sometimes splendidly vigorous.... + There is an a cappella chorus which is one of the finest + specimens of pure church polyphony that has been produced in + recent years.... It might have been written by Hobrecht, + Brumel, or even Josquin des Pres. It is impossible to write + higher praise than this.... The orchestration is + extraordinarily ... rich. As a whole ... the composition + ... may be set down as one of the finest achievements of the + present day." + +And Philip Hale, a most discriminant musical enthusiast, described the +chorus "Pars Mea" as: + + "A masterpiece, true music of the church," to which "any + acknowledged master of composition in Europe would gladly + sign his name.... For the a cappella chorus there is nothing + but unbounded praise.... Weighing words as counters, I do not + hesitate to say that I know of no one in the country or in + England who could by nature and by student's sweat have + written those eleven pages.... I have spoken of Mr. Parker's + quasi-operatic tendency. Now he is a modern. He has shown in + this very work his appreciation and his mastery of antique + religious musical art. But as a modern he is compelled to + feel the force of the dramatic in religious music.... But his + most far-reaching, his most exalted and rapt conception of + the bliss beyond compare is expressed in the language of + Palestrina and Bach." + +In September, 1899, the work was produced with decisive success in +London, Parker conducting. + +Besides this, there are several secular cantatas, particularly "King +Trojan," which contains a singable tune for Trojan with many delicate +nuances in the accompaniment, and a harp-accompanied page's song that +is simply ambrosial. Then there is Arlo Bates' poem, "The Kobolds," +which Parker has blessed with music as delicate as the laces of +gossamer-spiders. + +His latest work is devoted to the legend of St. Christopher, and +displays the same abilities for massive and complex scoring whenever +the opportunity offers. On the other hand, the work discloses Parker's +weaknesses as well, for the libretto drags in certain love episodes +evidently thought desirable for the sake of contrast and yet +manifestly unnecessary to the story. The character of the queen, for +instance, is quite useless, and, in fact, disconcerting. The love +scene between the king and queen reminds one uncomfortably of Tristan +and Isolde, while a descending scale constantly used throughout the +work in the accompaniment incessantly suggests the "Samson and +Delilah" of Saint-Saens. + +In spite of flaws, however,--flaws are to be had everywhere for the +looking,--Parker's work has its fine points. The struggle between the +demons and the singers of the sacred Latin Hymn has made excellent use +of the Tannhaeuser effect. The Cathedral scene shows Parker's resources +in the massive use of choruses to be very large. The barcarolling +billows of the river are ravishingly written, and the voice of the +child crying out is effectively introduced. The song the giant +Christopher sings through the storm is particularly superb. + + +_Frank van der Stucken._ + +[Illustration: FRANK VAN DER STUCKEN.] + +On the bead-roll of those who have had both the ability and the +courage to take a stand for our music, the name of Frank van der +Stucken must stand high. His Americanism is very frail, so far as +birth and breeding count, but he has won his naturalization by his +ardor for native music. + +Van der Stucken's life has been full of labors and honors. He was born +at Fredericksburg, Texas, in 1858, of a Belgian father and a German +mother. After the Civil War, in which the father served in the +Confederate army as a captain of the Texan cavalry, the family +returned to Belgium, where, at Antwerp, Van der Stucken studied under +Benoit. Here some of his music was played in the churches, and a +ballet at the Royal Theatre. + +In 1878 he began studies in Leipzig, making important acquaintances, +such as Reinecke, Grieg, and Sinding. His first male chorus was sung +there, with great success. Of his fifth opus, consisting of nine +songs, Edvard Grieg wrote an enthusiastic criticism. After travelling +for some time, Van der Stucken was appointed kapellmeister at the +Breslau Stadt-Theatre. This was his debut as conductor. Here he +composed his well-known suite on Shakespeare's "Tempest," which has +been performed abroad and here. Here, also, he wrote a "Festzug," an +important work in Wagnerian style, and his passionate "Pagina +d'Amore," which, with the published portions of his lyric drama, +"Vlasda," has been performed by many great orchestras. + +In 1883, Van der Stucken met Liszt, at Weimar, and under his auspices +gave a concert of his own compositions, winning the congratulations of +Grieg, Lassen, Liszt, and many other celebrated musicians. A prominent +German critic headed his review of the performance: "A new star on the +musical firmament." + +Van der Stucken was now called to the directorship of the famous Arion +Male Chorus in New York, a position which he held for eleven years +with remarkable results. In 1892 he took his chorus on a tour in +Europe and won superlative praises everywhere. + +In 1885 and successive years Van der Stucken conducted orchestral +"Novelty Concerts," which have an historical importance as giving the +first hearing to symphonic works by American composers. In Berlin and +in Paris he also gave our musicians the privilege of public +performance. From 1891 to 1894 he devoted himself to reforming the +Northeastern Saeengerbund, achieving the enormous task of making five +thousand male voices sing difficult music artistically. Since 1895 Van +der Stucken has been conductor of the newly formed Cincinnati Symphony +Orchestra, as well as dean of the faculty of the College of Music in +that city. The influence of this man, who is certainly one of the most +important musicians of his time, is bringing Cincinnati back to its +old musical prestige. + +As a composer, Van der Stucken shows the same originality and power +that characterize him as an organizer. His prelude to the opera +"Vlasda" (op. 9) is one long rapture of passionate sweetness, superbly +instrumented. An arrangement of it has been made for the piano for +four hands by Horatio W. Parker. + +Van der Stucken's music to "The Tempest" (op. 8) is published in three +forms. Besides the orchestral score, there is an arrangement for piano +solo, by A. Siloti, of the "Dance of the Gnomes," "Dance of the +Nymphs," and "Dance of the Reapers," the first and third being +especially well transcribed. For four hands, Hans Sitt has arranged +these three dances, as well as a short but rich "Exorcism," some +splendid melodramatic music, and the rattling grotesque, "The +Hound-chase after Caliban." All these pieces are finely imagined and +artistically handled. + +For piano solo, there is a group of three Miniatures (op. 7). The +first is an Albumblatt of curious dun colors; the second is a +Capriccietto, a strange whim; the third is a beautiful bit called "May +Blossom." + +[Music: + + Der Stunde sei geflucht, + wo ich dein Herz gesucht, + wenn in dir diese Liebe + statt milder Freudentriebe + soll tragen herbe Frucht! + Gesegnet ist die Stunde, + sprach sie mit suessem Munde, + mir ist kein Leid geschehn + den Himmel fuehl' ich stehn + in meines Herzens Grunde. + + That hour with curse be fraught, + In which thy heart I sought, + If I, in love bestowing, + Instead of gladness knowing, + A bitter grief have bought: + "My soul that hour e'er blesses," + A rosy mouth confesses, + "Thy love is all I crave, + Then heav'n itself I have + Within my heart's recesses." + +Copyright, 1892, by Friedrich Luckhardt, Berlin. + +By permission of Luckhardt & Belder, New York. + +FRAGMENT OF MR. VAN DER STUCKEN'S "DIE STUNDE SEI GESEGNET."] + +Of Van der Stucken's songs I have seen two groups, the first a setting +of five love lyrics by Rueckert. None of these are over two pages long, +except the last. They are written in the best modern _Lied_ style, and +are quite unhackneyed. It is always the unexpected that happens, +though this unexpected thing almost always proves to be a right thing. +Without any sense of strain or bombast he reaches superb climaxes; +without eccentricity he is individual; and his songs are truly +interpreters of the words they express. Of these five, "Wann die Rosen +aufgeblueht" is a wonderfully fine and fiery work; "Die Stunde sei +gesegnet" has one of the most beautiful endings imaginable; "Mir ist, +nun ich die habe" has a deep significance in much simplicity, and its +ending, by breaking the rule against consecutive octaves, attains, as +rule-breakings have an unpleasant habit of doing, an excellent effect. +"Liebste, nur dich seh'n" is a passionate lyric; and "Wenn die +Voeglein sich gepaart" is florid and trilly, but legitimately so; it +should find much concert use. These songs, indeed, are all more than +melodies; they are expressions. + +Of the second group of eight songs for low voice, "O Jugendlust" is +athrill with young ecstasy; "Einsame Thraene" has superb coloring, all +sombre, and a tremendous climax; "Seeligkeit" is big with emotion and +ravishing in harmony, "Ein Schaeferlied" is exquisite, "Von schoen +Sicilien war mein Traum" begins in the style of Lassen, but ends with +a strength and vigor far beyond that tender melodist. Besides these +groups, there is a rich lyric "Moonlight;" and there are many part +songs. + +A work of considerable importance written many years before and +presented by Franz Liszt at Weimar had its first American production +in 1899, at Cincinnati and New York. It is a symphonic prologue to +Heine's tragedy, "William Ratcliff." The different psychological +phases of the tragedy are presented by characteristic motives which +war among themselves. The Scottish locale is indicated vividly, and +the despair of the lovers presented in one place by the distortion and +rending of all the principal motives. A dirge with bells and a final +musing upon, and resignation before, implacable Fate give a dignified +close to a work in which passion is exploited with erudition and +modernity. + + +_W.W. Gilchrist._ + +The prize competition has its evils, unquestionably; and, in a place +of settled status, perhaps, they outnumber its benefits. But in +American music it has been of material encouragement to the production +of large works. In the first place, those who do not win have been +stimulated to action, and have at least their effort for their pains. +In the second place, those who manage to win are several hundred +dollars the richer, and may offer the wolf at the door a more +effective bribe than empty-stomached song. + +In the city of Philadelphia lives a composer of unusual luck in +prize-winning. That large and ancient town is not noteworthy for its +activity in the manufacture of original music. In fact, some one has +spoken of it as "a town where the greatest reproach to a musician is +residence there." The city's one prominent music-writer is William +Wallace Gilchrist; but he stands among the first of our composers. He +is especially interesting as a purely native product, having never +studied abroad, and yet having won among our composers a foremost +place in the larger forms of composition. He was born in Jersey City, +January 8, 1846; his father was a Canadian, his mother a native of +this country; both were skilled in music, and his home life was full +of it, especially of the old church music. After a youth of the usual +school life he tried various pursuits,--photography, law, business; +but music kept calling him. A good barytone voice led him to join +vocal societies, and at length he made music his profession, after +studying voice, organ, and composition with Dr. H.A. Clarke, of +Philadelphia. He was a successful soloist in oratorio for some years, +but gradually devoted himself to church work and conducting, and to +composition, though none of his music was published till he was +thirty-two, when he took two prizes offered by the Abt Male Singing +Society of Philadelphia. + +Shortly after taking the Abt Society prize, he won three offered by +the Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York, and in 1884 he took the $1,000 +prize offered by the Cincinnati Festival Association. + +This last was gained by his setting of the Forty-sixth Psalm for +soprano solo, chorus, and orchestra. The overture opens with a noble +andante contemplatif, which deserves its epithet, but falls after a +time into rather uninteresting moods, whence it breaks only at the +last period. The opening chorus, "God Is Our Refuge and Strength," +seems to me to be built on a rather trite and empty subject, which it +plays battledore and shuttlecock with in the brave old pompous and +canonic style, which stands for little beyond science and labor. It is +only fair to say, however, that A.J. Goodrich, in his "Musical +Analysis," praises "the strength and dignity" of this chorus; and +gives a minute analysis of the whole work with liberal thematic +quotation. The psalm, as a whole, though built on old lines, is built +well on those lines, and the solo "God Is in the Midst of Her" is +taken up with especially fine effect by the chorus. "The Heathen +Raged" is a most ingeniously complicated chorus also. + +The cantata, "Prayer and Praise," is similarly conventional, and +suffers from the sin of repetition, but contains much that is strong. + +Of the three prize male choruses written for the Mendelssohn Glee +Club, the "Ode to the Sun" is the least successful. It is written to +the bombast of Mrs. Hemans, and is fittingly hysterical; occasionally +it fairly shrieks itself out. "In Autumn" is quieter; a sombre work +with a fine outburst at the end. "The Journey of Life" is an andante +misterioso that catches the gloom of Bryant's verse, and offers a good +play for that art of interweaving voices in which Gilchrist is an +adept. + +"The Uplifted Gates" is a chorus for mixed voices with solos for +sopranos and altos; it is elaborate, warm, and brilliant. In lighter +tone are the "Spring Song," a trio with cheap words, but bright music +and a rich ending, and "The Sea Fairies," a chorus of delightful +delicacy for women's voices. It has a piano accompaniment for four +hands. In this same difficult medium of women's voices is "The +Fountain," a surpassingly beautiful work, graceful and silvery as a +cascade. It reminds one, not by its manner at all, but by its success, +of that supreme achievement, Wagner's song of the "Rhinemaidens." +The piano accompaniment to Gilchrist's chorus aids the general +picture. + +A thoroughly charming work is the setting of Lowell's poem, "The +Rose," for solos and chorus. The dreariness of the lonely poet and the +lonely maid contrasts strongly with the rapture of their meeting. As +the first half of the poem is morose yet melodious, the latter is +bright with ecstasy; the ending is of the deepest tenderness. + +By all odds the best of these choruses, however, is "The Legend of the +Bended Bow," a fine war-chant by Mrs. Hemans. Tradition tells that in +ancient Britain the people were summoned to war by messengers who +carried a bended bow; the poem tells of the various patriots +approached. The reaper is bidden to leave his standing corn, the +huntsman to turn from the chase; the chieftain, the prince, mothers, +sisters, sweethearts, and the bards are all approached and counselled +to bravery. After each episode follow the words "And the bow passed +on," but the music has been so well managed that the danger of such a +repetition is turned into grim force. The only prelude is five great +blasts of the horns. A brawny vigor is got by a frequent use of +imitation and unison in the voices. The choric work is marked +throughout with the most intense and epic power, almost savagery; a +magnificent martial zest. The climax is big. It is certainly one of +the best things of its kind ever done over here. + +Another work of fine quality throughout is "A Christmas Idyl," for +solos, chorus, and orchestra. A terrible sombreness is achieved in its +former half by a notable simplicity. The latter part is in brighter +tone; the solo, "And Thou, Bethlehem," is especially exultant. In +manuscript is "An Easter Idyl," of large proportions, for solos, +chorus, and orchestra, or organ. + +In the single songs the influence of Gilchrist's early training in +hymns is patent. In only a few instances do they follow the latter-day +methods of Schumann and Franz. "A Song of Doubt and a Song of Faith" +is possibly his best vocal solo. It begins with a plaint, that is full +of cynic despair; thence it breaks suddenly into a cheerful andante. +"The Two Villages" is a strong piece of work on the conventional +lines of what might be called the Sunday ballad. "A Dirge for Summer" +has a marked originality, and is of that deep brooding which is +particularly congenial to Gilchrist's muse. The Scotch songs are +charming: "My Heart is Sair" is full of fine feeling, and must be +classed among the very best of the many settings of this lyric of +Burns'. + +Most modern in feeling of all Gilchrist's vocal solos is the group of +"Eight Songs." They interpret the text faithfully and the +accompaniment is in accord with the song, but yet possessed of its own +individuality. "A Love Song" is tender and has a well-woven +accompaniment; "The Voice of the Sea" is effective, but hardly attains +the large simplicity of Aldrich' poem; "Autumn" is exquisitely cheery; +"Goldenrod" is ornately graceful, while "The Dear Long Ago" is quaint; +"Lullaby" is of an exquisitely novel rhythm in this overworked form. + +[Music: A LOVE SONG. + +By Barry Cornwall. + +Music by W.W. Gilchrist. + + Love me if I live, + Love me if I die. + What to me is life or death, + So that thou, that thou be near. + What to me is life or death, + So that thou be near, + So that thou be near. + +Copyright, 1885, by Arthur P. Schmidt & Co. + +A FRAGMENT.] + +There is much contrast between the lightness of his book, "Songs for +the Children," and his ponderous setting of Kipling's "Recessional." +The treatment of Paul Laurence Dunbar's "Southern Lullaby" is unusual, +and the songs, "My Ladye" and "The Ideal," both in MS., are +noteworthy. + +Gilchrist has written a vast amount of religious music, including +several "Te Deums," of which the one in C and that in A flat are the +best, to my thinking. He has written little for the piano except a +series of duets, of which the charming "Melodie" and the fetching +"Styrienne" are the best. + +It is by his orchestral works, however, that he gains the highest +consideration. These include a symphony for full orchestra, which has +been frequently performed with success; a suite for orchestra; a suite +for piano and orchestra; as well as a nonet, a quintet, and a trio, +for strings and wind. None of these have been published, but I have +had the privilege of examining some of the manuscripts. + +The spirit and the treatment of these works is strongly classical. +While the orchestration is scholarly and mellow, it is not in the +least Wagnerian, either in manipulation or in lusciousness. The +symphony is not at all programmatic. The Scherzo is of most exuberant +gaiety. Its accentuation is much like that in Beethoven's piano +sonata (op. 14, No. 2). Imitation is liberally used in the scoring, +with a delightfully comic effect as of an altercation. The symphony +ends with a dashing finale that is stormy with cheer. Gilchrist is at +work upon a second symphony of more modernity. + +The "Nonet" is in G minor, and begins with an Allegro in which a most +original and severe subject is developed with infinite grace and +an unusually rich color. The Andante is religioso, and is fervent +rather than sombre. The ending is especially beautiful. A sprightly +Scherzo follows. It is most ingeniously contrived, and the effects are +divided with unusual impartiality among the instruments. A curious and +elaborate allegro molto furnishes the finale, and ends the "Nonet" +surprisingly with an abrupt major chord. + +The opening Allegro of the "Quintet" begins with a 'cello solo of +scherzesque quality, but as the other voices join in, it takes on a +more passionate tone, whence it works into rapturously beautiful moods +and ends magnificently. The piano part has a strong value, and even +where it merely ornaments the theme carried by the strings, it is +fascinating. The Scherzo is again of the Beethoven order in its +contagious comicality. The piano has the lion's share of it at first, +but toward the last the other instruments leave off embroidery and +take to cracking jokes for themselves. The Andante is a genuinely fine +piece of work. It ranges from melting tenderness to impassioned rage +and a purified nobility. The piano part is highly elaborated, but the +other instruments have a scholarly, a vocal, individuality. I was +shocked to see a cadenza for the piano just before the close, but its +tender brilliance was in thorough accord with the sincerity of the +movement. The "Quintet" ends with a splendid Allegro. + +In MS. are three interesting works for the violin, a Rhapsody, a +Perpetual Motion, and a Fantasie. + +This last has a piano accompaniment of much ingenuity. The fantasial +nature of the work lies principally in its development, which is +remarkably lyrical, various melodies being built up beautifully on +fractions of the main subjects. There is nothing perfunctory, and the +work is full of art and appeal. Gilchrist is one of our most polished +composers contrapuntally, but has been here in a very lyric mood. + +He is the founder and conductor of the Mendelssohn Club of +Philadelphia, an unusually effective organization; one of the founders +of the local Manuscript Club; the conductor of a choral society of two +hundred voices, at Harrisburg, and the director of two church choirs. + + +_G.W. Chadwick._ + +[Illustration: Autograph of G.W. Chadwick] + +[Illustration: GEORGE WHITEFIELD CHADWICK.] + +One of the most sophisticated, and, at the same time, most eclectic of +native music-makers, is George W. Chadwick, to whom the general +consent of authorities would grant a place among the very foremost of +the foremost American composers. + +His reputation rests chiefly on his two symphonies, a number of +concert overtures, and many pieces of chamber-music, which are much +praised. Chadwick was born at Lowell, Mass., November 13, 1854. His +parents were American, and it was not till 1877, after studying with +Eugene Thayer in Boston, and teaching music in the college at Olivet, +Mich., that Chadwick studied for two years at Leipzig, under Jadassohn +and Reinecke, and later at Munich for a year under Rheinberger. In +1880 he returned to America and settled in Boston, where he has since +lived, as organist, teacher, and conductor, an important figure in +the town's musical life. + +Among his few works for the piano, are "Six Characteristic Pieces" +(op. 7). The "Reminiscence of Chopin" is an interesting and skilful +chain of partial themes and suggestions from Chopin. The "Etude" is a +monotonous study in a somewhat Schumannesque manner, with a graceful +finish. The "Congratulation" is a cheerful bagatelle; the "Irish +Melody" is sturdy, simple, and fetching; but the "Scherzino" is a hard +bit of humor with Beethoven mannerisms lacking all the master's +unction. + +The opus ends with an unfortunate composition inexcusably titled +"Please Do!" + +There are two bright "Caprices" and three excellent waltzes, of which +the third is the best. It is a dreamy, tender work on a theme by +"B.J.L.," which refers, I presume, to Mr. B.J. Lang. + +Chadwick has done a vast amount of part-song writing. His "Lovely +Rosabelle" is for chorus and orchestra, and is marked with many +original effects. His "Reiterlied" is superbly joyful. A setting of +Lewis Carroll's immortal "Jabberwocky" shows much rich humor of the +college glee-club sort. There is an irresistibly humorous episode +where the instrument of destruction goes "snicker snack," and a fine +hilarity at + + "'O frabjous day + Callooh, callay,' + He chortled in his joy." + +What would part-song writers do if the Vikings had never been +invented? Where would they get their wild choruses for men, with a +prize to the singer that makes the most noise? Chadwick falls into +line with "The Viking's Last Voyage" (1881), for barytone solo, male +chorus, and orchestra, which gives him a very high place among writers +in this form. He has also a robustious "Song of the Viking," and an +excellent Dedication Ode (1884), for solo, chorus, and orchestra, to +the pregnant words of Rev. H.B. Carpenter, besides two cantatas for +mixed voices, "Phoenix Expirans" and "The Pilgrims." In 1889 was +published his "Lovely Rosabelle," a ballad for chorus and orchestra; +it contains some interesting dissonantial work in the storm-passages. +And his comic opera, "Tabasco," must be mentioned, as well as an +enormous mass of sacred music, which, I confess, I had not the +patience to study. The flesh was willing, but the spirit was weak. + +Among Chadwick's songs is a volume of Breton melodies harmonized with +extreme simplicity. Others are "Gay Little Dandelion," which is good +enough of its everlasting flower-song sort; "In Bygone Days" and +"Request," which, aside from one or two flecks of art, are trashy; and +two childish namby-pambies, "Adelaide" and "The Mill." "A Bonny Curl" +catches the Scotch-ton faithfully. + +Chadwick usually succeeds, however, in catching foreign flavors. His +"Song from the Persian" is one of his best works, and possibly the +very best is his "Sorais' Song," to Rider Haggard's splendid words. +It has an epic power and a wild despair. Up to the flippancy of its +last measures, it is quite inspired, and one of the strongest of +American songs. The "Danza" is captivating and full of novelty. "Green +Grows the Willow" is a burden of charming pathos and quaintness, +though principally a study in theme-management. "Allah," however, is +rather Ethiopian than Mahommedan. His "Bedouin Love Song" has little +Oriental color, but is full of rush and fire, with a superb ending. It +is the best of the countless settings of this song. I wish I could say +the same of his "Thou Art so Like a Flower," but he has missed the +intense repression of Heine. + +[Music: _To Mrs. G.H. Stoddard._ + +TWO FOLK SONGS. + +I + +G.W. Chadwick + + O love and joy are for a day, + Then tears and sorrow after, + O love is for a summer's day, + And then farewell to laughter. + If love and joy are for a day + And then farewell to laughter, + To live with love give me one day + Though tears forever after. + +Copyright, 1892, by Arthur P. Schmidt.] + +The "Serenade" displays an interesting rhythm; "The Miller's Daughter" +is tender, and "A Warning" is delightfully witty. One regrets, +however, that its best points were previously used in Schumann's +perfect folk-song, "Wenn ich frueh in den Garten geh'." Chadwick has +two folk-songs of his own, however, which are superb. "He Loves Me" is +a tender, cradle-song-like bit of delicious color. The "Lullaby" is a +genuinely interesting study in this overworked form. "The Lily" has +the passionate lyricism of Chaminade, and "Sweet Wind that Blows" is a +fine frenzy. The "Nocturne" is dainty and has its one good climax. +"Before the Dawn" has some of Chadwick's best work; it is especially +marked by a daring harmonic--you might say--_impasto_. + +His principal works, besides those mentioned, may be catalogued (I am +unable to do more than catalogue most of them, having seen only one of +them, "The Lily Nymph," performed, and having read the score of only +the "Melpomene" overture): Concert overtures, "Rip Van Winkle" +(written in Leipzig, 1879, and played there the same year), "Thalia" +(1883), "Melpomene" (1887), "The Miller's Daughter" (1887), and +"Adonais" (in memory of a friend, 1899); Symphonies, in C (1882), in B +(1885); an Andante for string orchestra (1884), and numerous pieces of +chamber-music. In the case of the cantata, "The Lily Nymph," +Chadwick's art was quite futilized by the superb inanities of the book +he used. The "Melpomene" is a work of infinitely more specific +gravity. It is one of the most important of American orchestral works. + +As his "Thalia" was an "overture to an imaginary comedy," so this, to +an imaginary tragedy. It has been played by the Boston Symphony and +many other orchestras. It has that definiteness of mood with that +indefiniteness of circumstance in which music wins its most dignified +prosperity. + + It opens with the solitary voice of the English horn, which + gives a notable pathos (read Berlioz on this despairful + elegist, and remember its haunting wail in the last act of + "Tristan und Isolde"). The woeful plaint of this voice + breathing above a low sinister roll of the tympanum + establishes at once the atmosphere of melancholy. Other + instruments join the wail, which breaks out wildly from the + whole orchestra. Over a waving accompaniment of clarinets, + the other wood-winds strike up a more lyric and hopeful + strain, and a soliloquy from the 'cello ends the slow + introduction, the materials of which are taken from the two + principal subjects of the overture, which is built on the + classic sonata formula. The first subject is announced by the + first violins against the full orchestra; the subsidiary + theme is given to the flutes and oboes; after a powerful + climax, and a beautiful subsidence of the storm in the lower + strings, the second subject appears in the relative major + with honeyed lyricism. The conclusion, which is made rather + elaborate by the latter-day symphonists, is reduced to a + brief modulation by Mr. Chadwick, and almost before one knows + it, he is in the midst of the elaboration. It is hard to say + whether the composer's emotion or his counterpoint is given + freer rein here, for the work is remarkable both for the + display of every technical resource and for the irresistible + tempest of its passion. In the reprise there is a climax that + thrills one even as he tamely reads the score, and must be + overpowering in actual performance: the cheerful consolation + of the second subject provokes a cyclonic outburst of grief; + there is a furious climax of thrilling flutes and violins + over a mad blare of brass, the while the cymbals shiver + beneath the blows of the kettledrum-sticks. An abrupt silence + prepares for a fierce thunderous clamor from the tympani and + the great drum (beaten with the sticks of the side-drum). + This subsides to a single thud of a kettledrum; there is + another eloquent silence; the English horn returns to its + first plaint; but grief has died of very exercise, and the + work ends in a coda that establishes a major harmony and + leaves the hearer with a heart purged white and clean. + +The "Melpomene" overture is a work of such inspiration and such +scholarship that it must surely find a long youth in the chronicle of +our music. + + +_Arthur Foote._ + +[Illustration: ARTHUR FOOTE.] + +[Illustration: Autograph of Arthur Foote] + +The nearest approach Americans make to the enthusiastic German +_Maennerchor_ is in the college glee clubs. The dignity of their +selections is not always up to that of the Teutonic chorus, but they +develop a salutary fondness for color and shading, exaggerating both a +little perhaps, yet aiming at the right warmth and variety withal. +Even those elaborate paraphrases and circumlocutions of Mother Goose +rhymes, to which they are so prone, show a striving after dramatic +effect and richness of harmony, as well as a keen sense of wit and +humor that are by no means incompatible with real value in music. + +Among their other good deeds must be counted the fostering of the +musical ambitions of Arthur Foote, who was for two years the leader of +the Glee Club of Harvard University. Though he has by no means been +content to delve no deeper into music than glee-club depths, I think +the training has been of value, and its peculiar character is patent +in his works. He is especially fond of writing for men's voices, and +is remarkably at home in their management, and he strives rather for +color-masses than for separate individualities in the voices. + +Among his larger works for men's voices is an elaborate setting of +Longfellow's poem, "The Skeleton in Armor," which is full of vigor and +generally sturdy in treatment, especially in its descriptions of +Viking war and seafaring. The storm-scenes, as in Mr. Foote's "Wreck +of the Hesperus," seem faintly to suggest Wagnerian _Donner und +Blitzen_, but in general Mr. Foote has resisted the universal tendency +to copy the mannerisms so many take to be the real essence of the +Bayreuthian. A pretty bit of fancy is the use of a spinning-wheel +accompaniment to the love-song, although the spindle is nowhere +suggested by the poem. Indeed, the spinning is treated as a +characteristic motif for the Norseman's bride, somewhat as it is +Senta's motif in "The Flying Dutchman." + +The chief fault with the "Skeleton" chorus is that it is always +choric. There are no solos, and the different registers are never used +separately for more than a bar or two, before the whole mass chimes +in. Even the instrumental interludes are short, and the general effect +must be rather undiversified, one of sympathy, too, for the unrested +chorus. + +"The Wreck of the Hesperus" is an ambitious work, built on large +lines, but hardly represents Mr. Foote at his best. It is for mixed +voices, and is pitched in a most lugubrious key, being always either +vociferous with panic or dismal with minor woe. A worse trouble yet is +the attempt to make a short poem fit a long composition. The +Procrustean operation strains even Longfellow sadly. + +This blemish is lacking in "The Farewell of Hiawatha," which is +written for men's voices. Though it, too, is of a sad tone, its sombre +hues are rich and varied as a tapestry. Its effects, though potent, +seem more sincere and less labored. It is altogether noble. + +A larger body of sacred music for mixed voices than many other +Americans can boast, also swells Foote's opus-score. Here he shows the +same facility with the quartette as in his other works. In fact, I +think the effect of glee-club training on his young mind has strongly +influenced his whole life-work. And, by the way, the most talented of +all the great Sebastian Bach's twenty-one children--every one a +musical opus, too--was diverted from the philosopher's career for +which he was intended, and into professional musicianship, by just +such a glee-club training in the universities at Leipzig and +Frankfort. + +Almost all of Foote's compositions are written in the close harmony +and limited range of vocal music, and he very rarely sweeps the +keyboard in his piano compositions, or hunts out startling novelties +in strictly pianistic effect. He is not fond of the cloudy regions of +the upper notes, and though he may dart brilliantly skyward now and +then just to show that his wings are good for lighter air, he is soon +back again, drifting along the middle ether. + +He has won his high place by faithful adherence to his own sober, +serene ideals, and by his genuine culture and seriousness. He is +thoroughly American by birth and training, though his direct English +descent accounts for his decided leaning toward the better impulses of +the English school of music. He was born at Salem, Mass., March 5, +1853, and though he played the piano a good deal as a boy, and made a +beginning in the study of composition with Emery, he did not study +seriously until he graduated from Harvard in 1874. He then took up the +higher branches of composition under the tuition of John Knowles +Paine, and obtained in 1875 the degree of A.M. in the special +department of music. He also studied the organ and the piano with B.J. +Lang at Boston, and has since made that city his home, teaching and +playing the organ. + +His overture, "In the Mountains," has been much played from the +manuscript by orchestras, among them the Boston Symphony. Besides a +considerable amount of highly valuable contributions to American +chamber-music, and two fine piano suites, he has written a great many +piano pieces and songs which deserve even greater popularity than they +have won, because, while not bristling with technical difficulties, +they are yet of permanent worth. + +I know of no modern composer who has come nearer to relighting the +fires that beam in the old gavottes and fugues and preludes. His two +gavottes are to me among the best since Bach. They are an example of +what it is to be academic without being only a-rattle with dry bones. +He has written a Nocturne that gets farther from being a mere +imitation of Chopin than almost any night-piece written since the Pole +appropriated that form bodily from John Field and made it his own. + +One of his most original pieces is the Capriccio of his D minor Suite, +which is also unusually brilliant in color at times; and he has an +Allegretto that is a scherzo of the good old whole-souled humor. +Foote, in fact, is never sickly in sentiment. + +Of his rather numerous songs, the older English poets, like Marlowe, +Sidney, Shakespeare, Suckling, and Herrick, have given him much +inspiration. The song "It Was a Lover and his Lass" is especially +taking. His three songs, "When You Become a Nun, Dear," "The Road to +Kew," and "Ho, Pretty Page!" written by modern poets in a half-archaic +way, display a most delicious fund of subtile and ironic musical +humor. "The Hawthorn Wins the Damask Rose" shows how really fine a +well conducted English ballad can be. Among his sadder songs, the +"Irish Folksong," "I'm Wearing Awa'," and the weird "In a Bower" are +heavy with deepest pathos, while "Sweet Is True Love" is as wildly +intense and as haunting in its woe as the fate of the poor Elaine, +whose despair it sings. This I count one of the most appealing of +modern songs. + +[Music: IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS + +ARTHUR FOOTE, Op. 10, No. 1. + + 1. It was a lover and his lass, + With a hey and a ho, + With a hey and a ho, and a hey, and a hey non-i-no! + That o'er the green cornfield did pass, + In the springtime, the springtime, + The only pretty ring-time, + When birds do sing hey ding a ding! + Sweet lovers love the spring. + + 2. And therefore take the present time, + With a hey and a ho, + With a hey and a ho, and a hey, and a hey non-i-no! + For love is crowned with the prime, + In the springtime, the springtime, + The only pretty ring-time, + When birds do sing hey ding a ding! + Sweet lovers love the Spring. (_Shakespeare._) + +Copyright, 1886, by Arthur P. Schmidt & Co.] + +His greatest work is undoubtedly his symphonic prologue to Dante's +story of "Francesca da Rimini," for full orchestra. Without being +informed upon the subject, I fancy a certain programmism in the +prologue that is not indicated in the quotation at the beginning of +the work: + + "Nessun maggior dolore, + Che ricordarsi del tempo felice + Nella miseria." + +The prologue, however, seems to me to contain more than the +psychological content of these lines from the fifth canto of the +"Inferno." + + The slow introduction in C minor begins with a long, deep + sigh, followed by a downward passage in the violas and + 'cellos that seems to indicate the steps that bring Dante and + Vergil down to the edge of the precipice past which the + cyclone of the damned rolls eternally. There is some + shrieking and shuddering, and ominous thudding of the + tympani (which are tuned to unusual notes), then follows a + short recitative which might represent Dante's query to + Francesca how she came to yield to love. Suddenly out of the + swirling strings the first subject is caught up; it is a + frenzy passionately sung by the first violins, reenforced by + the flutes at the crises. The second subject appears after a + sudden prelude by the brass; it is a very lyric waltz-tune in + the relative major, and doubtless depicts the joy recalled in + sorrow. The conclusion is quite lengthy; it is also in waltz + form, and is first announced by a single flute over the + violins and violas, the first violins keeping to the gloomy + G string. This air is now given to a solo horn, and a fierce + and irresistible dance fervor is worked up. The elaboration + begins with the first subject in F sharp minor, caught up + fiercely from a downward rush. The reprise is not long + delayed, and the second subject appears, contrary to custom, + in the tonic major instead of the tonic minor. The coda is + deliciously tender and beautiful, possibly because, being a + prologue, the work must prepare for a drama that begins + cheerfully; possibly because after all there is comfort in + bliss remembered in sorrow. + +Tschaikowski has written a symphonic poem on the same subject, which +has been also the inspiration of numberless dramas, and is one of the +most pathetic pages in all literature; even the stern old Dante says +that when he heard Francesca tell her story he almost died of pity, +and fell to the ground as one dead. + +A Serenade for string orchestra (op. 25) contains a Prelude, a tender +Air, a luscious Intermezzo in the rich key of B major with soli for +violin and 'cello, a Romance with a good climax, and a gallant Gavotte +with special attention to the too much slighted violas. + +Opus 36 is a suite for full orchestra. It has been played by the +Boston Symphony, and consists of a brilliant Allegro; an Adagio of +deep sincerity and beautifully varied color, a period wherein the +brass choir, heavily scored, chants alone, and the division of the +theme among the wood-wind over the rushing strings is especially +effective; a very whimsical Andante with frequent changes of tempo, +and soli for the English horn in antiphony with the first oboe; and a +madcap Presto that whisks itself out in the first violins. + +Two other published works are a string quartette (op. 4) and a +quintette for piano and strings (op. 36). This begins in A minor with +a well woven and well derived set of themes, and ends in a scherzo in +A major with spinning-song characteristics. Between these two +movements comes an intermezzo of strongly marked Scotch tone. This has +been performed by the Kneisel Quartette. + + +_S.G. Pratt._ + +Almost every musician has heard of Christopher Columbus, and holds +him in a certain esteem as a man without whose push the invention of +America would have been long deferred; but few American musicians have +felt under a sufficient debt of gratitude to make his troubles and +triumphs the foundation of an appropriate musical work. Silas G. Pratt +was bold enough to undertake the monumental task; and he expended upon +it large resources of scholarship, research, and enthusiasm. The work +was performed at New York during the Quadricentennial of the discovery +of America. + +If Pratt had been born in old Egypt, he would have found his chief +diversion in the building of pyramids, so undismayed is he by the size +of a task. His patriotism is a sharp spur to him, and has enabled him +to write an orchestral composition devoted to Paul Revere's Ride; a +fantasy descriptive of a battle between the Northern and Southern +armies; "The Battle of Manila;" "The Anniversary Overture," in +commemoration of the centennial of American Independence, performed in +Berlin twice, and in London at the Crystal Palace, during Grant's +visit there; and a march called by the curious name of "Homage to +Chicago." Besides these works Pratt has written the "Magdalen's +Lament," his first orchestral composition, suggested by Murillo's +picture; the lyric opera, "Antonio;" a first symphony, of which the +adagio was performed in Berlin, the other movements being produced in +Boston and Chicago; a second symphony, "The Prodigal Son;" a romantic +opera, "Zenobia," produced in Chicago; a lyric opera, "Lucille," which +ran for three weeks in Chicago; a symphonic suite based on the +"Tempest;" a canon for a string quartette; a serenade for string +orchestra; a grotesque suite, "The Brownies," produced in New York +and at Brighton Beach by Anton Seidl. Besides these works of musical +composition, Pratt has delivered various musical lectures, ingeniously +contrived to entertain the great public and at the same time inform +it. He has been active also in the organization of various musical +enterprises, among them the Apollo Club of Chicago. + +Pratt was born in Addison, Vermont, August 4, 1846. At the age of +twelve, he was thrown on his own resources, and connected himself with +music publishing houses in Chicago. After various public performances, +he went to Germany in 1868, to study the piano under Bendel and +Kullak, and counterpoint under Kiel. In 1872 he returned to Chicago +and gave a concert of his own works. But the phoenix city had not +entirely preened its wings after the great fire of 1871, and Pratt +found no support for his ambitions. After teaching and giving +concerts, he returned to Germany in 1875, where he attended the +rehearsals of Wagner's Trilogy at Bayreuth, met Liszt here, and gave a +recital of his own compositions at Weimar. His "Anniversary Overture" +was cordially received by the press of both Berlin and London. A third +visit to Europe was made in 1885 for the production of the "Prodigal +Son" at the Crystal Palace, on the occasion of which, Berthold Tours +wrote that both the symphony and the "Anniversary Overture" were +"grandly conceived works, full of striking originality, modern +harmony, flowing melody, and beautiful, as well as imposing effects." + +Activity along such lines has left Pratt little time for the smaller +forms of composition; a few have been published, among them the song, +"Dream Vision," in which Schumann's "Traeumerei" is used for violin +obbligato; and a few piano pieces, such as "Six Soliloquies," with +poetic text. In these each chord shows careful effort at color, and +the work is chromatic enough to convince one that he has studied his +Bach thoroughly. + +Among his massive compositions there are two that seem likely to win, +as they surely deserve, a long life. These are the symphonic suite, +"The Tempest," and the "Prodigal Son." To the latter splendid +achievement, A.J. Goodrich devotes several pages of his "Musical +Analysis," to which I can do no better than to refer the reader. The +"Tempest" is based, of course, on Shakespeare's play, and is described +as follows by the composer: + + "It is intended, in the first movement, Adagio, to typify the + sorrow of Prospero, and his soul's protest against the + ingratitude and persecution of his enemies. His willing + attendant Ariel is briefly indicated in the closing measures. + The Pastoral furnishes an atmosphere or stage setting for the + lovers, Miranda and Ferdinand, whose responsive love-song + follows the droning of a shepherd's pipe in the distance. + Prospero's interruption to their passionate assurances of + devotion, and the imposition of the unpleasant task, are + briefly touched upon, and the movement closes with a repeat + of the pastoral, and alternate reiteration of the lover's + song. The Finale, after a short introduction, in most sombre + vein, indicates the flitting about of Ariel and his companion + sprites as they gather for revelry. The presence of the + master is soon made apparent by the recurrence, in a + subdued manner, of Prospero's first theme from the Adagio, + the fantastic tripping of the elves continuing, as though the + controlling spirit were conjuring up the fete for the + amusement of the lovers and himself. + + "'Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves; + And ye that on the sand, with printless foot + Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him + When he comes back.' + + "The dance then begins, and continues in a fantastic, at + times grotesque and furious manner, the theme of the lovers + being interwoven at times, in an unobtrusive way. At length, + Caliban is heard approaching, singing his drunken song. + + "''Ban, 'Ban, Ca-caliban + Has a new master: get a new man.' + + "Ariel and his companions flit about, ridiculing, mocking, + and laughing at him; eventually prodding and pinching him + until, shivering, with aching joints, he staggers away. The + revelry then continues, the song of the lovers becoming more + and more prominent until, somewhat broadened out, it asserts + itself triumphantly above all, Ariel and his companions + flitting about, Prospero happy, and Caliban subjugated, all + the chief themes being united to form the climax and close of + the work." + +Although Pratt intentionally omitted the English horn and the bass +clarinet, the scoring is remarkable for its color and faery. The work +is highly lyrical in effect, and the woodsiness is beautifully +established. The solemnity of Prospero, the adroitness of the lovers +and the contrasting natures of the volatile Ariel and the sprawling +Caliban, make up a cast of characters in the development of which +music is peculiarly competent. The stertorous monologue of Caliban and +his hobbling dance, and the taunting and pinching torment he is +submitted to, make excellent humor. + + +_Henry K. Hadley._ + +[Illustration: HENRY K. HADLEY.] + +The word symphony has a terrifying sound, particularly when it is +applied to a modern work; for latter-day music is essentially romantic +in nature, and it is only a very rare composer that has the +inclination or the ability to force the classic form to meet his new +ideas. The result is that such a work usually lacks spontaneity, +conviction. The modern writer does much better with the symphonic +poem. + +The number of American symphonies worth listening to, could be counted +on the fingers with several digits to spare. A new finger has been +preempted by Henry K. Hadley's symphony called "Youth and Life." The +title is doubly happy. Psychologically it is a study of the intense +emotional life of youth, written by an American youth,--a young man +who, by the way, strangely reminds one, in his appearance, of +Macmonnies' American type, as represented by his ideal statue of +Nathan Hale. + +And musically the work is imbued with both youth and life. It has +blood and heart in it. The first movement is a conflict between good +and evil motives struggling like the mediaeval angels for the soul of +the hero. The better power wins triumphantly. The second movement, +however, shows doubt and despair, remorse and deep spiritual +depression. The climax of this feeling is a death-knell, which, +smitten softly, gives an indescribably dismal effect, and thrills +without starting. Angelus bells in pedal-point continue through a +period of hope and prayer; but remorse again takes sway. The ability +to obtain this fine solemnity, and follow it with a scherzo of +extraordinary gaiety, proves that a genius is at large among us. The +Scherzo displays a thigh-slapping, song-singing _abandon_ that +typifies youthful frivolity fascinatingly. A fugue is used +incidentally with a burlesque effect that reminds one of Berlioz' +"Amen" parody in the "Damnation of Faust." The Finale exploits motives +of ambition and heroism, with a moment of love. The climax is +vigorous. Without being at all ariose, the symphony is full of melody. +Its melodies are not counterpoint, but expression; and each instrument +or choir of instruments is an individuality. + +Hadley is galvanic with energy and optimism, dextrous to a remarkable +degree in the mechanism of composition. His scoring is mature, +fervent, and certain. His symphony is legitimately programmatic and +alive with brains, biceps, and blood,--all three,--the three great B's +of composition. + +Hadley was born at Somerville, Mass., in 1871. His father was a +teacher of music and gave him immediate advantages. He studied harmony +with Stephen A. Emery, counterpoint with G.W. Chadwick, and the +violin with Henry Heindl and Charles N. Allen of Boston. Before +attaining his majority, he had completed a dramatic overture, a string +quartette, a trio, and many songs and choruses. In 1894 he went to +Vienna and studied composition with Mandyczewski. Here he composed his +third suite for the orchestra. In 1896 he returned to America and took +charge of the music department of St. Paul's school at Garden City, +L.I. He has had some experience as a conductor and has been very +prolific in composition. His first symphony was produced under the +direction of Anton Seidl, in December, 1897; and at a concert of his +own compositions, again, in January, 1900, Hadley conducted this +symphony, and also two movements from his second symphony, "The +Seasons." These two movements show a mellower technic, perhaps, but +are less vital. He has written three ballet suites with pronounced +success, the work being musical and yet full of the ecstasy of the +dance. His third ballet suite, which is the best, was produced at a +concert of the American Symphony Orchestra, under Sam Franko. + +The existence of a festival march, a concert overture, "Hector and +Andromache," two comic operas, and six songs for chorus and orchestra, +besides a number of part songs and piano pieces, and over one hundred +songs, forty of which are published, gives proof of the restless +energy of the man. The high average of scholarship is a proof of his +right to serious acceptance. + +A cantata for orchestra, "Lelewala," a legend of Niagara, is published +for piano accompaniment. Now, Niagara is a dangerous subject for the +frail skiffs of rhyme, prose, or music to launch out upon. Barrel +staves may carry one through the whirlpool, but music staves cannot +stand the stress. Of all the comments upon the Falls of Niagara that I +have ever read, or heard of, there has been only one that seemed +anything but ridiculously inappropriate; that one was the tribute of a +young boy who, on standing face to face with the falls, simply +exclaimed, in an awe-smothered whisper, "Well, by gosh!" But it must +be admitted that these words would baffle the music-making +propensities even of the composer of Haendel's "Hallelujah Chorus." +That learned composer, George F. Bristow, now dead, made the mistake +of attempting to compass Niagara in a work for chorus and orchestra. +Hadley is not exactly guilty of the same fatal attempt in his +"Lelewala," for the poem is chiefly a story of love and sacrifice; but +Niagara comes in as a programmatic incident, and the author of the +text has fallen lamentably short of his subject in certain instances. +In other moments, he has written with genuine charm, and the music has +much that is worth while. + +Among his published songs are to be noted the unusually good setting +of Heine's "Wenn ich in deine Augen seh'" and of his less often heard +"Sapphire sind die Augen dein," and "Der Schmetterling ist in die Rose +verliebt." A deservedly popular work is "I Plucked a Quill from +Cupid's Wing." Among so many morose or school-bound composers, Hadley +is especially important for the fact that he is thrilled with a sane +and jubilant music. + + +_Adolph M. Foerster._ + +[Illustration: ADOLPH M. FOERSTER.] + +It has been fortunate for American song that it forsook the narrow, +roystering school of English ballad and took for its national model +the _Lied_ of the later German school. It is true that the earlier +English had its poetry-respecting music in the work of such a man as +Henry Lawes, or Purcell, just as it had its composers who far preceded +Bach in the key-roving idea of the "Well-tempered Clavier;" but that +spirit died out of England, and found its latest avatar in such men +as Robert Franz, who confessed that he had his first and fullest +recognition from this country. + +A correspondence with Franz was carried on for eighteen years by one +of the solidest of American composers, Adolph M. Foerster, who gives +distinction to the musical life of Pittsburg. He knew Franz +personally, and has written an important appreciation of him for the +magazine _Music_. Foerster was born at Pittsburg in 1854. After three +years of commercial life, he took up music seriously, and spent the +years from 1872 to 1875 at Leipzig,--studying the piano under Coccius +and Wenzel, singing under Grill and Schimon, and theory under E.F. +Richter and Papperitz. Returning to America, he connected himself with +the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Conservatory of Music, then under the direction +of the beneficent inventor of the Virgil Clavier. A year later he +returned to Pittsburg, where he has since remained. For awhile he was +conductor of a symphonic society and a choral union, which are no +longer extant. Since, he has devoted himself to teaching and +composition. + +Of Foerster's piano compositions opus 11 is a "Valse Brillante," warm +and melodious. Opus 13 is a "Sonnet," based, after the plan of Liszt, +upon a lyric of Petrarch's, a beautiful translation from his "Gli +occhi di ch'io parlai si caldamente." It is full of passion, and shows +a fine variety in the handling of persistent repetition. Opus 18 +couples two sonatinas. The second has the more merit, but both, like +most sonatinas, are too trivial of psychology and too formal even to +be recommended for children's exercises. "Eros" is a fluent melody, +with a scherzesque second part. + +Opus 37 contains two concert etudes, both superb works. The first, +"Exaltation," is very original, though neither the beginning nor the +ending is particularly striking. The music between, however, has a +fervor that justifies the title. This etude is, like those of Chopin, +at the same time a technical study and a mood. The second, a +"Lamentation," begins with a most sonorous downward harmony, with +rushes up from the bass like the lessening onsets of a retreating +tide. Throughout, the harmonies and emotions are remarkably profound +and the climaxes wild. I should call it one of the best modern piano +compositions. + +Twelve "Fantasy Pieces" are included in opus 38. They are short +tone-poems. The second, "Sylvan Spirits," is fascinating, and "Pretty +Marie" has an irresistibly gay melody. He has dedicated the six songs +of opus 6 to Robert Franz. These are written in a close unarpeggiated +style chiefly, but they are very interesting in their pregnant +simplicity. In two cases they are even impressive: the well-known +lyric, "Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome," and "Meeresstille." Opus 12 is +a notable group of three songs: "Mists" is superbly harmonious. Opus +25 includes "Ask Thou Not the Heather Gray," a rhapsody of the utmost +ingenuity in melody and accompaniment. It has a catching blissfulness +and a verve that make it one of the best American songs. Opus 28 is a +book called "Among Flowers." The music is in every case good, and +especially satisfactory in its emancipation from the Teutonism of +Foerster's earlier songs. The song "Among the Roses" has a beautiful +poem, which deserves the superb music. It ends hauntingly with an +unresolved major ninth chord on the dominant of the dominant. So the +frenzy of "In Blossom Time" is emotion of a human, rather than a +botanical sort. "The Cradle Song" adapts the Siegfried Idyl, and the +"Old Proverb" is rollicking. The two songs of opus 34 are fitted with +words by Byron. The three songs of opus 44 also make use of this poet, +now so little in vogue with composers. There are three songs in opus +42: a pathetic "Little Wild Rose," and "By the Seaside," which is full +of solemnity. "The Shepherd's Lament" is one of his best lyrics, with +a strange accompaniment containing an inverted pedal-point in octaves. +There are also several part songs. + +In larger forms, Mr. Foerster is even more successful. Opus 10 is a +Character-piece for full orchestra, based on Karl Schaefer's poem, +"Thusnelda." It is short but vigorous, and well unified. Opus 15 is a +Fantasie for violin and piano, the piano having really the better of +it. The treatment is very original, and the strong idea well +preserved. Opus 21 is a Quartette for violin, viola, 'cello, and +piano. The first movement begins solemnly, but breaks into an +appassionato. All four instruments have an equal voice in the parley, +and all the outbursts are emotional rather than contrapuntal. A climax +of tremendous power is attained. The second movement omits the piano +for a beautiful adagio. The third is an hilarious allegro, and the +finale is an even gayer presto, with movements of sudden sobriety, +suddenly swept away. Foerster calls this Quartette "far inferior" to a +second one, opus 40. This, however, I have not seen; but I do not +hesitate to call opus 21 a masterly work. + +Opus 24 is an "Albumblatt" for 'cello and piano. It is a wonderwork +of feeling and deep richness of harmony, of absolute sincerity and +inspiration. Opus 29 is a Trio for violin, 'cello, and piano. The +three begin in unison, andante, whence the 'cello breaks away, +followed soon by the others, into the joviality of a drinking bout. +There is a military moment, a lyric of more seriousness, and a finish +agitato. The second movement is a larghetto highly embroidered. The +third movement is a vivace with the spirit of a Beethoven presto. + +Opus 36 is a suite for violin and piano, beginning with a most +engaging and most skilful Novelette. + +In MS. are: an elaborate ballad, "Hero and Leander," which, in spite +of an unworthy postlude and certain "Tristan und Isolde" memories, is +ardent and vivid with passion; "Verzweifelung," which is bitter and +wild with despair; a suite for piano (op. 46) containing a waltz as +ingenious as it is captivating; and a finale called "Homage to +Brahms." This is a remarkably clever piece of writing, which, while it +lacks the Brahmsian trade-mark of thirds in the bass, has much of that +composer's best manner, less in his tricks of speech than in his +tireless development and his substitution of monumental thematicism +for lyric emotion. In MS. is also a prelude to Goethe's "Faust" for +full orchestra. It has very definite leading motives, which include +"Faust's Meditations," "Visions of Margarethe," "Evil" and "Love" +(almost inversions of each other), "Mephistopheles," and the like. The +strife of these elements is managed with great cleverness, ending +beatifically with the motive of Gretchen dying away in the wood-wind. + +An orchestral score that has been published is the Dedication March +for Carnegie Hall in Pittsburg. It begins with a long fanfare of horns +heard behind the scenes. Suddenly enters a jubilant theme beginning +with Andrew Carnegie's initials, a worthy tribute to one to whom +American music owes much. + + +_Charles Crozat Converse._ + +[Illustration: CHARLES CROZAT CONVERSE.] + +Musicians are not, as a class, prone to a various erudition (a +compliment fully returned by the learned in other directions, who are +almost always profoundly ignorant of the actual art of music). One of +the rule-proving exceptions is Charles Crozat Converse, who has delved +into many philosophies. An example of his versatility of interest is +his coining of the word "thon" (a useful substitute for the ubiquitous +awkwardness of "he or she" and "his or her"), which has been adopted +by the Standard Dictionary. + +Converse' ancestry is American as far back as 1630. Converse was born +at Warren, Mass., October 7, 1832. After being well grounded in +English and the classics, he went, in 1855, to Germany. Here he +studied law and philosophy, and music at the Conservatorium in +Leipzig. He enjoyed the instruction of Richter, Hauptmann, Plaidy, and +Haupt, and made the acquaintance of Liszt and Spohr. Spohr was +especially interested in, and influential in, his work, and confident +of its success. + +Returning to America, he graduated from the Law Department of Albany +University in 1860, with the degree of LL.B. The B has since been +dignified into a D, as a tribute to his unusual accomplishments. +Converse declined the honor of a Doctorship of Music from the +University of Cambridge, offered him by its professor, the well-known +English composer, Sterndale Bennett, in recognition of his mastery of +lore as evinced in a five-voiced double fugue that ends his +Psalm-Cantata on the 126th Psalm. + +This scholarly work was performed under the direction of Theodore +Thomas in 1888, at Chicago. + +A widely known contribution to religious music is Converse' hymn, +"What a Friend We Have in Jesus," which has been printed, so they say, +in all the tongues of Christendom, and sold to the extent of fifty +millions of copies. This tune occupied a warm place in my +Sunday-schoolboy heart, along with other singable airs of the Moody +and Sankey type, but as I hum it over in memory now, it tastes +sweetish and thin. Its popularity is appalling, musically at least. +Converse has written many other hymn-tunes, which have taken their +place among ecclesiastical soporifics. Besides, he has recently +compiled a collection of the world's best hymns into the "Standard +Hymnal." In this field Converse, though conventional,--and +conventionality may be considered inevitable here,--is mellow of +harmony and sincere in sentiment. + +Numberless attempts are made to supply our uncomfortable lack of a +distinctly national air, but few of them have that first requisite, a +fiery catchiness, and most of them have been so bombastic as to pall +even upon palates that can endure Fourth of July glorification. +Recognizing that the trouble with "America" was not at all due to the +noble words written by the man whom "fate tried to conceal by naming +him Smith," Converse has written a new air to this poem. +Unfortunately, however, his method of varying the much-borrowed +original tune is too transparent. He has not discarded the idea at +all, or changed the rhythm or the spirit. He has only taken his tune +upward where "God Save the Queen" moves down, and bent his melody down +where the British soars up. This, I fancy, is the chief reason why his +national hymn has gone over to the great majority, and has been +conspicuously absent from such public occasions as torchlight parades +and ratifications. + +Except the work issued under the alias "Karl Redan," or the anagrams, +"C.O. Nevers" and "C.E. Revons," his only secular musics that have +been put into print are his American Overture, published in Paris, and +a book of six songs, published in Germany. + +Music is called the universal language, but it has strongly marked +dialects, and sometimes a national flavor untranslatable to foreign +peoples. So with these six songs, not the words alone are German. They +are based on a Teutonic, and they modulate only from Berlin to +Braunschweig and around to Leipzig. While the songs repay study, they +are rather marked by a pianistic meditation than a strictly lyric +emotion. "Aufmunterung zur Freude" is a tame allegretto; "Wehmuth" is +better; "Taeuschung" is a short elegy of passion and depth; "Ruhe in +der Geliebten" is best in its middle strain where it is full of rich +feeling and harmony. The ending is cheap. "Der gefangene Saenger" is +only a slight variant at first on the "Adieu" credited to Schubert; it +is thereafter excellent. + +Converse has a large body of music in manuscript, none of which I had +the pleasure of examining save a tender sacred lullaby. There are two +symphonies, ten suites, and concert overture, three symphonic poems, +an oratorio, "The Captivity," six string quartettes, and a mass of +psalmodic and other vocal writing. + +Of these works three have been produced with marked success: the +"Christmas Overture," at one of the public concerts of the Manuscript +Society, under the direction of Walter Damrosch; the overture "Im +Fruehling," at concerts in Brooklyn and New York, under the baton of +Theodore Thomas; and the American overture, "Hail Columbia!" at the +Boston Peace Jubilee under Patrick Gilmore, at the Columbian +Exposition under Thomas, and in New York under Anton Seidl. + +This last overture received the distinction of publication at Paris, +by Schott et Cie. It is built on the rousing air of "Hail, Columbia!" +This is suggested in the slow minor introduction; the air itself is +indicated thematically as one of the subjects later appearing in full +swing in a coda. The instrumentation is brilliant and the climax +overwhelming. + +Altogether the work is more than adroit musical composition. It is a +prairie-fire of patriotism. + + +_L.A. Coerne._ + +[Illustration: LOUIS ADOLPHE COERNE.] + +A grand opera by an American on an American subject is an achievement +to look forward to. Though I have not seen this opera, called "A +Woman of Marblehead," it is safe to predict, from a study of its +composer's other works, that it is a thing of merit. + +Louis Adolphe Coerne, who wrote the music for this opera, was born in +Newark, N.J., in 1870, and spent the years from six to ten in music +study abroad, at Stuttgart and Paris. Returning to America, he entered +Harvard College and studied harmony and composition under John Knowles +Paine. He studied the violin under Kneisel. In 1890 he went to Munich, +where he studied the organ and composition at the Royal Academy of +Music, under Rheinberger, and the violin under Hieber. He now decided +to give up the career of a violinist for that of composer, conductor, +and organist. In 1893 he returned to Boston and acted as organist. A +year later he went to Buffalo, where for three years he directed the +Liedertafel. + +While in Harvard, Coerne had composed and produced a concerto for +violin and 'cello with string orchestra accompaniment, a fantasy for +full orchestra, and a number of anthems which were performed at the +university chapel. While in Munich and Stuttgart he wrote and produced +a string suite, an organ concerto with accompaniment of strings, +horns, and harps, three choral works, and a ballet, "Evadne," on a +subject of his own. His symphonic poem on Longfellow's "Hiawatha" was +also produced there with much success under his personal direction, +and later by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was invited then by +Theodore Thomas to attend the World's Fair at Chicago, to give +recitals on the great organ in Festival Hall. + +It has been my misfortune not to have heard or seen hardly any of his +writings except the published "Character Pieces" from the ballet +"Evadne" (op. 155). A "Clown's Dance" in bolero rhythm is delightful. +The "Introduction to Act II." contains many varied ideas and one +passage of peculiar harmonic beauty. A "Valse de Salon" has its good +bits, but is rather overwrought. A "Devil's Dance" introduces some +excellent harmonic effects, but the "Waltz with Chorus and Finale" is +the best number of the opus. It begins in the orchestra with a most +irresistible waltz movement that is just what a waltz should be. A +chorus is then superimposed on this rhapsody, and a climax of superb +richness attained. + +For the organ Coerne has written much and well. There is an adaptation +of three pieces from the string quartette (op. 19); a graceful Minuet, +a quaint Aria, and a Fugue. Then there are three Marches, which, like +most marches written by contemplative musicians, are rather thematic +than spirited, and marked by a restless and elaborate preparation for +some great chant that is longed for, but never comes. Besides these, +there are a very pleasant Pastoral, a good Elevation, and a Nocturne. + +Coerne's symphonic poem, "Hiawatha," has been arranged for the piano +for four hands, and there is also an arrangement for violin or +violoncello and piano, but I have not seen these. The thing we are all +waiting for is that American grand opera, "A Woman of Marblehead." It +is to be predicted that she will not receive the marble heart. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE COLONISTS. + + +Art does not prosper as hermit. Of course, every great creator has a +certain aloofness of soul, and an inner isolation; but he must at +times submit his work to the comparison of his fellow artists; he must +profit by their discoveries as well as their errors; he must grow +overheated in those passionate musical arguments that never convince +any one out of his former belief, and serve salutarily to raise the +temper, cultivate caloric, and deepen convictions previously held; he +must exchange criticisms and discuss standards with others, else he +will be eternally making discoveries that are stale and unprofitable +to the rest of the world; he will seek to reach men's souls through +channels long dammed up, and his achievements will be marred by naive +triteness and primitive crudeness. + +So, while the artistic tendency may be a universal nervous system, +artists are inclined to ganglionate. The nerve-knots vary in size and +importance, and one chief ganglion may serve as a feeding brain, but +it cannot monopolize the activity. In America, particularly, these +ganglia, or colonies, are an interesting and vital phase of our +development. For a country in which the different federated states +are, many of them, as large as old-world kingdoms, it is manifestly +impossible for any one capital to dominate. Furthermore, the national +spirit is too insubordinate to accept any centre as an oracle. + +New York, which has certainly drawn to itself a preponderance of +respectable composers, has yet been unable to gather in many of the +most important, and like the French Academy, must always suffer in +prestige because of its conspicuous absentees. In the second place, +New York is the least serious and most fickle city in the country, and +is regarded with mingled envy and patronage by other cities. + +Boston is even more unpopular with the rest of the country. And New +York and other cities have enticed away so many of the leading spirits +of her musical colony, that she cannot claim her once overwhelming +superiority. And yet, Boston has been, and is, the highest American +representative of that much abused term, culture. Of all the arts, +music doubtless gets her highest favor. + +The aid Boston has been to American music is vital, and far outweighs +that of any other city. That so magnificent an organization as its +Symphony Orchestra could be so popular, shows the solidity of its +general art appreciations. The orchestra has been remarkably willing, +too, to give the American composer a chance to be heard. Boston has +been not only the promulgator, but in a great measure the tutor, of +American music. + +In Boston-town, folk take things seriously and studiously. In New York +they take them fiercely, whimsically. Like most generalizations, this +one has possibly more exceptions than inclusions. But it is +convenient. + +It is convenient, too, to group together such of the residents of +these two towns, as I have not discussed elsewhere. The Chicago +coterie makes another busy community; and St. Louis and Cleveland have +their activities of more than intramural worth; Cincinnati, which was +once as musically thriving as its strongly German qualities +necessitated, but which had a swift and strange decline, seems to be +plucking up heart again. For this, the energy of Frank van der Stucken +is largely to credit. Aside from the foreign-born composers there, one +should mention the work of Richard Kieserling, Jr., and Emil Wiegand. +The former went to Europe in 1891 and studied at the Leipzig +Conservatory, under Reinecke, Homeyer, Rust, Schreck and Jadassohn. He +also studied conducting under Sitt. At his graduation, he conducted a +performance of his own composition, "Jeanne d'Arc." He returned to his +native city, Cincinnati, in 1895, where he has since remained, +teaching and conducting. Among his works, besides piano pieces and +songs, are: "A May Song," for women's chorus and piano; six pieces for +violin and piano; "Harold," a ballad for male chorus, barytone solo, +and orchestra; "Were It Not For Love," composed for male chorus; +several sets of male choruses; a motet for mixed chorus a cappella; a +berceuse for string orchestra, an introduction and rondo for violin +and orchestra; and a "Marche Nuptiale," for grand orchestra. + +Emil Wiegand was also born in Cincinnati, and had his first tuition on +the violin from his father. His theoretical studies have been received +entirely in Cincinnati. He is a member of the local Symphonic +Orchestra, and has composed an overture for grand orchestra, a string +quartette, and various pieces for the violin, piano, and voice. + +In San Francisco there is less important musical composition than +there was in the days when Kelley and Page were active there. The work +of H.B. Pasmore is highly commended by _cognoscenti_, as are also the +works of Frederick Zeck, Jr., who was born in San Francisco, studied +in Germany, and has composed symphonies, a symphonic poem, "Lamia," a +romantic opera, and other works; Samuel Fleischmann, born in +California and educated abroad, a concert pianist, who has written, +among other things, an overture, "Hero and Leander," which was +performed in New York; and P.C. Allen, who studied in Europe, and has +written well. + +But the larger cities do not by any means contain all the worthy +composition. In many smaller cities, and in a few villages even, can +be found men of high culture and earnest endeavor. + +In Yonkers, New York, is Frederick R. Burton, who has written a +dramatic cantata on Longfellow's "Hiawatha," which has been frequently +performed. In this work use is made of an actual Indian theme, which +was jotted down by H.E. Krehbiel, and is worked up delightfully in +the cantata, an incessant thudding of a drum in an incommensurate +rhythm giving it a decidedly barbaric tone. The cantata contains also +a quaint and touching contralto aria, and a pathetic setting of the +death-song of Minnehaha. Burton is a graduate of Harvard, and a writer +as well as a composer. He organized, in 1896, the Yonkers Choral +Society, of which he is conductor. + +At Hartford, Conn., is Nathan H. Allen, who was born in Marion, Mass., +in 1848. In 1867 he went to Berlin, where he was a pupil of Haupt for +three years. In this country he has been active as an organist and +teacher. Many of his compositions of sacred music have been published, +including a cantata, "The Apotheosis of St. Dorothy." + +At Providence, R.I., a prominent figure is Jules Jordan, who was born +at Willimantic, Conn., November 10, 1850, of colonial ancestry. Though +chiefly interested in oratorio singing, in which he has been +prominent, he has written a number of songs, some of which have been +very popular. The best of these are a rapturous "Love's Philosophy," a +delicious "Dutch Lullaby," "An Old Song," and "Stay By and Sing." He +has written some religious songs, part songs, and three works for +soli, chorus, and orchestra, "Windswept Wheat," "A Night Service," and +"Barbara Frietchie;" also "Joel," a dramatic scene for soprano and +orchestra, sung at the Worcester Musical Festival by Mme. Nordica. +This I have not seen, nor his romantic opera, "Rip Van Winkle." In +June, 1895, Brown University conferred on him the degree of Doctor of +Music. Two albums of his songs are published. + +A writer of many religious solos and part songs is E.W. Hanscom, who +lives in Auburn, Me. He was born at Durham, in the same State, +December 28, 1848. He has made two extended visits to London, Berlin +and Vienna, for special work under eminent teachers, but has chiefly +studied in Maine. Besides his sacred songs Hanscom has published a +group of six songs, all written intelligently, and an especially good +lyric, "Go, Rose, and in Her Golden Hair," a very richly harmonized +"Lullaby," and two "Christmas Songs," with violin obbligato. + +In Delaware, Ohio, at the Ohio Wesleyan University, is a composer, +Willard J. Baltzell, who has found inspiration for many worthy +compositions, but publishers for only two, both of these part songs, +"Dreamland" and "Life is a Flower," of which the latter is very +excellent writing. + +Baltzell was for some years a victim of the musical lassitude of +Philadelphia. He had his musical training there. He has written in the +large forms a suite founded on Rossetti's "Love's Nocturne," an +overture, "Three Guardsmen," a "Novelette" for orchestra, a cantata, +"The Mystery of Life," and an unfinished setting of Psalm xvii. with +barytone solo. These are all scored for orchestra, and the manuscript +that I have seen shows notable psychological power. Other works are: a +string quartette, a trio, "Lilith," based on Rossetti's poem, "Eden +Bower," a nonet, and a violin sonata. He has also written for the +piano and organ fugues and other works. These I have not seen; but I +have read many of his songs in manuscript, and they reveal a +remarkable strenuousness, and a fine understanding of the poetry. His +song, "Desire," is full of high-colored flecks of harmony that dance +like the golden motes in a sunbeam. His "Madrigal" has much style and +humor. He has set to music a deal of the verse of Langdon E. Mitchell, +besides a song cycle, "The Journey," which is an interesting +failure,--a failure because it cannot interest any public singer, and +interesting because of its artistic musical landscape suggestion; and +there are the songs, "Fallen Leaf," which is deeply morose, and +"Loss," which has some remarkable details and a strange, but +effective, ambiguous ending. Other songs are a superbly rapturous +setting of E.C. Stedman's "Thou Art Mine," and a series of songs to +the words of Richard Watson Gilder, a poet who is singularly +interesting to composers: "Thistledown" is irresistibly volatile; +"Because the Rose Must Fade" has a nobility of mood; "The Winter +Heart" is a powerful short song, and "Woman's Thought," aside from one +or two dangerous moments, is stirring and intense. Baltzell writes +elaborate accompaniments, for which his skill is sufficient, and he is +not afraid of his effects. + +In the far Xanadu of Colorado lives Rubin Goldmark, a nephew of the +famous Carl Goldmark. He was born in New York in 1872. He attended the +public schools and the College of the City of New York. At the age of +seven he began the study of the piano with Alfred M. Livonius, with +whom he went to Vienna at the age of seventeen. There he studied the +piano with Anton Door, and composition with Fuchs, completing in two +years a three years' course in harmony and counterpoint. Returning to +New York, he studied with Rafael Joseffy and with Doctor Dvorak for +one year. In 1892 he went to Colorado Springs for his health. Having +established a successful College of Music there, he has remained as +its director and as a lecturer on musical topics. + +At the age of nineteen he wrote his "Theme and Variations" for +orchestra. They were performed under Mr. Seidl's leadership in 1895 +with much success. Their harmonies are singularly clear and sweet, of +the good old school. At the age of twenty Goldmark wrote a trio for +piano, violin, and 'cello. After the first performance of this work at +one of the conservatory concerts, Doctor Dvorak exclaimed, "There are +now two Goldmarks." The work has also had performance at the concerts +of the Kaltenborn Quartette, and has been published. It begins with a +tentative questioning, from which a serious allegro is led forth. It +is lyrical and sane, though not particularly modern, and certainly not +revolutionary in spirit. The second movement, a romanza, shows more +contrapuntal resource, and is full of a deep yearning and appeal,--an +extremely beautiful movement. The scherzo evinces a taking jocosity +with a serious interval. The piano part is especially humorous. The +finale begins with a touch of Ethiopianism that is perhaps +unconscious. The whole movement is very original and quaint. + +Goldmark's music shows a steady development from a conservative +simplicity to a modern elaborateness, a development thoroughly to be +commended if it does not lead into obscurity. This danger seems to +threaten Goldmark's career, judging from his cantata for chorus and +orchestra, the "Pilgrimage to Kevlaar," which, while highly +interesting in places, and distinctly resourceful, is too abstruse and +gloomy to stand much chance of public understanding. + +Many of the works that I have had the privilege of examining in MS. +have since been published; there is much originality, much attainment, +and more promise in a number of his songs. His setting of Marlowe's +"Come Live with Me," in spite of a few eccentricities, shows, on the +whole, a great fluency of melody over an elaborately beautiful +accompaniment. His solemn and mysterious "Forest Song" could deserve +the advertisement of being "drawn from the wood." "Die erste Liebe" +shows a contemplative originality in harmony, and ends with a curious +dissonance and resolution. "O'er the Woods' Brow" is very strange and +interesting, though somewhat abstruse. Less so is a song, "An den +Abendsstern;" it has a comparison-forcing name, but is a delightful +song. "Es muss ein Wunderbares sein" is notable for novel effects in +harmonies of crystal with light dissonances to edge the facets. A +sonata for piano and violin and a romanza for 'cello have been +published, and his "Hiawatha" overture has been played by the Boston +Symphony Orchestra. On this occasion the always quoteworthy +mezzotintist, James Huneker, wrote: + + "The nephew of a very remarkable composer,--for Carl Goldmark + outranks to-day all the Griegs, Massenets, Mascagnis, + Saint-Saens, and Dvoraks you can gather,--he needs must fear + the presence in his scores of the avuncular apparition. His + 'Hiawatha' overture was played by Mr. Gericke and the Boston + Symphony Orchestra Wednesday of last week. At the first + cantilena on the strings I nearly jumped out of my seat. It + was bewilderingly luscious and Goldmarkian,--a young Goldmark + come to judgment. The family gifts are color and rhythm. This + youth has them, and he also has brains. Original invention is + yet to come, but I have hopes. The overture, which is not + Indian, is full of good things, withal too lengthy in the + free fantasia. There is life, and while there's life there's + rhythm, and a nice variety there is. The allegro has one + stout tune, and the rush and dynamic glow lasts. He lasts, + does Rubin Goldmark, and I could have heard the piece through + twice. The young American composer has not been idle lately." + + +_The New York Colony._ + +In every period where art is alive there must be violent faction, and +wherever there is violent faction there is sure to be a _tertium quid_ +that endeavors to bridge the quarrel. The Daniel Websters call forth +the Robert Haynes, and the two together evoke the compromisers, the +Henry Clays. + +In the struggle between modernity and classicism that always rages +when music is in vitality, one always finds certain ardent spirits who +endeavor to reconcile the conflicting theories of the different +schools, and to materialize the reconciliation in their own work. An +interesting example of this is to be found in the anatomical +construction of one of the best American piano compositions, the +fantasy for piano and orchestra by Arthur Whiting. + +The composer has aimed to pay his respects to the classic sonata +formula, and at the same time to warp it to more romantic and modern +usages. The result of his experiment is a form that should interest +every composer. As Whiting phrases it, he has "telescoped" the sonata +form. The slow introduction prepares for the first and second +subjects, which appear, as usual, except that they are somewhat +developed as they appear. Now, in place of the regular development, +the pastoral movement is brought forward. This is followed by the +reprise of the first and second subjects. Then the finale appears. All +of these movements are performed without pause, and the result is so +successful that Whiting is using the same plan for a quintette. + +Handwriting experts are fond of referring to the "picture effect" of a +page of writing. It is sometimes startling to see the resemblance in +"picture effect" between the music pages of different composers. The +handsomely abused Perosi, for instance, writes many a page, which, if +held at arm's length, you would swear was one of Palestrina's. Some of +Mr. Whiting's music has a decidedly Brahmsic picture effect. This +feeling is emphasized when one remembers the enthusiasm shown for +Brahms in Whiting's concerts, where the works of the Ursus Minor of +Vienna hold the place of honor. The resemblance is only skin deep, +however, and Whiting's music has a mind of its own. + +The fantasy in question (op. 11) is full of individuality and +brilliance. The first subject is announced appassionato by the +strings, the piano joining with arabesquery that follows the general +outlines. After this is somewhat developed, the second subject comes +in whimsically in the relative major. This is written with great +chromatic lusciousness, and is quite liberally developed. It suddenly +disappears into what is ordinarily called the second movement, a +pastoral, in which the piano is answered by the oboe, flute, clarinet, +and finally the horn. This is gradually appassionated until it is +merged into the reprise of the first movement proper. During this +reprise little glints of reminiscence of the pastoral are seen. A coda +of great bravery leads to the last movement, which is marked +"scherzando," but is rather martial in tone. The decidedly noble +composition ends with great brilliancy and strength. It is published +for orchestral score and for two pianos. + +Whiting was born in Cambridge, Mass., June 20, 1861. He studied the +piano with William H. Sherwood, and has made a successful career in +concert playing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Kneisel +Quartette, both of which organizations have performed works of his. In +1883 he went to Munich for two years, where he studied counterpoint +and composition with Rheinberger. He is now living in New York as a +concert pianist and teacher. + +[Music: Idylle. + +Arthur Whiting. + +Copyright, 1895, by G. Schirmer. + +A FRAGMENT.] + +Four works of his for the piano are: "Six Bagatelles," of which the +"Caprice" has a charming infectious coda, while the "Humoreske" is +less simple, and also less amusing. The "Album Leaf" is a pleasing +whimsy, and the "Idylle" is as delicate as fleece. Of the three +"Characteristic Waltzes," the "Valse Sentimentale" is by far the most +interesting. It manages to develop a sort of harmonic haze that is +very romantic. + +For the voice, Whiting has written little. Church music interests him +greatly, and he has written various anthems, a morning and evening +service, which keeps largely to the traditional colors of the +Episcopal ecclesiastical manner, yet manages to be fervent without +being theatrical. A trio, a violin sonata, and a piano quintette, a +suite for strings, and a concert overture for orchestra complete the +list of his writings. + +On the occasion of a performance of Whiting's "Fantasy," Philip Hale +thus picturesquely summed him up: + + "In times past I have been inclined to the opinion that when + Mr. Whiting first pondered the question of a calling he must + have hesitated between chess and music. His music seemed to + me full of openings and gambits and queer things contrived as + in a game. He was the player, and the audience was his + antagonist. Mr. Whiting was generally the easy conqueror. The + audience gave up the contest and admired the skill of the + musician. + + "You respected the music of Mr. Whiting, but you did not feel + for it any personal affection. The music lacked humanity. Mr. + Whiting had, and no doubt has, high ideals. Sensuousness in + music seemed to him as something intolerable, something + against public morals, something that should be suppressed + by the selectmen. Perhaps he never went so far as to petition + for an injunction against sex in music; but rigorous + intellectuality was his one aim. He might have written A + Serious Call to Devout and Holy Composition, or A Practical + Treatise upon Musical Perfection, to which is now added, by + the same author, The Absolute Unlawfulness of the Stage + Entertainment Fully Demonstrated. + + "There was almost intolerance in Mr. Whiting's musical + attitude. He himself is a man of wit rather than humor, a man + with a very pretty knack at sarcasm. He is industrious, + fastidious, a severe judge of his own works. As a musician he + was even in his dryest days worthy of sincere respect. + + "Now this fantasia is the outward and sure expression of a + change in Mr. Whiting's way of musical thinking, and the + change is decidedly for the better. There is still a display + of pure intellectuality; there is still a solving of + self-imposed problems; but Mr. Whiting's musical enjoyment is + no longer strictly selfish. Here is a fantasia in the true + sense of the term; form is here subservient to fancy. The + first movement, if you wish to observe traditional + terminology, is conspicuous chiefly for the skill, yes, + fancy, with which thematic material of no marked apparent + inherent value is treated. The pastorale is fresh and + suggestive. The ordinary pastorale is a bore. There is the + familiar recipe: take an oboe the size of an egg, stir it + with a flute, add a little piano, throw in a handful of + muted strings, and let the whole gently simmer in a 9-8 + stew-pan. But Mr. Whiting has treated his landscape and + animal kingdom with rare discretion. The music gave pleasure; + it soothed by its quiet untortured beauty, its simplicity, + its discretion. And in like manner, without receiving or + desiring to receive any definite, precise impression, the + finale interested because it was not a hackneyed form of + brilliant talk. The finale is something more than clever, to + use a hideous term that I heard applied to it. It is + individual, and this praise may be awarded the whole work. + Remember, too, that although this is a fantasia, there is not + merely a succession of unregulated, uncontrolled, incoherent + sleep-chasings. + + "In this work there is a warmer spirit than that which + animated or kept alive Mr. Whiting's former creations. There + is no deep emotion, there is no sensuousness, there is no + glowing color, no 'color of deciduous days.' These might be + incongruous in the present scheme. But there is a more + pronounced vitality, there is a more decided sympathy with + the world and men and women; there is more humanity. + + "The piano is here an orchestral instrument, and as such it + was played admirably by Mr. Whiting. His style of playing is + his own, even his tone seems peculiarly his own, with a + crispness that is not metallic, with a quality that deceives + at first in its carrying power. His performance was + singularly clean and elastic, its personality was refreshing. + He played the thoughts of Mr. Whiting in Mr. Whiting's way. + And thus by piece and performance did he win a legitimate + success." + +[Illustration: HENRY HOLDEN HUSS.] + +Many American composers have had their first tuition from their +mothers; few from their fathers. Mr. Huss is one of the latter few. +The solidity of his musical foundation bespeaks a very correct +beginning. He was born in Newark, N.J., June 21, 1862. His first +teacher in the theory of music was Otis B. Boise, who has been for the +last twenty years a teacher of theory in Berlin, though he was born in +this country. Huss went to Munich in 1883 and remained three years. He +studied counterpoint under Rheinberger, and won public mention for +proficiency. At his second examination his idyl for small orchestra, +"In the Forest," was produced; and at his graduation he performed his +"Rhapsody" in C major for piano and orchestra. A year after his return +to America this work was given by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A +year later Van der Stucken gave it at the first of his concerts of +American compositions. The next year Huss' "Ave Maria," for women's +voices, string orchestra, harp, and organ, was given a public hearing. +The next year he gave a concert of his own works, and the same year, +1889, Van der Stucken produced his violin romance and polonaise for +violin and orchestra at the Paris Exposition. + +His piano concerto for piano and orchestra he played first with the +Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1894, and has given it on numerous +occasions since. + +Other works, most of which have also been published, are: "The +Fountain," for women's voices a cappella; a festival "Sanctus," for +chorus and orchestra; an "Easter Theme," for chorus, organ, and +orchestra; "The Winds," for chorus and orchestra, with soprano and +alto solos; a "Festival March," for organ and orchestra; a concerto +for violin, and orchestra; a trio for piano, violin, and 'cello; a +"Prelude Appassionata," for the piano, dedicated to and played by Miss +Adele aus der Ohe, to whom the concerto is also dedicated. + +This concerto, which is in D major, is a good example of the +completeness of Huss' armory of resources. The first movement has the +martial pomp and hauteur and the Sardanapalian opulence and color that +mark a barbaric triumph. Chopin has been the evident model, and the +result is always pianistic even at its most riotous point. Huss has +ransacked the piano and pillaged almost every imaginable fabric of +high color. The great technical difficulties of the work are entirely +incidental to the desire for splendor. The result is gorgeous and +purple. The andante is hardly less elaborate than the first movement, +but in the finale there is some laying off of the _impedimenta_ of the +pageant, as if the paraders had put aside the magnificence for a +period of more informal festivity. The spirit is that of the scherzo, +and the main theme is the catchiest imaginable, the rhythm curious and +irresistible, and the entire mood saturnalian. In the coda there is a +reminder of the first movement, and the whole thing ends in a blaze of +fireworks. + +On the occasion of its first performance in Cincinnati, in 1889, +Robert I. Carter wrote: + + "It is preeminently a symphonic work, in which the piano is + used as a voice in the orchestra, and used with consummate + skill. The charm of the work lies in its simplicity. The + pianist will tell you at once that it is essentially + pianistic, a term that is much abused and means little. The + traditional cadenza is there, but it is not allowed to step + out of the frame, and so perfect is the relation to what + precedes and follows, that the average listener might claim + that it does not exist. Without wishing to venture upon any + odious grounds of comparison, I want to state frankly that it + is, to me, emphatically the best American concerto." + +Huss is essentially a dramatic and lyric composer, though he seems to +be determined to show himself also a thematic composer of the old +school. In his trio, which I heard played by the Kaltenborn Quartette, +both phases of his activity were seen. There was much odor of the lamp +about the greater part of the trio, which seemed generally lacking +that necessary capillarity of energy which sometimes saturates with +life-sap the most formal and elaborate counterpoint of the +pre-romantic strata. The andante of the trio, however, displayed Huss' +singularly appealing gift of song. It abounded in emotion, and was--to +use the impossible word Keats coined--"yearnful." Huss should write +more of this sort of music. We need its rare spontaneity and truth, as +we do not need the all too frequent mathematics of those who compose, +as Tybalt fought, "by the book." + +For the piano there are "Three Bagatelles:" an "Etude Melodique," +which is rather harmonic than melodic; an "Albumblatt," a graceful +movement woven like a Schumann arabesque; and a "Pastoral," in which +the gracefulness of the music given to the right hand is annulled by +the inexplicable harshness of that given to the left. + +For the voice, there is, of course, a setting of "Du bist wie eine +Blume," which, save for the fact that it looks as if the accompaniment +were written first, is a very pure piece of writing. The "Song of the +Syrens" is a strong composition with a big climax, the "Jessamine Bud" +is extremely delicate, and "They that Sow in Tears" has much dignity. +There are two songs from Tennyson, "There is Sweet Music Here" and +"Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead," with orchestral accompaniment. + +By all odds the most important, and a genuinely improved composition +is the aria for soprano and orchestra, "The Death of Cleopatra." The +words are taken from Shakespeare's play and make use of the great +lines given to the dying Egypt, "Give me my robe, put on my crown, I +have immortal longings in me," and the rest. The music not only pays +all due reverence to the sacred text, but is inspired by it, and +reaches great heights of fervor and tragedy. From Shakespeare, Huss +drew the afflation for another aria of great interest, a setting for +barytone voice of the "Seven Ages of Man." The problems attending the +putting to music of Shakespeare's text are severe; but the plays are +gold mines of treasure for the properly equipped musician. + +A vivid example of the difficulties in the way of American composers' +securing an orchestral hearing is seen in the experience of Howard +Brockway, who had a symphony performed in 1895 by the Berlin +Philharmonic Orchestra, and has been unable to get a hearing or get +the work performed in America during the five years following, in +spite of the brilliancy of the composition. The scoring of the work is +so mature that one can see its skill by a mere glance at the page from +a distance. When the work was performed in Germany, it was received +with pronounced favor by the Berlin critics, who found in it a +conspicuous absence of all those qualities which the youth of the +composer would have made natural. + +Brockway was born in Brooklyn, November 22, 1870, and studied piano +with H.O.C. Kortheuer from 1887 to 1889. He went to Berlin at the +age of twenty and studied the piano with Barth, and composition with +O.B. Boise, the transplanted American. Boise gave Brockway so +thorough a training that he may be counted one of the most fluent and +completely equipped American composers. At the age of twenty-four he +had finished his symphony (op. 12), a ballade for orchestra (op. 11), +and a violin and piano sonata (op. 9), as well as a cavatina for +violin and orchestra. These, with certain piano solos, were given at a +concert of Brockway's own works in February, 1895, at the +Sing-Akademie. His works were accepted as singularly mature, and +promising as well. A few months later, Brockway returned to New York, +where he has since lived as a teacher and performer. + +His symphony, which is in D major, is so ebullient with life that its +dashing first subject cannot brook more than a few measures of slow +introduction. The second subject is simpler, but no less joyous. The +thematic work is scholarly and enthusiastic at the same time. The +different movements of the symphony are, however, not thematically +related, save that the coda of the last movement is a reminiscence of +the auxiliary theme of the first movement. The andante, in which the +'cellos are very lyrical, is a tender and musing mood. The presto is +flashing with life and has a trio of rollicking, even whooping, +jubilation. The finale begins gloomily and martially, and it is +succeeded by a period of beauty and grace. This movement, in fact, is +a remarkable combination of the exquisitest beauty and most +unrestrained prowess. + +Another orchestral work of great importance in American music is the +"Sylvan Suite" (op. 19), which is also arranged for the piano. In this +work the composer has shown a fine discretion and conservation in the +use of the instruments, making liberal employment of small choirs for +long periods. The work is programmatic in psychology only. It begins +with a "Midsummer Idyl," which embodies the drowsy petulance of hot +noon. The second number is "Will o' the Wisps." In this a three-voiced +fugue for the strings, wood, and one horn has been used with +legitimate effect and most teasing, fleeting whimsicality. The third +movement is a slow waltz, called "The Dance of the Sylphs," a very +catchy air, swaying delicately in the bassoons and 'cello; a short +"Evening Song" is followed by "Midnight." This is a parade that +reminds one strongly of Gottschalk's "Marche de Nuit." The march +movement is followed by an interlude depicting the mystery of night, +as Virgil says, "_tremulo sub lumine_." The composer has endeavored to +indicate the chill gray of dawn by the ending of this movement: a +chord taken by two flutes and the strings shivering _sul ponticello_. +The last movement is "At Daybreak." Out of the gloom of the bassoons +grows a broad and general luminous song followed by an interlude of +the busy hum of life; this is succeeded by the return of the sunrise +theme with a tremendously vivacious accompaniment. + +Other works of Brockway's are: a cantata, a set of variations, a +ballade, a nocturne, a Characterstueck, a Fantasiestueck, a set of four +piano pieces (op. 21), and two piano pieces (op. 25). All of these, +except the cantata, have been published. Two part songs and two songs +with piano accompaniment have also been published; a violin sonata, a +Moment Musicale, and a romanza for violin and orchestra have been +published in Berlin. + +These works all show a decided tendency to write brilliant and +difficult music, but the difficulties are legitimate to the effect and +the occasion. The Ballade works up a very powerful climax; the +Scherzino swishes fascinatingly; and the Romanza for piano is a +notably mature and serious work. + +[Music: Copyright, 1894, by Schlesinger'sche Buch und Musikhandlung +(Rob. Lienau), Berlin. + +FRAGMENT OF A "BALLADE" BY HOWARD BROCKWAY.] + +Two ballads have made the so romantic name of Harry Rowe Shelley a +household word in America. They are the setting of Tom Moore's fiery +"Minstrel Boy," and a strange jargon of words called "Love's Sorrow." +In both cases the music is intense and full of fervor, and quick +popularity rarely goes out to more worthy songs. + +[Illustration: Autograph of Harry Rowe Shelley] + +[Illustration: HARRY ROWE SHELLEY.] + +But Shelley would doubtless prefer to be judged by work to which he +has given more of his art and his interest than to the many songs that +he has tossed off in the light name of popularity. + +Shelley's life has been largely devoted to church work. Born in New +Haven, Conn., June 8, 1858, and taught music by Gustav J. Stoeckel, he +came under the tuition of Dudley Buck for seven years. His twentieth +year found him an organist at New Haven. Three years later he went to +Brooklyn in the same capacity. He was the organist at Plymouth Church +for some time before Henry Ward Beecher's death. Since 1887 he has +been at the Church of the Pilgrims. He visited Europe in 1887 and +studied under Dvorak when the Bohemian master was here. + +Shelley's largest works have been an opera, "Leila," still in +manuscript, a symphonic poem, "The Crusaders," a dramatic overture, +"Francesca da Rimini," a sacred oratorio, "The Inheritance Divine," a +suite for orchestra, a fantasy for piano and orchestra (written for +Rafael Joseffy), a one-act musical extravaganza, a three-act lyric +drama, and a virile symphony. The suite is called "Souvenir de +Baden-Baden." It is a series of highly elaborated trifles of much +gaiety, and includes a lively "Morning Promenade," a dreamy "Siesta," +a "Conversationshaus Ball," and a quaint "Serenade Orientale" that +shows the influence of Mozart's and Beethoven's marches alla turca. +The orchestration of this work I have never heard nor seen. Its +arrangement for four hands, however, is excellently done, with +commendable attention to the interests of the _secondo_ player. + +The cantata is called "The Inheritance Divine," and it is much the +best thing Shelley has done. It begins with a long, slow crescendo on +the word "Jerusalem," which is very forceful. Shelley responds to an +imaginary encore, however, and the word becomes little more than an +expletive. + +Page 7--to refer more conveniently than technically--is marked by +sonorous harmonies of especial nobility. Now begins a new idea worked +up with increased richness and growing fervor to a sudden magnificence +of climax in the second measure on page 11. The final phrase, +strengthened by an organ-point on two notes, is fairly thrilling. A +tenor solo follows, its introductory recitative containing many fine +things, its aria being smoothly melodious. A chorus, of warm harmonies +and a remarkably beautiful and unexpected ending, is next; after which +is a sombre, but impressive alto solo. The two successive choruses, +the quartette, and the soprano solo catch the composer nodding. The +bass solo is better; the final chorus brings us back to the high +plane. Page 62 is particularly big of spirit, and from here on the +chorus climbs fiery heights. In spite of Berlioz' famous parody on the +"Amen" fugues, in the "Damnation of Faust," Shelley has used the word +over a score of times in succession to finish his work. But altogether +the work is one of maturity of feeling and expression, and it is a +notable contribution to American sacred music. + +In 1898 "Death and Life" was published. It opens with a dramatic +chorus sung by the mob before the cross, and it ends daringly with a +unisonal descent of the voices that carries even the sopranos down to +A natural. In the duet between Christ and Mary, seeking where they +have laid her Son, the librettist has given Christ a versified +paraphrase which is questionable both as to taste and grammar. The +final chorus, however, has a stir of spring fire that makes the work +especially appropriate for Easter services. + +The cantata "Vexilla Regis" is notable for its martial opening chorus, +the bass solo, "Where deep for us the spear was dyed," and its +scholarly and effective ending. + +A lapidary's skill and delight for working in small forms belongs to +Gerrit Smith. His "Aquarelles" are a good example of his art in +bijouterie. This collection includes eight songs and eight piano +sketches. The first, "A Lullaby," begins with the unusual skip of a +ninth for the voice. A subdued accentuation is got by the syncopation +of the bass, and the yearning tenderness of the ending finishes an +exquisite song. "Dream-wings" is a graceful fantasy that fittingly +presents the delicate sentiment of Coleridge' lyrics. The setting of +Heine's "Fir-tree" is entirely worthy to stand high among the numerous +settings of this lyric. Smith gets the air of desolation of the bleak +home of the fir-tree by a cold scale of harmony, and a bold simplicity +of accompaniment. The home of the equally lonely palm-tree is strongly +contrasted by a tropical luxuriance of interlude and accompaniment. + +The sixth song is a delightful bit of brilliant music, but it is quite +out of keeping with the poem. Thus on the words, "Margery's only +three," there is a fierce climax fitting an Oriental declaration of +despair. The last of these songs, "Put by the Lute," is possibly +Smith's best work. It is superb from beginning to end. It opens with a +most unhackneyed series of preludizing arpeggios, whence it breaks +into a swinging lyric, strengthened into passion by a vigorous +contramelody in the bass. Throughout, the harmonies are most +original, effective, and surprising. + +Of the eight instrumental pieces in this book, the exquisite and +fluent "Impromptu" is the best after the "Cradle Song," which is +drowsy with luscious harmony and contains a passage come organo of +such noble sonority as to put it a whit out of keeping with a child's +lullaby. + +Smith was born December 11, 1859, at Hagerstown, Md. His first +instruction was gained in Geneva, N.Y., from a pupil of Moscheles. He +began composition early, and works of his written at the age of +fourteen were performed at his boarding-school. He graduated at Hobart +College in 1876, whence he went to Stuttgart to study music and +architecture. A year later he was in New York studying the organ with +Samuel P. Warren. He was appointed organist at St. Paul's, Buffalo, +and studied during the summer with Eugene Thayer, and William H. +Sherwood. In 1880 he went again to Germany, and studied organ under +Haupt, and theory under Rohde, at Berlin. On his return to America he +took the organ at St. Peter's, in Albany. Later he came to New York, +where he has since remained continuously, except for concert tours and +journeys abroad. He has played the organ in the most important English +and Continental towns, and must be considered one of our most +prominent concert organists. He is both a Master of Arts and a Doctor +of Music. As one of the founders, and for many years the president, of +the Manuscript Society, he was active in obtaining a hearing for much +native music otherwise mute. + +In addition to a goodly number of Easter carols, Christmas anthems, Te +Deums, and such smaller forms of religious music, Smith has written a +sacred cantata, "King David." Aside from this work, which in +orchestration and in general treatment shows undoubted skill for large +effort, Doctor Smith's composition has been altogether along the +smaller lines. + +The five-song'd opus 14 shows well matured lyric power, and an +increase in fervor of emotion. Bourdillon's "The Night Has a Thousand +Eyes," which can never be too much set to music, receives here a truly +superb treatment. The interlude, which also serves for finale, is +especially ravishing. "Heart Longings" is one of Mr. Smith's very best +successes. It shows a free passion and a dramatic fire unusual for his +rather quiet muse. The setting of Bourdillon's fine lyric is indeed so +stirring that it deserves a high place among modern songs. "Melody" +is a lyric not without feeling, but yet inclusive of most of Smith's +faults. Thus the prelude, which is a tritely flowing allegro, serves +also for interlude as well as postlude, and the air and accompaniment +of both stanzas are unvaried, save at the cadence of the latter +stanza. The intense poesy of Anna Reeve Aldrich, a poetess cut short +at the very budding of unlimited promise, deserved better care than +this from a musician. Two of Smith's works were published in Millet's +"Half-hours with the Best Composers,"--one of the first substantial +recognitions of the American music-writer. A "Romance," however, is +the best and most elaborate of his piano pieces, and is altogether an +exquisite fancy. His latest work, a cycle of ten pieces for the piano, +"A Colorado Summer," is most interesting. The pieces are all lyrical +and simple, but they are full of grace and new colors. + +[Music: Spring. + +Words by Alfred Tennyson. + +GERRIT SMITH, OP. 13, NO. 4. + + Bird's love and bird's song, + Flying here and there, + Bird's song and bird's love, + And you with gold for hair. + Bird's song and bird's love, + Passing with the weather, + Men's song and men's love, + To love once and forever. + +Copyright, 1894, by Arthur P. Schmidt. + +A FRAGMENT.] + +But Smith's most individual work is his set of songs for children, +which are much compared, and favorably, with Reinecke's work along the +same lines. These are veritable masterpieces of their sort, and they +are mainly grouped into opus 12, called "Twenty-five Song Vignettes." + +So well are they written that they are a safe guide, and worthy that +supreme trust, the first formation of a child's taste. Even +dissonances are used, sparingly but bravely enough to give an idea of +the different elements that make music something more than a sweetish +impotence. They are vastly different from the horrible trash children +are usually brought up on, especially in our American schools, to the +almost incurable perversion of their musical tastes. They are also so +full of refinement, and of that humor without which children cannot +long be held, that they are of complete interest also to "grown-ups," +to whom alone the real artistic value of these songs can entirely +transpire. Worthy of especial mention are the delicious "Stars and +Angels;" the delightful "A Carriage to Ride In;" "Good King Arthur," a +captivating melody, well built on an accompaniment of "God Save the +King;" "Birdie's Burial," an elegy of the most sincere pathos, quite +worthy of a larger cause,--if, indeed, any grief is greater than the +first sorrows of childhood; the surprisingly droll "Barley Romance;" +"The Broom and the Rod," with its programmatic _glissandos_ to give +things a clean sweep; and other delights like the "Rain Song," "The +Tomtit Gray," "Mamma's Birthday," and "Christmas at the Door." To have +given these works their present value and perfection, is to have +accomplished a far greater thing than the writing of a dozen tawdry +symphonies. + +One of the most outrageously popular piano pieces ever published in +America was Homer N. Bartlett's "Grande Polka de Concert." It was his +opus 1, written years ago, and he tells me that he recently refused a +lucrative commission to write fantasies on "Nearer My God to Thee" and +"The Old Oaken Bucket"! So now that he has reformed, grown wise and +signed the musical pledge, one must forgive him those wild oats from +which he reaped royalties, and look to the genuine and sincere work he +has latterly done. Let us begin, say, with opus 38, a "Polonaise" that +out-Herods Chopin in bravura, but is full of vigor and well held +together. A "Dance of the Gnomes," for piano, is also arranged for a +sextet, the arrangement being a development, not a bare transcription. +There are two mazurkas (op. 71), the first very original and happy. +"AEolian Murmurings" is a superb study in high color. A "Caprice +Espanol" is a bravura realization of Spanish frenzy. It has also been +brilliantly orchestrated. Two songs without words make up opus 96: +while "Meditation" shows too evident meditation on Wagner, "A Love +Song" gets quite away from musical bourgeoisery. It is free, spirited, +even daring. It is patently less devoted to theme-development than to +the expression of an emotion. This "Love Song" is one of the very best +of American morceaux, and is altogether commendable. + +Opus 107 includes three "characteristic pieces." "The Zephyr" is +dangerously like Chopin's fifteenth Prelude, with a throbbing +organ-point on the same A flat. On this alien foundation, however, +Bartlett has built with rich harmony. The "Harlequin" is graceful and +cheery. It ends with Rubinstein's sign and seal, an arpeggio in +sixths, which is as trite a musical finis as fiction's "They lived +happily ever afterward, surrounded by a large circle of admiring +friends." + +Three mazurkas constitute opus 125. They are closely modelled on +Chopin, and naturally lack the first-handedness of these works, in +which, almost alone, the Pole was witty. But Bartlett has made as +original an imitation as possible. The second is particularly +charming. + +In manuscript is a Prelude developed interestingly on well-understood +lines. There is a superb "Reverie Poetique." It is that climax of +success, a scholarly inspiration. To the meagre body of American +scherzos, Bartlett's scherzo will be very welcome. It is very festive +and very original. Its richly harmonized interlude shows a complete +emancipation from the overpowering influence of Chopin, and a great +gain in strength as well as individuality. + +In his songs Bartlett attains a quality uniformly higher than that of +his piano pieces. "Moonbeams" has many delicacies of harmony. +"Laughing Eyes" is a fitting setting of Mr. "Nym Crinkle" Wheeler's +exquisite lyric. "Come to Me, Dearest," while cheap in general design, +has fine details. + +It makes me great dole to have to praise a song about a brooklet; but +the truth is, that Bartlett's "I Hear the Brooklet's Murmur" is +superbly beautiful, wild with regret,--a noble song. It represents the +late German type of _Lied_, as the earlier heavy style is exemplified +in "Good Night, Dear One." Very Teutonic also is the airiness and +grace of "Rosebud." + +To that delightful collection of children's songs, "The St. Nicholas +Song Book," Bartlett contributed largely. All of his lyrics are +delicious, and "I Had a Little Pony" should become a nursery classic. + +In his "Lord God, Hear My Prayer," Bartlett throws down the gauntlet +to the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria," with results rather disastrous. He +chooses a Cramer etude, and adds to it parts for voice, violin, and +organ. While Gounod seems passionate and unrestrained, Bartlett shows +his caution and his cage at every step. A Cramer etude is among the +most melancholy things of earth anyway. "Jehovah Nissi" is an +excellent sacred march chorus that won a prize, and there is a +cantata, "The Last Chieftain." Bartlett's cantata is without efforts +at Indian color, but is a solid work with much dignity, barbaric +severity, and fire. + +Bartlett was born at Olive, N.Y., December 28, 1846. His ancestry +runs far back into New England, his mother being a descendant of John +Rogers, the martyr. Bartlett is said to have "lisped in numbers," +singing correctly before he could articulate words. The violin was his +first love, and at the age of eight he was playing in public. He took +up the piano and organ also, and in his fourteenth year was a church +organist. He studied the piano with S.B. Mills, Emil Guyon (a pupil +of Thalberg), and Alfred Pease. The organ and composition he studied +with O.F. Jacobsen and Max Braun. With the exception of a musical +pilgrimage in 1887, Bartlett has not come nearer the advantages of +Europe than study here under men who studied there. He has resided for +many years in New York as organist and teacher. As a composer he has +been one of our most prolific music-makers. His work shows a steady +development in value, and the best is doubtless yet to come. + +He finds a congenial field in the orchestra. Seidl played his +instrumentation of Chopin's "Military Polonaise" several times. As the +work seemed to need a finale in its larger form, Bartlett took a +liberty whose success was its justification, and added a finish made +up of the three principal themes interwoven. A recent work is his +"Concertstueck," for violin and orchestra. It is not pianistic in +instrumentation, and will appeal to violinists. While not marked with +_recherches_ violin tricks, or violent attempts at bravura, it has +both brilliance and solidity, and is delightfully colored in +orchestration. There are no pauses between the movements, but they are +well varied in their unity. + +There is an unfinished oratorio, "Samuel," an incomplete opera, +"Hinotito," and a cantata of which only the tenor solo, "Khamsin," is +done. This is by far the best work Bartlett has written, and displays +unexpected dramatic powers. The variation of the episodes of the +various phases of the awful drought to the climax in "The Plague," +make up a piece of most impressive strength. The orchestration is +remarkably fine with effect, color, and variety. If the cantata is +finished on this scale, its production will be a national event. + +The New England farmer is usually taken as a type of sturdy +Philistinism in artistic matters. It was a most exceptional good +fortune that gave C.B. Hawley a father who added to the dignity of +being a tiller of the soil the refinements of great musical taste and +skill. His house at Brookfield, Conn., contained not only a grand +piano, but a pipe organ as well; and Hawley's mother was blessed with +a beautiful and cultivated voice. + +At the age of thirteen (he was born St. Valentine's Day, 1858) Hawley +was a church organist and the conductor of musical affairs in the +Cheshire Military Academy, from which he graduated. He went to New +York at the age of seventeen, studying the voice with George James +Webb, Rivarde, Foederlein, and others, and composition with Dudley +Buck, Joseph Mosenthal, and Rutenber. + +His voice brought him the position of soloist at the Calvary Episcopal +Church, at the age of eighteen. Later he became assistant organist at +St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, under George William Warren. For the +last fourteen years he has had charge of the summer music at St. James +Chapel, in Elberon, the chapel attended by Presidents Grant and +Garfield. For seventeen years he has been one of the leading spirits +of the Mendelssohn Glee Club, and for ten years a member of the +Mendelssohn Quartet Club. Most of his part songs were written for the +club and first sung at its concerts. He is also a successful teacher +of the voice, and has been too busy to write a very large volume of +compositions. But those published show the authentic fire. + +Notable features of Hawley's compositions are the taking quality of +the melody, its warm sincerity, and the unobtrusive opulence in color +of the accompaniment. This is less like an answering, independent +voice than like a many-hued, velvety tapestry, backgrounding a +beautiful statue. It is only on second thought and closer study that +one sees how well concealed is the careful and laborious polish _ad +unguem_ of every chord. This is the true art of song, where the lyrics +should seem to gush spontaneously forth from a full heart and yet +repay the closer dissection that shows the intellect perfecting the +voice of emotion. + +Take, for example, his "Lady Mine," a brilliant rhapsody, full of the +spring, and enriched with a wealth of color in the accompaniment till +the melody is half hidden in a shower of roses. It required courage to +make a setting of "Ah, 'Tis a Dream!" so famous through Lassen's +melody; but Hawley has said it in his own way in an air thrilled with +longing and an accompaniment as full of shifting colors as one of the +native sunsets. I can't forbear one obiter dictum on this poem. It has +never been so translated as to reproduce its neatest bit of fancy. In +the original the poet speaks of meeting in dreams a fair-eyed maiden +who greeted him "auf Deutsch" and kissed him "auf Deutsch," but the +translations all evade the kiss in German. + +"The Ring," bounding with the glad frenzy of a betrothed lover, has a +soaring finale, and is better endowed with a well polished +accompaniment than the song, "Because I Love You, Dear," which is not +without its good points in spite of its manifest appeal to a more +popular taste. "My Little Love," "An Echo," "Spring's Awakening," and +"Where Love Doth Build His Nest," are conceived in Hawley's own vein. + +The song, "Oh, Haste Thee, Sweet," has some moments of banality, but +more of novelty; the harmonic work being unusual at times, especially +in the rich garb of the words, "It groweth late." In "I Only Can Love +Thee," Hawley has succeeded in conquering the incommensurateness of +Mrs. Browning's sonnet by alternating 6-8 and 9-8 rhythms. His "Were I +a Star," is quite a perfect lyric. + +Of his part songs, all are good, some are masterly. Here he colors +with the same lavish but softly blending touch as in his solos. "My +Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose" is altogether delightful, containing as +it does a suggestion of the old formalities and courtly graces of the +music of Lawes, whose songs Milton sonneted. I had always thought that +no musician could do other than paint the lily in attempting to add +music to the music of Tennyson's "Bugle Song," but Hawley has come +dangerously near satisfaction in the elfland faintness and dying +clearness of his voices. + +He has written two comic glees, one of which, "They Kissed! I Saw Them +Do It," has put thousands of people into the keenest mirth. It is a +vocal scherzo for men's voices. It begins with a criminally lugubrious +and thin colloquy, in which the bass dolefully informs the others: +"Beneath a shady tree they sat," to which the rest agree; "He held +her hand, she held his hat," which meets with general consent. Now we +are told in stealthy gasps, "I held my breath and lay right flat." +Suddenly out of this thinness bursts a peal of richest harmony: "They +kissed! I saw them do it." It is repeated more lusciously still, and +then the basses and barytones mouth the gossip disapprovingly, and the +poem continues with delicious raillery till it ends abruptly and +archly: "And they thought no one knew it!" + +Besides these scherzos, Hawley has written a few religious part songs +of a high order, particularly the noble "Trisagion and Sanctus," with +its "Holy, Holy!" now hushed in reverential awe and now pealing in +exultant worship. But of all his songs, I like best his "When Love is +Gone," fraught with calm intensity, and closing in beauty as +ineffable as a last glimmer of dying day. + +To the stencil-plate chivalry of the lyrics of the ubiquitous F.E. +Weatherby and John Oxenford, the song-status of England can blame a +deal of its stagnation. It is not often that these word-wringers have +enticed American composers. One of the few victims is John Hyatt +Brewer, who was born in Brooklyn, in 1856, and has lived there ever +since. + +[Music: When Love is gone. + +(_Soprano, or Tenor._) + +C.B. HAWLEY. + + The mind has a thousand eyes, + The heart but one; + Yet the light of a whole life dies + When love is gone, when love is gone. + +Copyright, 1894, by G. Schirmer.] + +Brewer made his debut as a six-year-old singer, and sang till his +fourteenth year. A year later he was an organist in Brooklyn, where he +has held various positions in the same capacity ever since, +additionally busying himself as a teacher of voice, piano, organ, and +harmony. His studies in piano and harmony were pursued under Rafael +Navarro. Counterpoint, fugue, and composition he studied under Dudley +Buck. + +In 1878 Brewer became the second tenor and accompanist of the Apollo +Club, of which Mr. Buck is the director. He has conducted numerous +vocal societies and an amateur orchestra. + +Of his cantatas, "Hesperus" is a work of the greatest promise and +large performance. + +For male voices Brewer has written a cantata called "The Birth of +Love." Its fiery ending is uncharacteristic, but the beautiful tenor +solo and an excellent bass song prove his forte to lie in the realm +of tenderness. Brewer's music has little fondness for climaxes, but in +a tender pathos that is not tragedy, but a sort of lotos-eater's +dreaminess and regret, he is congenially placed. Smoothness is one of +his best qualities. + +Out of a number of part songs for men, one should mark a vigorous +"Fisher's Song," a "May Song," which has an effective "barber's +chord," and "The Katydid," a witty realization of Oliver Wendell +Holmes' captivating poem. His "Sensible Serenade" has also an +excellent flow of wit. Both these songs should please glee clubs and +their audiences. + +For women's voices Brewer has written not a little. The best of these +are "Sea Shine," which is particularly mellow, and "Treachery," a +love-scherzo. + +For the violin there are two pieces: one, in the key of D, is a duet +between the violin and the soprano voice of the piano. It is full of +characteristic tenderness, full even of tears. It should find a good +place among those violin ballads of which Raff's Cavatina is the +best-known example. Another violin solo in A is more florid, but is +well managed. The two show a natural aptitude for composition for this +favorite of all instruments. + +For full orchestra there is a suite, "The Lady of the Lake," also +arranged, for piano and organ. It is smooth and well-tinted. A sextet +for strings and flute has been played with favor. + +Brewer's chief success lies along lines of least resistance, one might +say. His Album of Songs (op. 27) is a case in point. Of the subtle and +inevitable "Du bist wie eine Blume," he makes nothing, and "The +Violet" forces an unfortunate contrast with Mozart's idyl to the same +words. But "Meadow Sweet" is simply iridescent with cheer, a most +unusually sweet song, and "The Heart's Rest" is of equal perfection. + +The best-abused composer in America is doubtless Reginald de Koven. +His great popularity has attracted the search-light of minute +criticism to him, and his accomplishments are such as do not well +endure the fierce white light that beats upon the throne. The sin of +over-vivid reminiscence is the one most persistently imputed to him, +and not without cause. While I see no reason to accuse him of +deliberate imitation, I think he is a little too loth to excise from +his music those things of his that prove on consideration to have been +said or sung before him. Instead of crying, "_Pereant qui ante nos +nostra cantaverunt_," he believes in a live-and-let-live policy. But +ah, if De Koven were the only composer whose eraser does not evict all +that his memory installs! + +De Koven was born at Middletown, Conn., in 1859, and enjoyed unusual +advantages for musical study abroad. At the age of eleven, he was +taken to Europe, where he lived for twelve years. At Oxford he earned +a degree with honors. His musical instructors include Speidel, Lebert, +and Pruckner, at Stuttgart, Huff the contrapuntist at Frankfort, and +Vannucini, who taught him singing, at Florence. He made also a +special study of light opera under Genee and Von Suppe. He made +Chicago his home in 1882, afterward moving to New York, where he +served as a musical critic on one of the daily papers for many years. + +De Koven has been chief purveyor of comic opera to his generation, and +for so ideal a work as "Robin Hood," and such pleasing constructions +as parts of his other operas ("Don Quixote," "The Fencing Master," +"The Highwayman," for instance), one ought to be grateful, especially +as his music has always a certain elegance and freedom from vulgarity. + +Of his ballads, "Oh, Promise Me" has a few opening notes that remind +one of "Musica Proibita," but it was a taking lyric that stuck in the +public heart. His setting of Eugene Field's "Little Boy Blue" is a +work of purest pathos and directness. His version of "My Love is Like +a Red, Red Rose" is among the best of its countless settings, and "The +Fool of Pamperlune," the "Indian Love Song," "In June," and a few +others, are excellent ballad-writing. + +Victor Harris is one of the few that selected New York for a +birthplace. He was born here April 27, 1869, and attended the College +of the City of New York, class of 1888. For several of his early years +he was well known as a boy-soprano, whence he graduated into what he +calls the "usual career" of organist, pianist, and teacher of the +voice. In 1895 and 1896 he acted as the assistant conductor to Anton +Seidl in the Brighton Beach summer concerts. He learned harmony of +Frederick Schilling. + +Harris is most widely known as an accompanist, and is one of the best +in the country. But while the accompaniments he writes to his own +songs are carefully polished and well colored, they lack the show of +independence that one might expect from so unusual a master of their +execution. + +Except for an unpublished one-act operetta, "Mlle. Maie et M. de +Sembre," and a few piano pieces, Harris has confined himself to the +writing of short songs. In his twenty-first year two of unequal merits +were published, "The Fountains Mingle with the River" being a taking +melody, but without distinction or originality, while "Sweetheart" has +much more freedom from conventionality and inevitableness. + +[Music: To N.N.H. + +Song from Omar Khayyam. + +VICTOR HARRIS, Op. 16, No. 3. + + Oh! threats of Hell and hopes of Paradise! + One thing at least is certain-- + _This_ Life flies, + One thing is certain, and the rest is Lies! + The Flower that once has blown for ever, for ever dies. + +Copyright, 1898, by Edward Schuberth & Co.] + +A later song, "My Guest," shows an increase in elaboration, but +follows the florid school of Harrison Millard's once so popular +rhapsody, "Waiting." Five songs are grouped into opus 12, and they +reach a much higher finish and a better tendency to make excursions +into other keys. They also show two of Harris' mannerisms, a constant +repetition of verbal phrases and a fondness for writing close, +unbroken chords, in triplets or quartoles. "A Melody" is beautiful; +"Butterflies and Buttercups" is the perfection of grace; "I Know not +if Moonlight or Starlight" is a fine rapture, and "A Disappointment" +is a dire tragedy, all about some young toadstools that thought they +were going to be mushrooms. For postlude two measures from the +cantabile of Chopin's "Funeral March" are used with droll effect. +"Love, Hallo!" is a headlong springtime passion. Two of his latest +songs are "Forever and a Day," with many original touches, and a +"Song from Omar Khayyam," which is made of some of the most cynical of +the tent-maker's quatrains. Harris has given them all their power and +bitterness till the last line, "The flower that once has blown forever +dies," which is written with rare beauty. "A Night-song" is possibly +his best work; it is full of colors, originalities, and lyric +qualities. Opus 13 contains six songs: "Music when Soft Voices Die" +has many uncommon and effective intervals; "The Flower of Oblivion" is +more dramatic than usual, employs discords boldly, and gives the +accompaniment more individuality than before; "A Song of Four +Seasons" is a delicious morsel of gaiety, and "Love within the Lover's +Breast" is a superb song. Harris has written some choric works for men +and women also. They show commendable attention to all the voice +parts. + +One of the most prominent figures in American musical history has been +Dr. William Mason. He was born in Boston, January 24, 1829, and was +the son of Lowell Mason, that pioneer in American composition. Dr. +William Mason studied in Boston, and in Germany under Moscheles, +Hauptmann, Richter, and Liszt. His success in concerts abroad and here +gave prestige to his philosophy of technic, and his books on method +have taken the very highest rank. + +His pedagogical attainments have overshadowed his composition, but he +has written some excellent music. As he has been an educational force +in classical music, so his compositions show the severe pursuit of +classic forms and ideas. His work is, therefore, rather ingenious than +inspired, and intellectual rather than emotional. Yale made him Doctor +of Music in 1872. + +Another composer whose studies in technic have left him only a little +inclination for creation is Albert Ross Parsons, who was born at +Sandusky, O., September 16, 1847. He studied in Buffalo, and in New +York under Ritter. Then he went to Germany, where he had a remarkably +thorough schooling under Moscheles, Reinecke, Richter, Paul, Taussig, +Kullak, and others. Returning to this country, he has busied himself +as organist, teacher, and an editor of musical works. What little +music he has composed shows the fruit of his erudition in its +correctness. + +Such men as Doctor Mason and Mr. Parsons, though they add little to +the volume of composition,--a thing for which any one should be +thanked on some considerations,--yet add great dignity to their +profession in this country. + +Arthur, a younger brother of Ethelbert Nevin, shows many of the +Nevinian traits of lyric energy and harmonic color in his songs. He +was born at Sewickley, Pa., in 1871. Until he was eighteen he had +neither interest nor knowledge in music. In 1891 he began a four +years' course in Boston, going thence to Berlin, where his masters +were Klindworth and Boise. A book of four graceful "May Sketches" has +been published, "Pierrot's Guitar" being especially ingenious. There +are two published songs, "Were I a Tone" and "In Dreams," both +emotionally rich. In manuscript are a fine song, "Free as the Tossing +Sea," and a well-devised trio. + +A successful writer of songs is C. Whitney Coombs. He was born in +Maine, in 1864, and went abroad at the age of fourteen. He studied the +piano with Speidel, and composition with Seiffritz, in Stuttgart, for +five years, and pursued his studies later in Dresden under Draessecke, +Janssen, and John. In 1887 he became organist at the American Church +in that city, returning to America in 1891, since which time he has +been an organist in New York. + +In 1891 his publication begins with "My Love," an excellent lilt on +lines from the Arabian. Among his many songs a few should be noted: +the "Song of a Summer Night" is brilliant and poetic, and "Alone" is +marked by some beautiful contramelodic effects; his "Indian Serenade" +is a gracious work. + +J. Remington Fairlamb has been a prolific composer. He was born at +Philadelphia, and at fourteen was a church organist. He studied at the +Paris Conservatoire and in Italy; was appointed consul at Zurich by +President Lincoln, and while in Stuttgart was decorated by the King of +Wurtemburg with the "Great Gold Medal of Art and Science" for a Te +Deum for double chorus and orchestra. Of Fairlamb's compositions, some +two hundred have been published, including much sacred music and parts +of two operas. A grand opera, "Leonello," in five acts, and a mass are +in manuscript. + +Frank Seymour Hastings has found in music a pleasant avocation from +finance, and written various graceful songs. He has been active, too, +in the effort to secure a proper production of grand opera in English. + +Dr. John M. Loretz, of Brooklyn, is a veteran composer, and has passed +his opus 200. He has written much sacred music and several comic +operas. + +A prominent figure in New York music, though only an occasional +composer, is Louis Raphael Dressler, one of the six charter members of +the Manuscript Society, and long its treasurer. His father was William +Dressler, one of the leading musicians of the earlier New York, where +Mr. Dressler was born, in 1861. Dressier studied with his father, and +inherited his ability as a professional accompanist and conductor. He +was the first to produce amateur performances of opera in New York. +His songs are marked with sincerity and spontaneity. + +Richard Henry Warren has been the organist at St. Bartholomew's since +1886, and the composer of much religious music in which both skill and +feeling are present. Among his more important works are two complete +services, a scene for barytone solo, male chorus, and orchestra, +called "Ticonderoga," and a powerful Christmas anthem. Warren has +written also various operettas, in which he shows a particular grasp +of instrumentation, and an ability to give new turns of expression to +his songs, while keeping them smooth and singable. An unpublished +short song of his, "When the Birds Go North," is a remarkably +beautiful work, showing an aptitude that should be more cultivated. + +Warren was born at Albany, September 17, 1859. He is a son and pupil +of George W. Warren, the distinguished organist. He went to Europe in +1880, and again in 1886, for study and observation. He was the +organizer and conductor of the Church Choral Society, which gave +various important religious works their first production in New York, +and, in some cases, their first hearing in America, notably, Dvorak's +Requiem Mass, Gounod's "Mors et Vita," Liszt's Thirteenth Psalm, +Saint-Saens' "The Heavens Declare," Villiers Stanford's "God is Our +Hope and Strength," and Mackenzie's "Veni, Creator Spiritus." Horatio +Parker's "Hora Novissima" was composed for this society, and +Chadwick's "Phoenix Expirans" given its first New York performance. + +A prominent organist and teacher is Smith N. Penfield, who has also +found time for the composition of numerous scholarly works, notably, +an overture for full orchestra, an orchestral setting of the +eighteenth psalm, a string quartette, and many pieces for the organ, +voice, and piano. His tuition has been remarkably thorough. Born in +Oberlin, Ohio, April 4, 1837, he studied the piano in Germany with +Moscheles, Papperitz, and Reinecke, the organ with Richter, +composition, counterpoint, and fugue with Reinecke and Hauptmann. He +had also a period of study in Paris. + +Another organist of distinction is Frank Taft, who is also a conductor +and a composer. His most important work is a "Marche Symphonique," +which was performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was born in +East Bloomfield, New York, and had his education entirely in this +country, studying the organ with Clarence Eddy, and theory with +Frederic Grant Gleason. + +A young composer of many graceful songs is Charles Fonteyn Manney, who +was born in Brooklyn in 1872, and studied theory with William Arms +Fisher in New York, and later with J. Wallace Goodrich at Boston. His +most original song is "Orpheus with His Lute," which reproduces the +quaint and fascinating gaucheries of the text with singular charm. He +has also set various songs of Heine's to music, and a short cantata +for Easter, "The Resurrection." + +An ability that is strongly individual is that of Arthur Farwell, +whose first teacher in theory was Homer A. Norris, and who later +studied under Humperdinck in Germany. Among his works are an elaborate +ballade for piano and violin, a setting of Shelley's "Indian +Serenade," and four folk-songs to words by Johanna Ambrosius, the +peasant genius of Germany. Among others of his published songs is +"Strow Poppy Buds," a strikingly original composition. + +A writer of numerous elegant trifles and of a serious symphony is +Harry Patterson Hopkins, who was born in Baltimore, and graduated at +the Peabody Institute in 1896, receiving the diploma for distinguished +musicianship. The same year he went to Bohemia, and studied with +Dvorak. He returned to America to assist in the production of one of +his compositions by Anton Seidl. + +Very thorough was the foreign training of Carl V. Lachmund, whose +"Japanese Overture" has been produced under the direction of Thomas +and Seidl, in the former case at a concert of that society at which +many important native works have had their only hearing, the Music +Teachers' National Association. Lachmund was born at Booneville, Mo., +in 1854. At the age of thirteen he began his tuition at Cologne, under +Heller, Jensen, and Seiss; later he went to Berlin to study with the +Scharwenkas, Kiel, and Moskowski. He had also four years of Liszt's +training at Weimar. A trio for harp, violin, and 'cello was played by +the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and a concert prelude for the piano +was much played in concerts in Germany. Before returning to America, +Lachmund was for a time connected with the opera at Cologne. + + +_The Boston Colony._ + +To the composer potentially a writer of grand operas, but barred out +by the absolute lack of opening here, the dramatic ballad should offer +an attractive form. Such works as Schubert's "Erl-King" show what can +be done. Henry Holden Huss has made some interesting experiments, and +Fred. Field Bullard has tried the field. + +[Illustration: FREDERICK FIELD BULLARD.] + +Bullard's setting of Tennyson's almost lurid melodrama in six stanzas, +"The Sisters," has caught the bitter mixture of love and hate, and +avoided claptrap climaxes most impressively. + +[Music: HYMN OF PAN. + +Words by +PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. + +Music by +FRED. FIELD BULLARD, +Op. 17, No. 4. + + From the forests and highlands I come, I come; + From the river-girt islands, + Where waves are dumb; + From the forests and highlands, + From the river-girt islands, + I come, I come, I come. + The wind in the reeds and the rushes, + The bees in the bells of thyme, + The birds in the myrtle bushes, + The.... + +Copyright, 1894, by Miles & Thompson. + +A FRAGMENT.] + +"In the Greenwood" (op. 14) is graceful, and "A June Lullaby" has a +charming accompaniment of humming rain. Bullard has set some of +Shelley's lyrics for voice and harp or piano, in opus 17. "From Dreams +of Thee" gets a delicious quaintness of accompaniment, while the "Hymn +of Pan" shows a tremendous savagery and uncouthness, with strange and +stubborn harmonies. Full of the same roborific virility are his +settings to the songs of Richard Hovey's writing, "Here's a Health to +Thee, Roberts," "Barney McGee," and the "Stein Song." These songs have +an exuberance of the roistering spirit, along with a competence of +musicianship that lifts them above any comparison with the average +balladry. Similarly "The Sword of Ferrara," with its hidalgic pride, +and "The Indifferent Mariner," and the drinking-song, "The Best of All +Good Company," are all what Horace Greeley would have called "mighty +interesting." Not long ago I would have wagered my head against a +hand-saw, that no writer of this time could write a canon with +spontaneity. But then I had not seen Bullard's three duets in canon +form. He has chosen his words so happily and expressed them so easily, +and with such arch raillery, that the duets are delicious. Of equal +gaiety is "The Lass of Norwich Town," which, with its violin +obbligato, won a prize in the _Musical Record_ competition of 1899. + +Bullard was born at Boston, in 1864. He studied chemistry at first, +but the claims of music on his interest were too great, and in 1888 he +went to Munich, where he studied with Josef Rheinberger. After four +years of European life he returned to Boston, where he has taught +harmony and counterpoint along rather original lines. He is a writer +with ideas and resources that give promise of a large future. His +scholarship has not led him away from individuality. He is especially +likely to give unexpected turns of expression, little bits of +programmism rather incompatible with the ballad form most of his songs +take. The chief fault with his work is the prevailing dun-ness of his +harmonies. They have not felt the impressionistic revolt from the old +bituminous school. But in partial compensation for this bleakness is a +fine ruggedness. + +Of his other published songs, "At Daybreak" shows a beautiful fervor +of repression. "On the Way" is redeemed by a particularly stirring +finish. In opus 8, "A Prayer" is begun in D minor and ended in D +major, with a strong effect of sudden exaltation from gloom. "The +Singer" begins also in sombre style with unusual and abrupt +modulations, and ends in a bright major. "The Hermit" is likewise +grim, but is broad and deep. It uses a hint of "Old Hundred" in the +accompaniment. + +Opus 11 couples two dramatic ballads. In this form of condensed drama +is a too-little occupied field of composition, and Bullard has written +some part songs, of which "In the Merry Month of May," "Her Scuttle +Hat," and "The Water Song" are worth mentioning. "O Stern Old Land" is +a rather bathetic candidate for the national hymnship. But his "War +Song of Gamelbar," for male voices, is really a masterwork. +Harmonists insist on so much closer compliance with rules for +smoothness in vocal compositions than in instrumental work, that the +usual composer gives himself very little liberty here. Bullard, +however, has found the right occasion for wild dissonances, and has +dared to use them. The effect is one of terrific power. This, his +"Song of Pan" and "The Sisters" give him a place apart from the rest +of native song-writers. + +[Illustration: HOMER A. NORRIS.] + +With all reverence for German music, it has been too much inclined of +late to domineer the rest of the world, especially America. A useful +counter-influence is that of Homer A. Norris, who has stepped out of +the crowd flying to Munich and neighboring places, and profited by +Parisian harmonic methods. + +His book, "Practical Harmony," imparts a, to us, novel method of +disarming the bugaboo of altered chords of many of its notorious +terrors. He also attacks the pedantry of music "so constructed that it +appeals to the eye rather than the ear,--paper-work," a most +praiseworthy assault on what is possibly the heaviest incubus on +inspiration. In a later work on "Counterpoint" he used for chapter +headings Greek vases and other decorative designs, to stimulate the +ideal of counterpoint as a unified complexity of graceful contours. + +Norris was born in Wayne, Me., and became an organist at an early +age. His chief interest has been, however, in the theory of music, and +he studied with G.W. Marston, F.W. Hale, and G.W. Chadwick, as well +as Emery. In deciding upon foreign study he was inspired to choose +France instead of Germany. This has given him a distinct place. + +After studying in Paris for four years under Dubois, Godard, Guilmant, +and Gigout, he made his home in Boston, where he has since confined +himself to the teaching of composition. + +As yet Mr. Norris has composed little, and that little is done on +simple lines, but the simplicity is deep, and the harmonies, without +being bizarre, are wonderfully mellow. + +His first song, "Rock-a-bye, Baby," he sold for twelve printed copies, +and it is said to have had a larger sale than any cradle-song ever +published in this country. His song, "Protestations," is tender, and +has a violin obbligato that is really more important than the voice +part. The song, "Parting," is wild with passion, and bases a superb +melody on a fitting harmonic structure. I consider "Twilight" one of +the best American songs. It gets some unusual effects with intervals +of tenths and ninths, and shows a remarkable depth of emotion. + +In the larger forms he has done a concert overture, "Zoroaster" +(which, judging from an outline, promises many striking effects), and +a cantata, "Nain," which has the sin of over-repetition of words, but +is otherwise marked with telling pathos and occasional outbursts of +intensely dramatic feeling. + +Perhaps his most original work is seen in his book of "Four Songs for +Mezzo-Voice." The first is Kipling's "O Mother Mine," with harshnesses +followed by tenderest musings; the second is a noble song, "Peace," +with an accompaniment consisting entirely of the slowly descending +scale of C major; a high-colored lilt, "The World and a Day," is +followed by a Maeterlinckian recitative of the most melting pathos. +This book is another substantiation of my belief that America is +writing the best of the songs of to-day. + +One of the best-esteemed musicians in Boston, G.E. Whiting has +devoted more of his interest to his career as virtuoso on the organ +than to composition. Not many of such works as he has found time to +write have been printed. These include an organ sonata, a number of +organ pieces, a book of studies for the organ, six songs, and three +cantatas for solos, chorus, and orchestra, "A Tale of the Viking," +"Dream Pictures," and "A Midnight Cantata." + +Whiting was born at Holliston, Mass., September 14, 1842. At the age +of five, he began the study of music with his brother. At the age of +fifteen, he moved to Hartford, Conn., where he succeeded Dudley Buck +as organist of one of the churches. Here he founded the Beethoven +Society. At the age of twenty he went to Boston, and after studying +with Morgan, went to Liverpool, and studied the organ under William +Thomas Best. Later he made a second pilgrimage to Europe, and studied +under Radeck. + +For many years he has lived in Boston as a teacher of music and +performer upon the organ. In manuscript are a number of works which I +have not had the privilege of seeing: two masses for chorus, +orchestra, and organ, a concert overture, a concerto, a sonata, a +fantasy and fugue, a fantasy and three etudes, a suite for 'cello and +piano, and a setting of Longfellow's "Golden Legend," which won two +votes out of five in the thousand dollar musical festival of 1897, the +prize being awarded to Dudley Buck. + +[Music: Peace. + +EDWARD ROWLAND SILL. + +HOMER A. NORRIS. + + 'Tis not in seeking, + 'Tis not in endless striving, + Thy quest is found: + Thy quest is found. + Be still and listen; + Be still and drink the quiet of all around + Not for thy crying, + Not for thy loud beseeching, + Will peace draw near: + Will peace draw near: + Rest with palms folded, + Rest with thine eyelids fallen + Lo! peace is here. + +Copyright, 1900, by H.B. Stevens Co. International copyright secured. + +Used by permission of H.B. Stevens Co., Boston, owners of the +copyright.] + +Of his compositions H.E. Krehbiel in 1892 recorded the opinion that +they "entitled him to a position among the foremost musicians in this +country." He is an uncle of Arthur Whiting. + +G.W. Marston's setting of the omnipresent "Du bist wie eine Blume" is +really one of the very best Heine's poem has ever had. Possibly it is +the best of all the American settings. His "There Was an Aged Monarch" +is seriously deserving of the frankest comparison with Grieg's +treatment of the same _Lied_. It is interesting to note the radical +difference of their attitudes toward it. Grieg writes in a folk-tone +that is severe to the point of grimness. He is right because it is +_ein altes Liedchen_, and Heine's handling of it is also kept +outwardly cold. But Marston has rendered the song into music of the +richest harmony and fullest pathos. He is right, also, because he has +interpreted the undercurrent of the story. + +Bodenstedt's ubiquitous lyric, "Wenn der Fruehling auf die Berge +steigt," which rivals "Du bist wie eine Blume" in the favor of +composers, has gathered Marston also into its net. He gives it a +climax that fairly sweeps one off his feet, though one might wish that +the following and final phrase had not forsaken the rich harmonies of +the climax so completely. + +This song is the first of a "Song Album" for sopranos, published in +1890. In this group the accompaniments all receive an attention that +gives them meaning without obtrusiveness. "The Duet" is a delicious +marriage of the song of a girl and the accompanying rapture of a bird. + +A captivating little florid figure in the accompaniment of a setting +of "Im wunderschoenen Monat Mai" gives the song worth. "On the Water" +is profound with sombreness and big simplicity. "The Boat of My Lover" +is quaintly delightful. + +Marston was born in Massachusetts, at the little town of Sandwich, in +1840. He studied there, and later at Portland, Me., with John W. +Tufts, and has made two pilgrimages to Europe for instruction. He +played the organ in his native town at the age of fifteen, and since +finishing his studies has lived at Portland, teaching the piano, +organ, and harmony. From the start his songs caught popularity, and +were much sung in concert. + +Marston has written a sacred dramatic cantata, "David," and a large +amount of church music that is very widely used. He has written also a +set of quartettes and trios for women's voices, and quartettes for +men's voices. + +Possibly his best-known song has been his "Could Ye Come Back to Me, +Douglas," which Mrs. Craik called the best of all her poem's many +settings. + +Only Marston's later piano pieces are really _klaviermaessig_. So fine +a work as his "Gavotte in B Minor" has no need to consider the +resources of the modern instrument. It has a color scheme of much +originality, though it is marred by over-repetition. "A Night in +Spain" is a dashing reminiscence, not without Spanish spirit, and an +"Album Leaf" is a divertissement of contagious enthusiasm. + +[Illustration: Autograph of G.W. Marston] + +Ariel's songs, from "The Tempest," are given a piano interpretation +that reaches a high plane. There is a storm prologue which suggests, +in excellent harmonies, the distant mutter of the storm rather than a +piano-gutting tornado. "Full Fathoms Five Thy Father Lies" is a +reverie of wonderful depth and originality, with a delicious variation +on the good old-fashioned cadence. Thence it works up into an +immensely powerful close. A dance, "Foot it Featly," follows. It is +sprightly, and contains a fetching cadenza. + +One of the most prolific writers of American song is Clayton Johns. He +is almost always pleasing and polished. While he is not at all +revolutionary, he has a certain individuality of ease, and lyric +quality without storm or stress of passion. Thus his settings of seven +"Wanderlieder" by Uhland have all the spirit of the road except +ruggedness. + +His setting of "Du bist wie eine Blume" is extremely tender and sweet. + +Two of Johns' best successes have been settings of Egyptian subjects: +"Were I a Prince Egyptian" and Arlo Bates' fine lyric, "No Lotus +Flower on Ganges Borne." The latter is a superb song of unusual fire, +with a strong effect at the end, the voice ceasing at a deceptive +cadence, while the accompaniment sweeps on to its destiny in the +original key. He has also found a congenial subject in Austin Dobson's +"The Rose and the Gardener." He gets for a moment far from its florid +grace in "I Looked within My Soul," which has an unwonted bigness, and +is a genuine _Lied_. + +In later years Johns' songs have been brought out in little albums, +very artistically got up, especially for music (which has been +heinously printed, as a rule, in this country). These albums include +three skilfully written "English Songs," and three "French Songs," +"Soupir" taking the form of melodic recitative. Opus 19 is a group of +"Wonder Songs," which interpret Oliver Herford's quaint conceits +capitally. + +Opus 26 collects nine songs, of which "Princess Pretty Eyes" is +fascinatingly archaic. It is good to see him setting two such remotely +kindred spirits as Herrick and Emily Dickinson. The latter has hardly +been discovered by composers, and the former is too much neglected. + +Johns has also written a few part songs and some instrumental works, +which maintain his characteristics. A delightful "Canzone," a happy +"Promenade," and "Mazurka" are to be mentioned, and a number of pieces +for violin and piano, among them a finely built intermezzo, a +berceuse, a romanza that should be highly effective, and a witty +scherzino. He has written for strings a berceuse and a scherzino, +which have been played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and certain +part songs, as well as a chorus for female voices and string +orchestra, have been sung in London. + +Johns was born at New Castle, Del., November 24, 1857, of American +parents. Though at first a student of architecture, he gave this up +for music, and studied at Boston under Wm. F. Apthorp, J.K. Paine, +and W.H. Sherwood, after which he went to Berlin, where he studied +under Kiel, Grabau, Raif, and Franz Rummel. In 1884 he made Boston his +home. + +If San Francisco had found some way of retaining the composers she has +produced, she would have a very respectable colony. Among the others +who have come east to grow up with music is William Arms Fisher, who +was born in San Francisco, April 27, 1861. The two composers from whom +he derives his name, Joshua Fisher and William Arms, settled in +Massachusetts colony in the seventeenth century. He studied harmony, +organ, and piano with John P. Morgan. After devoting some years to +business, he committed his life to music, and in 1890 came to New +York, where he studied singing. Later he went to London to continue +his vocal studies. Returning to New York, he took up counterpoint and +fugue with Horatio W. Parker, and composition and instrumentation with +Dvorak. After teaching harmony for several years, he went to Boston, +where he now lives. His work has been almost altogether the +composition of songs. A notable feature of his numerous publications +is their agreeable diversion from the usual practice of composers, +which is to write lyrics of wide range and high pitch. Nearly all his +songs are written for the average voice. + +His first opus contains a setting of "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt," +which I like better than the banal version Tschaikowski made of the +same words. The third opus contains three songs to Shelley's words. +They show something of the intellectual emotion of the poet. The first +work, "A Widow Bird Sate Mourning," is hardly lyrical; "My Coursers +Are Fed with the Lightning" is a stout piece of writing, but the +inspired highfalutin of the words would be trying upon one who arose +to sing the song before an audience. This, by the way, is a point +rarely considered by the unsuccessful composers, and the words which +the singer is expected to declare to an ordinary audience are +sometimes astounding. The third Shelley setting, "The World's +Wanderer," is more congenial to song. + +Opus 5 is entitled "Songs without Tears." These are for a bass voice, +and by all odds the best of his songs. An appropriate setting is +Edmund Clarence Stedman's "Falstaff's Song," a noteworthy lyric of +toss-pot moralization on death. His song of "Joy" is exuberant with +spring gaiety, and some of his best manner is seen in his "Elegie," +for violin and piano. He has also written a deal of church song. + +A venerable and distinguished teacher and composer is James C.D. +Parker, who was born at Boston, in 1828, and graduated from Harvard in +1848. He at first studied law, but was soon turned to music, and +studied for three years in Europe under Richter, Plaidy, Hauptmann, +Moscheles, Rietz, and Becker. He graduated from the conservatory at +Leipzig, and returned to Boston in 1845. + +His "Redemption Hymn" is one of his most important works, and was +produced in Boston by the Haendel and Haydn Society in 1877. He also +composed other works for orchestra and chorus, and many brilliant +piano compositions. + +An interesting method of writing duets is that employed in the +"Children's Festival," by Charles Dennee. The pupil plays in some +places the primo, and in others the secondo, his part being written +very simply, while the part to be played by the teacher is written +with considerable elaboration, so that the general effect is not so +narcotic as usual with duets for children. Dennee has written, among +many works of little specific gravity, a "Suite Moderne" of much +skill, a suite for string orchestra, an overture and sonatas for the +piano and for the violin and piano, as well as various comic operas. +He was born in Oswego, N.Y., September 1, 1863, and studied +composition with Stephen A. Emery. + +A composer of a genial gaiety, one who has written a good minuet and +an "Evening Song" that is not morose, is Benjamin Lincoln Whelpley, +who was born at Eastport, Me., October 23, 1863, and studied the piano +at Boston with B.J. Lang, and composition with Sidney Homer and +others. He also studied in Paris for a time in 1890. He has written a +"Dance of the Gnomes," that is characteristic and brilliantly droll, +and a piano piece, called "Under Bright Skies," which has the panoply +and progress of a sunlit cavalcade. + +Ernest Osgood Hiler has written some good music for the violin, a +book of songs for children, "Cloud, Field, and Flower," and some +sacred music. He studied in Germany for two years. + + +_The Chicago Colony._ + +Most prominent among Chicago's composers is doubtless Frederic Grant +Gleason, who has written in the large forms with distinguished +success. The Thomas Orchestra has performed a number of his works, +which is an excellent praise, because Thomas, who has done so much for +American audiences, has worried himself little about the American +composer. At the World's Fair, which was, in some ways, the artistic +birthday of Chicago, and possibly the most important artistic event in +our national history, some of Gleason's works were performed by +Thomas' organization, among them the _Vorspiel_ to an opera, "Otho +Visconti" (op. 7), for which Gleason wrote both words and music. + +[Illustration: FREDERIC GRANT GLEASON.] + +This _Vorspiel_, like that to "Lohengrin," is short and delicate. It +begins ravishingly with flutes and clarinets and four violins, +pianissimo, followed by a blare of brass. After this introductory +period the work runs through tenderly contemplative musing to the end, +in which, again, the only strings are the four violins, though here +they are accompanied by the brass and wood-winds and tympani, the +cymbals being gently tapped with drumsticks. The introduction to the +third act of the opera is more lyrical, but not so fine. Another opera +is "Montezuma" (op. 16). Gleason is again his own librettist. Of this +opera I have been privileged to see the complete piano score, and +much of the orchestral. + +[Music: Montezuma, Act III, Introduction + +Frederic Grant Gleason + +EXCERPT FROM AN ORCHESTRAL SCORE BY MR. GLEASON.] + +In the first act Guatemozin, who has been exiled by Montezuma, appears +disguised as an ancient minstrel and sings prophetically of the coming +of a god of peace and love to supplant the terrible idol that demands +human sacrifice. This superbly written aria provokes from the +terrified idolaters a chorus of fear and reproach that is strongly +effective. The next act begins with an elaborate aria followed by a +love duet of much beauty. A heavily scored priests' march is one of +the chief numbers, and like most marches written by the unco' +learned, it is a grain of martial melody in a bushel of trumpet +figures and preparation. The Wagnerian _leit-motif_ idea is adopted in +this and other works of his, and the chief objection to his writing is +its too great fidelity to the Wagnerian manner,--notably in the use of +suspensions and passing-notes,--otherwise he is a very powerful +harmonist and an instrumenter of rare sophistication. A soprano aria +with orchestral accompaniment has been taken from the opera and sung +in concert with strong effect. + +Another work played at the World's Fair by Thomas, is a "Processional +of the Holy Grail." It is scored elaborately, but is rather brilliant +than large. It complimentarily introduces a hint or two of Wagner's +Grail motif. + +The symphonic poem, "Edris," was also performed by the Thomas +Orchestra. It is based upon Marie Corelli's novel, "Ardath," which +gives opportunity for much programmism, but of a mystical highly +colored sort for which music is especially competent. It makes use of +a number of remarkably beautiful motives. One effect much commented +upon was a succession of fifths in the bass, used legitimately enough +to express a dreariness of earth. + +This provoked from that conservative of conservatives, the music +copyist, a patronizing annotation, "Quinten!" to which Gleason added +"Gewiss!" A series of augmented triads, smoothly manipulated, was +another curiosity of the score. + +Possibly Gleason's happiest work is his exquisite music for that most +exquisite of American poems, "The Culprit Fay." It is described in +detail in Upton's "Standard Cantatas," and liberally quoted from in +Goodrich' "Musical Analysis." While I have seen both the piano and +orchestral scores of this work (op. 15), and have seen much beauty in +them, my space compels me to refer the curious reader to either of +these most recommendable books. + +Gleason has had an unusual schooling. He was born in Middletown, +Conn., in 1848. His parents were musical, and when at sixteen he wrote +a small matter of two oratorios without previous instruction, they put +him to study under Dudley Buck. From his tuition he graduated to +Germany, and to such teachers as Moscheles, Richter, Plaidy, Lobe, +Raif, Taussig, and Weitzmann. He studied in England after that, and +returned again to Germany. When he re-appeared in America he remained +a while at Hartford, Conn., whence he went to Chicago in 1876. He has +lived there since, working at teaching and composition, and acting as +musical critic of the Chicago _Tribune_. An unusually gifted body of +critics, dramatic, musical, and literary, has worked upon the Chicago +newspapers, and Gleason has been prominent among them. + +Among other important compositions of his are a symphonic cantata, +"The Auditorium Festival Ode," sung at the dedication of the Chicago +Auditorium by a chorus of five hundred; sketches for orchestra, a +piano concerto, organ music, and songs. + +As is shown by the two or three vocal works of his that I have seen, +Gleason is less successful as a melodist than as a harmonist. But in +this latter capacity he is gifted indeed, and is peculiarly fitted to +furnish forth with music Ebling's "Lobgesang auf die Harmonie." In his +setting of this poem he has used a soprano and a barytone solo with male +chorus and orchestra. The harmonic structure throughout is superb in all +the various virtues ascribed to harmony. The ending is magnificent. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM H. SHERWOOD.] + +A work completed December, 1899, for production by the Thomas +Orchestra, is a symphonic poem called "The Song of Life," with this +motto from Swinburne: + + "They have the night, who had, like us, the day; + We whom the day binds shall have night as they; + We, from the fetters of the light unbound, + Healed of our wound of living, shall sleep sound." + +The first prominent musician to give a certain portion of his program +regularly to the American composer, was William H. Sherwood. This +recognition from so distinguished a performer could not but interest +many who had previously turned a deaf ear to all the musical efforts +of the Eagle. In addition to playing their piano works, he has +transcribed numerous of their orchestral works to the piano, and +played them. In short, he has been so indefatigable a laborer for the +cause of other American composers, that he has found little time to +write his own ideas. + +Sherwood will be chiefly remembered as a pianist, but he has written a +certain amount of music of an excellent quality. Opera 1-4 were +published abroad. Opus 5 is a suite, the second number of which is an +"Idylle" that deserves its name. It is as blissfully clear and ringing +as anything could well be, and drips with a Theokritan honey. The +third number of the suite is called "Greetings." It has only one or +two unusual touches. Number 4 bears the suggestive title, "Regrets for +the Pianoforte." It was possibly written after some of his less +promising pupils had finished a lesson. The last number of the suite +is a quaint Novelette. + +[Music: IDYLLE. + +WM. H. SHERWOOD, OP. 5, NO. 2. + +Copyright, 1883, by G. Schirmer. + +A FRAGMENT.] + +Sherwood's sixth opus is made up of a brace of mazurkas. The former, +in C minor, contains some of his best work. It is original and moody, +and ends strongly. The second, in A major, is still better. It not +only keeps up a high standard throughout, but shows occasional touches +of the most fascinating art. + +A scherzo (op. 7) cracks a few good jokes, but is mostly elaboration. +Opus 8 is a fiery romanza appassionata. Opus 9 is a Scherzo-Caprice. +This is probably his best work. It is dedicated to Liszt, and though +extremely brilliant, is full of meaning. It has an interlude of tender +romance. "Coy Maiden" is a graceful thing, but hardly deserves the +punishment of so horrible a name. "A Gypsy Dance" is too long, but it +is of good material. It has an interesting metre, three-quarter time +with the first note dotted. There is a good effect gained by +sustaining certain notes over several measures, though few pianists +get a real sostenuto. An "Allegro Patetico" (op. 12), "Medea" (op. +13), and a set of small pieces (one of them a burlesque called "A +Caudle Lecture," with a garrulous "said she" and a somnolent "said +he") make up his rather short list of compositions. + +Sherwood was born at Lyons, New York, of good American stock. His +father was his teacher until the age of seventeen, when he studied +with Heimberger, Pychowski, and Dr. William Mason. He studied in +Europe with Kullak and Deppe, Scotson Clark, Weitzmann, Doppler, +Wuerst, and Richter. He was for a time organist in Stuttgart and later +in Berlin. He was one of those favorite pupils of Liszt, and played in +concerts abroad with remarkable success, winning at the age of +eighteen high critical enthusiasm. He has been more cordially +recognized abroad than here, but is assuredly one of the greatest +living pianists. It is fortunate that his patriotism keeps him at +home, where he is needed in the constant battle against the +indecencies of apathy and Philistinism. + +The Yankee spirit of constructive irreverence extends to music, and in +recent years a number of unusually modern-minded theorists have worked +at the very foundations: Dr. Percy Goetschius (born here, and for long +a teacher at Stuttgart); O.B. Boise (born here, and teaching now in +Berlin); Edwin Bruce, the author of a very radical work; Homer A. +Norris; and last, and first, A.J. Goodrich, who has made himself one +of the most advanced of living writers on the theory of music, and has +made so large a contribution to the solidity of our attainments, that +he is recognized among scholars abroad as one of the leading spirits +of his time. His success is the more pleasing since he was not only +born but educated in this country. + +[Illustration: A.J. GOODRICH.] + +The town of Chilo, Ohio, was Goodrich' birthplace. He was born there +in 1847, of American parentage. His father taught him the rudiments of +music and the piano for one year, after which he became his own +teacher. He has had both a thorough and an independent instructor. The +fact that he has been enabled to follow his own conscience without +danger of being convinced into error by the prestige of some +influential master, is doubtless to be credited with much of the +novelty and courage of his work. + +His most important book is undoubtedly his "Analytical Harmony," +though his "Musical Analysis" and other works are serious and +important. This is not the place to discuss his technicalities, but +one must mention the real bravery it took to discard the old practice +of a figured bass, and to attack many of the theoretical fetiches +without hesitation. Almost all of the old theorists have confessed, +usually in a foot-note to the preface or in modest disclaimer lost +somewhere in the book, that the great masters would occasionally be +found violating certain of their rules. But this did not lead them to +deducing their rules from the great masters. Goodrich, however, has, +in this matter, begun where Marx ended, and has gone further even than +Prout. He has gone to melody as the groundwork of his harmonic system, +and to the practice of great masters, old and new, for the tests of +all his theories. The result is a book which can be unreservedly +commended for self-instruction to the ignorant and to the too learned. +It is to be followed by a book on "Synthetic Counterpoint," of which +Goodrich says, "It is almost totally at variance with the standard +books in counterpoint." + +In his "Musical Analysis" he quoted freely from American composers, +and analyzed many important native works. He has carried out this plan +also in his book on "Interpretation," a work aiming to bring more +definiteness into the fields of performance and terminology. + +Goodrich' composition is "a thing of the past," he says. In his youth +he wrote a score or more of fugues, two string quartettes, a trio that +was played in New York and Chicago, a sonata, two concert overtures, a +hymn for soprano (in English), invisible chorus (in Latin), and +orchestra, a volume of songs, and numerous piano pieces. He writes: +"In truth, I believed at one time that I was a real composer, but +after listening to Tschaikowski's Fifth Symphony that illusion was +dispelled. Had not Mrs. Goodrich rescued from the flames a few MSS. I +would have destroyed every note." + +Only a piano suite is left, and this leads one to regret that +Tschaikowski should have served as a deterrent instead of an +inspiration. The suite has an inelaborate prelude, which begins +strongly and ends gracefully, showing unusual handling throughout. A +minuet, taken scherzando, is also most original and happy. There is a +quaint sarabande, and a gavotte written on simple lines, but superbly. +Its musette is simply captivating. All these little pieces indeed show +sterling originality and unusual resources in a small compass. + +W.H. Neidlinger's first three songs were kept in his desk for a year +and then kept by a publisher for a year longer, and finally brought +out in 1889. To his great surprise, the "Serenade," which he calls +"just a little bit of commonplace melody," had an immense sale and +created a demand for more of his work. The absolute simplicity of this +exquisite gem is misleading. It is not cheap in its lack of ornament, +but it eminently deserves that high-praising epithet (so pitilessly +abused), "chaste." It has the daintiness and minute completeness of a +Tanagra figurine. + +Mr. Neidlinger was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1863, and was compelled +to earn the money for his own education and for his musical studies. +From Dudley Buck and, later, C.C. Muller, of New York, he has had his +only musical instruction. He lived abroad for some time, teaching the +voice in Paris, then returned to live in Chicago. He has written two +operas, one of them having been produced by the Bostonians. + +Mr. Neidlinger builds his songs upon one guiding principle, that is, +faithfulness to elocutionary accent and intonation. As he neatly +phrases it, his songs are "colored sketches on a poet's engravings." + +The usual simplicity of Mr. Neidlinger's songs does not forbid a +dramatic outburst at the proper time, as in the fine mood, "A Leaf;" +or the sombre depth of "Night," "Nocturne," and "Solitude;" or yet the +sustainedly poignant anguish of "The Pine-tree." Occasionally the +accompaniment is developed with elaborateness, as in the bird-flutings +of "The Robin," and "Memories," an extremely rich work, with its +mellow brook-music and a hint of nightingale complaint in the minor. +"Evening Song," a bit of inspired tenderness, is one of Mr. +Neidlinger's best works. Almost better is "Sunshine," a streak of +brilliant fire quenched with a sudden cloud at the end. Other valuable +works are "Messages," the happy little Scotch song, "Laddie," and +"Dreaming," which is now sombre, now fierce with outbursts of agony, +but always a melody, always ariose. + +Mr. Neidlinger has made a special study of music for children, his +book, "Small Songs for Small Children," being much used in +kindergarten work. A book of his, devoted to a synthetic philosophy of +song, is completed for publication; he calls it "Spenser, Darwin, +Tyndall, etc., in sugar-coated pills; geography, electricity, and +hundreds of other things in song." + + +_The Cleveland Colony._ + +The city of Cleveland contains a musical colony which is certainly +more important than that of any town of its size. About the tenth of +our cities in population, it is at least fourth, and possibly third, +in productiveness in valuable composition. + +[Illustration: WILSON G. SMITH.] + +The most widely known of Cleveland composers is Wilson G. Smith. He +has been especially fortunate in hitting the golden mean between +forbidding abstruseness and trivial popularity, and consequently +enjoys the esteem of those learned in music as well as of those merely +happy in it. + +[Illustration: Autograph of Wilson G. Smith] + +His erudition has persuaded him to a large simplicity; his nature +turns him to a musical optimism that gives many of his works a +Mozartian cheer. Graciousness is his key. + +He was born in Elyria, O., and educated in the public schools of +Cleveland, where he graduated. Prevented by delicate health from a +college education, he has nevertheless, by wide reading, broadened +himself into culture, and is an essayist of much skill. His musical +education began in 1876, at Cincinnati, where his teacher, Otto +Singer, encouraged him to make music his profession. In 1880 he was in +Berlin, where he studied for several years under Kiel, Scharwenka, +Moskowski, and Oscar Raif. He then returned to Cleveland, where he +took up the teaching of organ, piano, voice, and composition. + +The most important of Smith's earlier works was a series of five +pieces called "Hommage a Edvard Grieg," which brought warmest +commendation from the Scandinavian master. One of the most striking +characteristics of Smith's genius is his ability to catch the exact +spirit of other composers. He has paid "homage" to Schumann, Chopin, +Schubert, and Grieg, and in all he has achieved remarkable success, +for he has done more than copy their little tricks of expression, +oddities of manner, and pet weaknesses. He has caught the +individuality and the spirit of each man. + +In his compositions in Grieg-ton Smith has seized the fascinating +looseness of the Griegorian tonality and its whimsicality. The +"Humoresque" is a bit of titanic merriment; the "Mazurka" is most +deftly built and is full of dance-fire; the "Arietta" is highly +original, and the "Capricietto" shows such ingenious management of +triplets, and has altogether such a crisp, brisk flavor, that it +reminds one of Lamb's rhapsody on roast pig, where he exclaims, "I +tasted _crackling_!" The "Romance," superb in gloom and largeness of +treatment, is worthy of the composer of "The Death of Asra." A later +work, "Caprice Norwegienne," is also a strong brew of Scandinavian +essence. + +A "Schumannesque" is written closely on the lines of Schumann's +"Arabesque." A later "Hommage a Schumann" is equally faithful to +another style of the master, and dashes forth with characteristic and +un-naive gaiety and challenging thinness of harmony, occasionally +bursting out into great rare chords, just to show what can be done +when one tries. + +The man that could write both this work and the highly faithful +"Hommage a Schubert," and then whirl forth the rich-colored, sensuous +fall and purr of the "Hommage a Chopin," must be granted at least an +unusual command over pianistic materials, and a most unusual acuteness +of observation. + +He can write _a la_ Smith, too, and has a vein quite his own, even +though he prefers to build his work on well-established lines, and fit +his palette with colors well tempered and toned by the masters. + +In this line is opus 21, a group of four pieces called "Echoes of Ye +Olden Time." The "Pastorale" is rather Smithian than olden, with its +mellow harmony, but the "Minuetto" is the perfection of chivalric +foppery and pompous gaiety. The "Gavotte" suggests the contagious good +humor of Bach, and the "Minuetto Grazioso," the best of the series, +has a touch of the goodly old intervals, tenths and sixths, that taste +like a draught of spring water in the midst of our modern liqueurs. + +The musical world in convention assembled has covenanted that certain +harmonies shall be set apart for pasturage. Just why these arbitrary +pastorales should suggest meads and syrinxes, and dancing shepherds, +it would be hard to tell. But this effect they certainly have, and a +good pastorale is a better antidote for the blues and other civic ills +than anything I know, except the actual green and blue of fields and +skies. Among the best of the best pastoral music, I should place +Smith's "Gavotte Pastorale." It is one of the five pieces in his book +of "Romantic Studies" (op. 57). + +This same volume contains a "Scherzo alla Tarantella," which is full +of reckless wit. But the _abandon_ is so happy as to seem misplaced in +a tarantella, that dance whose traditional origin is the maniacal +frenzy produced by the bite of the tarantula. An earlier Tarantella +(op. 34) is far truer to the meaning of the dance, and fairly raves +with shrieking fury and shuddering horror. This is better, to me, than +Heller's familiar piece. + +The "Second Gavotte" is a noble work, the naive gaiety of classicism +being enriched with many of the great, pealing chords the modern piano +is so fertile in. I count it as one of the most spontaneous gavottes +of modern times, one that is buoyant with the afflation of the olden +days. It carries a musette of which old Father Bach need not have felt +ashamed,--one of the most ingenious examples of a drone-bass ever +written. + +The "Menuet Moderne" is musical champagne. A very neat series of +little variations is sheafed together, and called "Mosaics." Mr. Smith +has written two pieces well styled "Mazurka Poetique;" the later (opus +48) is the more original, but the sweet geniality and rapturously +beautiful ending of opus 38 is purer music. "Les Papillons" is marked +with a strange touch of negro color; it is, as it were, an Ethiopiano +piece. Its best point is its cadenza. Smith has a great fondness for +these brilliant precipitations. They not only give further evidence +of his fondness for older schools, but they also partially explain the +fondness of concert performers for his works. His fervid "Love +Sonnet," his "Polonaise de Concert," full of virility as well as +virtuosity, and his delicious "Mill-wheel Song," and a late +composition, a brilliant "Papillon," rich as a butterfly's wing, are +notable among his numerous works. Possibly his largest achievement is +the three concert-transcriptions for two pianos. He has taken pieces +by Grieg, Raff, and Bachmann, and enlarged, enforced, decorated, and +in every way ennobled them. But to me his most fascinatingly original +work is his "Arabesque," an entirely unhackneyed and memorable +composition. + +Smith's experience in teaching has crystallized into several pedagogic +works. His "Scale Playing with particular reference to the +development of the third, fourth, and fifth fingers of each hand;" his +"Eight Measure," "Octave," and "Five Minute" studies, have brought the +most unreserved commendation from the most important of our teachers. +A late and most happy scheme has been the use of a set of variations +for technical and interpretative instruction. For this purpose he +wrote his "Themes Arabesques," of which numbers one and eighteen not +only have emotional and artistic interest, but lie in the fingers in a +strangely tickling way. + +What might be called a professorial simplicity is seen in many of +Smith's songs. The almost unadorned, strictly essential beauty of his +melodies and accompaniments is neither neglect nor cheapness; it is +restraint to the point of classicism, and romanticism all the intenser +for repression. Take, for example, that perfect song, "If I but +Knew," which would be one of a score of the world's best short songs, +to my thinking. Note the open fifths, horrifying if you thump them +academically, but very brave and straightforward, fitly touched. + +There is something of Haydn at his best in this and in the fluty +"Shadow Song," in "The Kiss in the Rain," and "A Sailor's Lassie," for +they are as crystalline and direct as "Papa's" own immortal +"Schaeferlied." + +[Music: To Mr. Constantin Sternberg. + +ARABESQUE. + +Wilson G. Smith, Op. 39. + +Copyright, 1889, by O. Ditson & Co.] + +Smith has gone over to the great majority,--the composers who have set +"Du bist wie eine Blume;" but he has joined those at the top. Two of +Smith's songs have a quality of their own, an appeal that is +bewitching: "Entreaty," a perfect melody, and "The Dimple in Her +Cheek," which is fairly peachy in color and flavor. + +A strange place in the world of music is that held by Johann H. Beck, +whom some have not feared to call the greatest of American composers. +Yet none of his music has ever been printed. In this he resembles B.J. +Lang, of Boston, who keeps his work persistently in the dark, even +the sacred oratorio he has written. + +All of Beck's works, except eight songs, are built on very large +lines, and though they have enjoyed a not infrequent public +performance, their dimensions would add panic to the usual timidity +of publishers. Believing in the grand orchestra, with its complex +possibilities, as the logical climax of music, Beck has devoted +himself chiefly to it. He feels that the activity of the modern artist +should lie in the line of "amplifying, illustrating, dissecting, and +filling in the outlines left by the great creators of music and the +drama." He foresees that the most complicated scores of to-day will be +Haydnesque in simplicity to the beginning of the next century, and he +is willing to elaborate his best and deepest learning as far as in him +lies, and wait till the popular audience grows up to him, rather than +write down to the level of the present appreciation. + +The resolve and the patient isolation of such a devotee is nothing +short of heroic; but I doubt that the truest mission of the artist is +to consider the future too closely. Even the dictionaries and +encyclopaedias of one decade, are of small use to the next. The tiny +lyrics of Herrick, though, have no quarrel with time, nor has time any +grudge against the intimate figurines of Tanagra. The burdened +trellises of Richard Strauss may feel the frost long before the +slender ivy of Boccherini's minuet. + +[Music: A FRAGMENT OF THE SCORE OF "SALAMMBO," BY JOHANN H. BECK.] + +Science falls speedily out of date, and philosophy is soon out of +fashion. Art that uses both, is neither. When it makes crutches of +them and leans its whole weight on them, it will fall with them in +the period of their inevitable decay. + +Of course, there is evolution here as well as in science. The artist +must hunt out new forms of expressing his world-old emotions, or he +will not impress his hearers, and there is no gainsaying Beck's thesis +that the Chinese puzzle of to-day will be the antique simplicity of a +later epoch. But it must never be forgotten, that art should be +complex only to avoid the greater evils of inadequacy and triteness. A +high simplicity of plan and an ultimate popularity of appeal are +essentials to immortal art. + +It is my great misfortune never to have heard one of Beck's works +performed, but, judging from a fragment of a deliciously dreamy +moonlight scene from his unfinished music drama, "Salammbo," which he +kindly sent me, and from the enthusiasm of the severest critics, he +must be granted a most unusual poetic gift, solidity and whimsicality, +and a hardly excelled erudition. His orchestration shows a hand lavish +with color and cunning in novel effects. Several of his works have +been performed with great applause in Germany, where Beck spent many +years in study. He was born at Cleveland, in 1856, and is a graduate +of the Leipzig Conservatorium. + +In art, quality is everything; quantity is only a secondary +consideration. It is on account of the quality of his work that James +H. Rogers must be placed among the very best of modern song-writers, +though his published works are not many. When one considers his +tuition, it is small wonder that his music should show the finish of +long mastery. Born in 1857, at Fair Haven, Conn., he took up the study +of the piano at the age of twelve, and at eighteen was in Berlin, +studying there for more than two years with Loeschorn, Rohde, Haupt, +and Ehrlich, and then in Paris for two years under Guilmant, Fissot, +and Widor. Since then he has been in Cleveland as organist, concert +pianist, and teacher. + +[Illustration: Autograph of James H. Rogers] + +His songs are written usually in a characteristic form of dramatic, +yet lyric recitative. His "Album of Five Songs" contains notable +examples of this style, particularly the "Good-Night," "Come to Me in +My Dreams," and the supremely tragic climax of "Jealousy." The song, +"Evening," with its bell-like accompaniment, is more purely lyric, +like the enchanting "At Parting," which was too delicately and +fragrantly perfect to escape the wide popularity it has had. His +"Declaration" is ravishingly exquisite, and offers a strange contrast +to the "Requiescat," which is a dirge of the utmost largeness and +grandeur. His graceful "Fly, White Butterflies," and "In Harbor," and +the dramatic setting of "The Loreley," the jovial "Gather Ye Rosebuds" +of jaunty Rob Herrick, the foppish tragedy of "La Vie est Vaine" (in +which the composer's French prosody is a whit askew), that gallant, +sweet song, "My True Love Hath My Heart," and a gracious setting of +Heine's flower-song, are all noteworthy lyrics. He has set some of +Tolstoi's words to music, the sinister love of "Doubt Not, O Friend," +and the hurry and glow of "The First Spring Days," making unusually +powerful songs. In the "Look Off, Dear Love," he did not catch up +with Lanier's great lyric, but he handled his material most +effectively in Aldrich' "Song from the Persian," with its Oriental +wail followed by a martial joy. The high verve that marks his work +lifts his "Sing, O Heavens," out of the rut of Christmas anthems. + +Of instrumental work, there is only one small book, "Scenes du Bal," a +series of nine pieces with lyric characterization in the spirit, but +not the manner of Schumann's "Carneval." The most striking numbers are +"Les Bavardes," "Blonde et Brune," and a fire-eating polonaise. + +These close the lamentably small number of manifestations of a most +decisive ability. + +Another Cleveland composer well spoken of is Charles Sommer. + +A young woman of genuine ability, who has been too busy with teaching +and concert pianism to find as much leisure as she deserves for +composition, is Patty Stair, a prominent musical figure in Cleveland. +Her theoretical studies were received entirely at Cleveland, under F. +Bassett. Her published works include a book of "Six Songs," all of +them interesting and artistic, and the "Madrigal" particularly +ingenious; and a comic glee of the most irresistible humor, called "An +Interrupted Serenade;" in manuscript are a most original song, +"Flirtation," a jovial part song for male voices, "Jenny Kissed Me," a +berceuse for violin and piano, a graceful song, "Were I a Brook," a +setting of Thomas Campion's "Petition," and another deeply stirring +religious song for contralto, "O Lamb of God." + + +_The St. Louis Colony._ + +The most original and important contribution to American music that +St. Louis has made, is, to my mind, the book of songs written by +William Schuyler. The words were chosen from Stephen Crane's book of +poems, "The Black Riders." The genius of Crane, concomitant with +eccentricity as it was, is one of the most distinctive among American +writers. The book called "The Black Riders" contains a number of +moods that are unique in their suggestiveness and originality. Being +without rime or meter, the lines oppose almost as many difficulties to +a musician as the works of Walt Whitman; and yet, as Alfred Bruneau +has set Zola's prose to music, so some brave American composer will +find inspiration abundant in the works of Walt Whitman and Emily +Dickinson. + +[Music: III. + +_WILLIAM SCHUYLER._ + + There was, before me, + Mile upon mile of snow, ice, burning sand. + And yet I could look beyond all this, + To a place of infinite beauty; + And I could see the loveliness of her + Who walked in the shade of the trees. + When I gazed, + All was lost + But this place of beauty and her + When I gazed, + And in my gazing, desired + Then came again + Mile upon mile, + Of snow, ice, burning sand, burning sand. + +Words used by permission of Copeland and Day. + +Copyright, 1897, by Wm. Schuyler. + +FROM WM. SCHUYLER'S "BLACK RIDERS."] + +Schuyler was born in St. Louis, May 4, 1855, and music has been his +livelihood. He is largely self-taught, and has composed some fifty +pieces for the piano, a hundred and fifty songs, a few works for +violin, viola, and 'cello, and two short trios. + +In his setting of these lines of Crane's, Schuyler has attacked a +difficult problem in an ideal manner. To three of the short poems he +has given a sense of epic vastitude, and to two of them he has given a +tantalizing mysticism. The songs, which have been published privately, +should be reproduced for the wide circulation they deserve. + +Another writer of small songs displaying unusual individuality is +George Clifford Vieh, who was born in St. Louis and studied there +under Victor Ehling. In 1889, he went to Vienna for three years, +studying under Bruckner, Robert Fuchs, and Dachs. He graduated with +the silver medal there, and returned to St. Louis, where he has since +lived as a teacher and pianist. + +Alfred George Robyn is the most popular composer St. Louis has +developed. He was born in 1860, his father being William Robyn, who +organized the first symphonic orchestra west of Pittsburg. Robyn was a +youthful prodigy as a pianist; and, at the age of ten, he succeeded +his father as organist at St. John's Church, then equipped with the +best choir in the city. It was necessary for the pedals of the organ +to be raised to his feet. At the age of sixteen he became solo pianist +with Emma Abbott's company. As a composer Robyn has written some three +hundred compositions, some of them reaching a tremendous sale. A few +of them have been serious and worth while, notably a piano concerto, a +quintette, four string quartettes, a mass, and several orchestral +suites. + +There are not many American composers that have had a fugue published, +or have written fugues that deserve publication. It is the distinction +of Ernest Richard Kroeger that he has written one that deserved, and +secured, publication. This was his 41st opus. It is preceded by a +prelude which, curiously enough, is thoroughly Cuban in spirit and is +a downright Habanera, though not so announced. This fiery composition +is followed by a four-voiced "real" fugue. The subject is genuinely +interesting, though the counter-subject is as perfunctory as most +counter-subjects. The middle-section, the stretto-work, and the +powerful ending, give the fugue the right to exist. + +Among other publications are a suite for piano (op. 33), in which a +scherzo has life, and a sonata for violin and piano, in which, +curiously enough, the violin has not one instance of double-stopping, +and the elaborating begins, not with the first subject taken +vigorously, but with the second subject sung out softly. The last +movement is the best, a quaint and lively rondo. A set of twelve +concert etudes show the influence of Chopin upon a composer who writes +with a strong German accent. The etude called "Castor and Pollux" is a +vigorous number with the chords of the left hand exactly doubled in +the right; another etude, "A Romanze," is noteworthy for the practice +it gives in a point which is too much ignored even by the best +pianists; that is, the distinction between the importance of the tones +of the same chord struck by the same hand. A work of broad +scholarship, which shows the combined influence of Beethoven and +Chopin, who have chiefly affected Kroeger, is his sonata (op. 40). A +dominant pedal-point of fifty-eight measures, in the last movement, is +worth mentioning. In a "Danse Negre" and a "Caprice Negre," he has +evidently gone, for his Ethiopian color, not to the actual negro +music, but to the similar compositions of Gottschalk. Kroeger was born +in St. Louis, August 10, 1862. At the age of five he took up the study +of the piano and violin. His theoretical tuition was all had in this +country. He has written many songs, a piano concerto, sonatas for +piano and viola, and piano and 'cello, two trios, a quintette, and +three string quartettes, as well as a symphony, a suite, and overtures +based on "Endymion," "Thanatopsis," "Sardanapalus" (produced by Anton +Seidl, in New York), "Hiawatha," and "Atala." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE WOMEN COMPOSERS. + + +This is not the place to take up cudgels for a contest on the problem +of woman's right to respect in the creative arts. There are some, it +is true, who deny fervently that the feminine half of mankind ever has +or can or ever will do original and important work there. If you press +them too hard they will take refuge up this tree, that all women who +ever have had success have been actually mannish of mind,--a dodge in +question-begging that is one of the most ingenious ever devised; a +piece of masculine logic that puts to shame all historic examples of +womanly fallacy and sophistry. It seems to me that the question is +easily settled on this wise: it is impossible for a rational mind to +deny that the best work done in the arts by women is of better +quality than the average work done by men. This lets the cat's head +out of the bag, and her whole body follows pell-mell. + +In a few instances it seems to me that the best things done by women +equal the best things done by men in those lines. The best verses of +Sappho, the best sonnets of Mrs. Browning, the best chapters of George +Eliot, the best animal paintings of Rosa Bonheur, do not seem to me +surpassed by their rivals in masculine work. If anything in verse of +its sort is nobler than Mrs. Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic," it +is still in manuscript. If there is any poet of more complete +individuality than Emily Dickinson, I have not run across his books. +In music I place two or three of Miss Lang's small songs among the +chief of their manner. + +All over the world the woman-mind is taking up music. The ban that led +Fanny Mendelssohn to publish her music under her brother's name, has +gone where the puritanic theory of the disgracefulness of the musical +profession now twineth its choking coils. A publisher informs me that +where compositions by women were only one-tenth of his manuscripts a +few years ago, they now form more than two-thirds. From such activity, +much that is worth while is bound to spring. Art knows no sex, and +even what the women write in man-tone is often surprisingly strong, +though it is wrongly aimed. But this effort is like the bombast of a +young people or a juvenile literature; the directness and repose of +fidelity to nature come later. The American woman is in the habit of +getting what she sets her heart on. She has determined to write +music. + +With an ardor that was ominous of success, Miss Amy Marcy Cheney, +after a short preliminary course in harmony, resolved to finish her +tuition independently. As an example of the thoroughness that has +given her such unimpeachable knowledge of her subject, may be +mentioned the fact that she made her own translation of Berlioz and +Gavaert. She was born in New Hampshire, of descent American back to +colonial times. At the age of four she wrote her opus 1. She is a +concert pianist as well as a frequent composer in the largest forms. +She is now Mrs. H.H.A. Beach. + +[Illustration: MRS. H.H.A. BEACH.] + +Not many living men can point to a composition of more maturity and +more dignity than Mrs. Beach' "Jubilate," for the dedication of the +Woman's Building at the Columbian Exposition. The work is as big as +its name; it is the best possible answer to skeptics of woman's +musical ability. It may be too sustainedly loud, and the infrequent +and short passages piano are rather breathing-spells than contrasting +awe, but frequently this work shows a very magnificence of power and +exaltation. And the ending is simply superb, though I could wish that +some of the terrific dissonances in the accompaniment had been put +into the unisonal voices to widen the effect and strengthen the final +grandeur. But as it is, it rings like a clarion of triumph,--the cry +of a Balboa discovering a new sea of opportunity and emotion. + +Another work of force and daring is the mass in E flat (op. 5), for +organ and small orchestra. It is conventionally ecclesiastic as a +rule, and suffers from Mrs. Beach' besetting sin of over-elaboration, +but it proclaims a great ripeness of technic. The "Qui Tollis" is +especially perfect in its sombre depth and richness. The "Credo" works +up the cry of "crucifixus" with a thrilling rage of grief and a +dramatic feeling rare in Mrs. Beach' work. This work was begun at the +age of nineteen and finished three years later. It was given with +notable effect in 1892 by the Haendel and Haydn Society of Boston. + +Mrs. Beach' "Valse Caprice" has just one motive,--to reach the maximum +of technical trickiness and difficulty. There is such a thing as +hiding one's light under a bushel, and there is such a thing as +emptying a bushel of chaff upon it. + +"Fireflies" is a shimmering and flitting caprice of much ingenuity, +but it keeps in the field of dissonance almost interminably, and clear +harmony is not so much the homing-place of its dissonance, as an +infrequent glint through an inadvertent chink. This neat composition +is one of four "Sketches for the Piano," of which "Phantoms" is +delightful with ghostliness. "In Autumn" is a most excellent +tone-poem, and "Dreaming" is a well-varied lyric. As a colorist Mrs. +Beach is most original and studious. Her tireless hunt for new tints +often diverts her indeed from the direct forthright of her meaning, +but the "Danse des Fleurs" is rich in its gorgeousness. The flowing +grace of the "Menuet Italien" makes it an uncharacteristic but +charming work. + +[Music: PHANTOMS. + + "Toute fragiles fleurs, sitot mortes que nees." + Victor Hugo. + +Mrs. H.H.A. Beach. + +Copyright, 1892, by Arthur P. Schmidt. + +A FRAGMENT.] + +Horace, you know, promises to write so that any one will think him +easy to equal, though much sweat will be shed in the effort. It is the +transparency of her studiousness, and the conspicuous labor in +polishing off effects and mining opportunity to the core, that chiefly +mars the work of Mrs. Beach, in my opinion. One or two of the little +pieces that make up the half-dozen of the "Children's Carnival" are +among her best work, for the very cheery ease of their look. +"Pantalon," "Harlequin," "Columbine," and "Secrets" are infinitely +better art than a dozen valse-caprices. + +Both the defects and effects of her qualities haunt Mrs. Beach' songs. +When she is sparing in her erudition she is delightful. Fourteen of +her songs are gathered into a "Cyclus." The first is an "Ariette," +with an accompaniment imitating the guitar. It is both tender and +graceful. Probably her best song is the setting of W.E. Henley's fine +poem, "Dark is the Night." It is of the "Erl-King" style, but highly +original and tremendously fierce and eerie. The same poet's "Western +Wind" is given a setting contrastingly dainty and serene. "The +Blackbird" is delicious and quite unhackneyed. "A Secret" is bizarre, +and "Empress of the Night" is brilliant. With the exception of a +certain excess of dissonance for a love-song, "Wilt Thou Be My +Dearie?" is perfect with amorous tenderness. "Just for This!" is a +delightful vocal scherzo of complete originality and entire success. +"A Song of Love" is passionate and yet lyric, ornamented but not +fettered. "Across the World" has been one of Mrs. Beach' most popular +songs; it is intense and singable. "My Star" is tender, and the +accompaniment is richly worked out on simple lines. Three Vocal Duets +are well-handled, but the long "Eilende Wolken" has a jerky recitative +of Haendelian _naivete_, to which the aria is a welcome relief. Her +sonata for piano and violin has been played here by Mr. Kneisel, and +in Berlin by Mme. Carreno and Carl Halir. + +Besides these, Mrs. Beach has done not a little for the orchestra. Her +"Gaelic Symphony" is her largest work, and it has been often played by +the Boston Symphony, the Thomas, and other orchestras. It is +characterized by all her exuberant scholarship and unwearying energy. + +[Illustration: MARGARET RUTHVEN LANG.] + +Margaret Ruthven Lang, the daughter of B.J. Lang, is American by birth +and training. She was born in Boston, November 27, 1867. She has +written large works, such as three concert overtures, two of which +have been performed by the Thomas and the Boston Symphony Orchestras, +though none of them are published. Other unpublished works are a +cantata, two arias with orchestral accompaniment, and a rhapsody for +the piano. One rhapsody has been published, that in E minor; in spite +of its good details, it is curiously unsatisfying,--it seems all +prelude, interlude, and postlude, with the actual rhapsody +accidentally overlooked. A "Meditation" is bleak, with a strong, free +use of dissonance. + +"The Jumblies" is a setting of Edward Lear's elusive nonsense, as full +of the flavor of subtile humor as its original. It is for male chorus, +with an accompaniment for two pianos, well individualized and erudite. +It is in her solo songs, however, that her best success is reaped. + +When I say that Mrs. Beach' work is markedly virile, I do not mean it +as compliment unalloyed; when I find Miss Lang's work supremely +womanly, I would not deny it great strength, any more than I would +deny that quality to the sex of which Joan of Arc and Jael were not +uncharacteristic members. + +Such a work as the "Maiden and the Butterfly" is as fragile and rich +as a butterfly's wing. "My Lady Jacqueminot" is exquisitely, +delicately passionate. "Eros" is frail, rare, ecstatic. "Ghosts" is +elfin and dainty as snowflakes. The "Spinning Song" is inexpressibly +sad, and such music as women best understand, and therefore ought to +make best. But womanliness equally marks "The Grief of Love," which is +in every sense big in quality; marks the bitterness of "Oh, What Comes +over the Sea," the wailing Gaelic sweetness of the "Irish Love Song," +and the fiery passion of "Betrayed," highly dramatic until its rather +trite ending. "Nameless Pain" is superb. Her "Lament" I consider one +of the greatest of songs, and proof positive of woman's high +capabilities for composition. Miss Lang has a harmonic individuality, +too, and finds out new effects that are strange without strain. + +[Music: GHOSTS. + +Words by Munkittrick. + +MARGARET RUTHVEN LANG. + + Out in the misty moonlight, the first snow flakes I see, + As they frolic among the leafless boughs of the apple tree. + Faintly they seem to whisper, as round the boughs they wing; + "We are the ghosts of the flowers who died in the early spring, + Who died in the early spring." + +Copyright, 1889, by Arthur P. Schmidt & Co.] + +"My Turtle Dove," among the "Five Norman Songs," in fearlessness and +harmonic exploration shows two of the strongest of Miss Lang's traits. +Her _recherches_ harmonies are no pale lunar reflection of masculine +work. Better yet, they have the appearance of spontaneous ease, and +the elaborateness never obtrudes itself upon the coherence of the +work, except in a few such rare cases as "My Native Land," "Christmas +Lullaby," and "Before My Lady's Window." They are singable to a degree +unusual in scholarly compositions. To perfect the result Miss Lang +chooses her poems with taste all too rare among musicians, who seem +usually to rate gush as feeling and gilt as gold. Her "Oriental +Serenade" is an example of weird and original intervals, and "A Spring +Song," by Charlotte Pendleton, a proof of her taste in choosing words. + +Her opus 32 is made up of two songs, both full of fire and +originality. Opus 33 is a captivating "Spring Idyl" for the piano, for +which she has also written a "Revery," of which the exquisiteness of +sleep is the theme. The music is delicious, and the ending is a rare +proof of the beautiful possibilities of dissonance. + +Personally, I see in Miss Lang's compositions such a depth of +psychology that I place the general quality of her work above that of +any other woman composer. It is devoid of meretriciousness and of any +suspicion of seeking after virility; it is so sincere, so true to the +underlying thought, that it seems to me to have an unusual chance of +interesting attention and stirring emotions increasingly with the +years. + +An interesting and genuine individuality will transpire through the +most limited amount of creative art. This has been the case with the +few published works of a writer, whose compositions, though +unpretentious in size and sentiment, yet reveal a graceful fancy, and +a marked contemplation upon the details of the moods. + +Irene Baumgras was born at Syracuse, New York, and studied the piano +at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where she took the Springer +gold medal in 1881. She studied in Berlin with Moszkowski and Oscar +Raif. She was married in Berlin, in 1884, to Philip Hale, the +distinguished Boston musical critic. + +Her devotion to her art was so great that her health broke down from +overwork, and she was compelled to give up piano playing. Some of her +compositions have been published under the name of "Victor Rene." Her +15th opus is made up of three "Morceaux de Genre," of which the +"Pantomime" is a most volatile harlequinade, with moods as changeful +as the key; a remarkably interesting composition. Four "Pensees +Poetiques" make up opus 16. They include a blithe "Chansonette" and a +"Valse Impromptu," which, unlike the usual impromptu, has the _ex +tempore_ spirit. Of her songs, "Mystery" is a charming lyric; "Maisie" +is faithful to the ghoulish merriment of the words; and "An Opal +Heart" is striking for interesting dissonances that do not mar the +fluency of the lyric. + +Of much refinement are the fluent lyrics of Mrs. Mary Knight Wood. +They show a breadth in little, and a fondness for unexpected harmonies +that do not disturb the coherence of her songs. They possess also a +marked spontaneity. An unexpected effect is gained by the brave E flat +in her "Serenade." Her popular "Ashes of Roses" also has a rich +harmonic structure. Among other songs, one with an effective obbligato +for the violoncello deserves special praise. She has written also for +the violin and piano, and trios for 'cello, violin, and piano. + +Other women who have written certain works of serious intention and +worthy art, are Mrs. Clara A. Korn, Laura Sedgwick Collins, the +composer of an ingenious male quartette, "Love is a Sickness," and +many excellent songs, among them, "Be Like That Bird," which is +ideally graceful; Fanny M. Spencer, who has written a collection of +thirty-two original hymn tunes, a good anthem, and a Magnificat and +Nunc Dimittis of real strength; Julie Rive-King, the author of many +concert pieces; Patty Stair, of Cleveland; Harriet P. Sawyer, Mrs. +Jessie L. Gaynor, Constance Maud, Jenny Prince Black, Charlotte M. +Crane, and Helen Hood. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE FOREIGN COMPOSERS. + + +Ours is so young, and so cosmopolite, a country, that our art shows +the same brevity of lineage as our society. Immigration has played a +large part in the musical life of the United States, as it has in the +make-up of the population; and yet for all the multiplexity of his +ancestry, the American citizen has been assimilated into a distinctive +individuality that has all the traits of his different forbears, and +is yet not closely like any of them. So, American music, taking its +scale and most of its forms from the old country, is yet developing an +integrity that the future will make much of. As with the federation of +the States, so will one great music ascend polyphonically,--_e +pluribus unum_. + +In compiling this directory of American composers, it has been +necessary to discuss the works only of the composers who were born in +this country. It is interesting to see how few of these names are +un-American, how few of them are Germanic (though so many of them have +studied in Germany). Comment has often been made upon the Teutonic +nature of the make-up of our orchestras. It is pleasant to find that a +very respectable list of composers can be made up without a +preponderance of German names. + +The music life of our country, however, has been so strongly +influenced and enlivened and corrected by the presence of men who were +born abroad that some recognition of their importance should somewhere +be found. Many of them have become naturalized and have brought with +them so much enthusiasm for our institutions that they are actually +more American than many of the Americans; than those, particularly, +who, having had a little study abroad, have gone quite mad upon the +superstition of "atmosphere," and have brought home nothing but +foreign mannerisms and discontent. + +Among the foreign born who have made their home in America, I must +mention with respect, and without attempting to suggest order of +precedence, the following names: + +C.M. Loeffler, Bruno Oscar Klein, Leopold Godowski, Victor Herbert, +Walter Damrosch, Julius Eichberg, Dr. Hugh A. Clarke, Louis V. Saar, +Asgar Hamerik, Otto Singer, August Hyllested, Xavier Scharwenka, +Rafael Joseffy, Constantin von Sternberg, Adolph Koelling, August +Spanuth, Aime Lachaume, Max Vogrich, W.C. Seeboeck, Julian Edwards, +Robert Coverley, William Furst, Gustave Kerker, Henry Waller, P.A. +Schnecker, Clement R. Gale, Edmund Severn, Platon Brounoff, Richard +Burmeister, Augusto Rotoli, Emil Liebling, Carl Busch, John Orth, +Ernst Perabo, Ferdinand Dunkley, Mrs. Clara Kathleen Rogers, Miss +Adele Lewing, Mrs. Elisa Mazzucato Young. + +It is perhaps quibbling to rule out some of these names from +Americanism, and include certain of those whom I have counted American +because they were born here, in spite of the fact that their whole +tuition and tendency is alien. But the line must be drawn somewhere. +The problem is still more trying in the case of certain composers who, +having been born here, have expatriated themselves, and joined that +small colony of notables whom America has given to Europe as a first +instalment in payment of the numerous loans we have borrowed from the +old country. + +For the sake of formally acknowledging this debt, I will not endeavor +to discuss here the careers of George Templeton Strong, Arthur Bird, +or O.B. Boise, all three of whom were born in this country, but have +elected to live in Berlin. Their distinction in that city at least +palely reflects some credit upon the country that gave them birth. + + + + +POSTLUDE. + + +In the ninth century Iceland was the musical center of the world; +students went there from all Europe as to an artistic Mecca. Iceland +has long lost her musical crown. And Welsh music in its turn has +ceased to be the chief on earth. Russia is sending up a strong and +growing harmony marred with much discord. Some visionaries look to her +for the new song. But I do not hesitate to match against the serfs of +the steppes the high-hearted, electric-minded free people of our +prairies; and to prophesy that in the coming century the musical +supremacy and inspiration of the world will rest here overseas, in +America. + + +THE END. + + + + +INDEX. + +[Transcriber's Note: Misspellings in the original Index have been +corrected, and the entries have been placed in the proper order.] + + +Abt Society, 198. + +Academy of Dramatic Arts, 79. + +AEschylean Chorus, 53. + +Agramonte, Emilio, 41. + +Aldrich, Anna Reeve, 313. + +Aldrich, T.B., 89, 108, 204. + +Allen, C.N., 244. + +Allen, N.H., 273. + +Allen, P.C., 272. + +Allison, XIII. + +Ambrosius, Johanna, 349. + +Americanism in Music, 12, 33, 58. + +Apollo Club, 168, 236, 331. + +Apthorp, W.F., 370. + +Arion Society, 190. + +Arnold, Maurice, 135, 139. + +Arnold, Sir Edwin, 171. + +Aus der Ohe, Adele, 293. + + +Bach, J.S., 15, 225, 227, 248, 399, 400. + +Baltzell, Willard J., 275. + +Bartlett, H.N., 317, 327. + +Bassett, F., 415. + +Bates, Arlo, 187, 368. + +Baumgras, Irene, 439. + +Beach, Mrs. H.H.A., 426, 432, 433. + +Beck, Johann H., 406, 411. + +Beethoven, 12, 52, 56, 100, 116, 148, 163, 178, 208, 306. + +Bendel, 237. + +"Ben Hur," 72. + +Benkert, G.F., 119. + +Bennett, Sterndale, 257. + +Berlioz, 144, 219, 243, 307, 426. + +Bernard of Cluny's, 183. + +Best, W.T., 361. + +Bird, Arthur, 446. + +Black, Jennie Prince, 441. + +"Blind Tom," 59. + +Boccherini, 407. + +Bodenstedt, 364. + +Boise, O.B., 292, 299, 388, 446. + +Boston Colony, 269, 350, 371. + +Boston Symphony Orchestra, 18, 219, 233, 269, 281, 282, 286, 292, 432. + +Bourdillon's, 109, 312. + +Brahms, 56, 97, 114, 255, 284. + +Breton, XIII. + +Brewer, J.H., 331, 334. + +Bristow, George F., 246. + +Brockway, Howard, 298, 304. + +Brounoff, Platon, 445. + +Browning, E.B., 424. + +Browning, Robt., 89, 99. + +Bruce, Edwin, 388. + +Bruch, Max, 136. + +Bruckner, 419. + +Bruneau, Alfred, 418. + +Buck, Dudley, 165, 173, 174, 305, 324, 331, 361, 381, 392. + +Bullard, F.F., 351, 357. + +Burmeister, Richard, 445. + +Burns, 204. + +Burton, F.R., 273. + +Busch, Carl, 445. + +Byrd, XIII. + +Byron, 252. + + +Canova, 12. + +Carew, XIII. + +Carnegie, A., 256. + +Carpenter, H.B., 213. + +Carreno, 36. + +Carroll, Lewis, 212. + +Carter, R.I., 294. + +Chadwick, Geo. W., 18, 175, 210, 220, 244, 347, 358. + +Chaminade, 218. + +Champion, T., XIII., 415. + +Cheney, J.V., 89, 90. + +Chicago Colony, 18. + +Chicago Orchestra, 18. + +Chinese Music, 64, 86, 140, 143. + +Chopin, 52, 56, 90, 98, 100, 110, 116, 138, 163, 177, 178, 211, 250, +294, 317, 319, 338, 396, 421. + +Cincinnati Colony, 191, 270, 272. + +Clarke, H.A., 198, 444. + +Clementi, 113. + +Cleveland Colony, 394, 415. + +Coccius, 132, 249. + +Coerne, L.A., 262, 265. + +Coleridge, 62, 309. + +College Music, 20, 38. + +Collins, Laura S., 441. + +Columbus, 234. + +Converse, C.C., 256, 261. + +Coombs, C.W., 343. + +Corelli, 15. + +Couperin, 16. + +Coverley, Robert, 444. + +Cramer, 321. + +Crane, Charlotte M., 441. + +Crane, Stephen, 415, 418. + + +Dachs, 419. + +Damrosch, Walter, 261, 444. + +Dante, 229. + +De Koven, R., 334. + +De Musset, A., 109. + +Dennee, Charles, 374. + +Dickinson, Emily, 369, 418, 424. + +Diemer, 134. + +Donne, Jno., XIII. + +Dowland, XIII. + +Draessecke, 343. + +Drake, Rodman, 131, 168. + +Drayton, XIII. + +Dreams and Music, 62. + +Dressler, L.R., 345. + +Drummond, XIII., 153. + +Dubois, 134, 358. + +Dudley, Governor, 166. + +Dunbar, P.L., 206. + +Dunkley, Ferdinand, 445. + +Dvorak, A., 22, 77, 128, 129, 131, 132, 136, 278, 279, 305, 349, 371. + + +Eddy, Clarence, 59, 348. + +Edison, 16. + +Edwards, Julian, 444. + +Egyptian Music, 72. + +Ehlert, 37. + +Ehling, Victor, 419. + +Ehrlich, 412. + +Eichberg, Julius, 444. + +Elson, L.C., 16. + +Emerson, 14. + +Emery, Stephen A., 17, 95, 175, 244, 358, 375. + +English Music, 12, 248, 329. + +Esputa, John, 119. + + +Fairlamb, J.R., 344. + +Farwell, A., 348. + +Feval, 79. + +Field, John, 227. + +Finck, Henry T., 54. + +Fisher, W.A., 348, 371. + +Fissot, 412. + +Fletcher, XII., 150. + +Florio, 31. + +Foerster, A.M., 248, 256. + +Folk-music, 22. + +Foote, Arthur, 18, 224, 234. + +Ford, XIII. + +Franz, Robt., 101, 104, 106, 173, 203, 248. + +French influence, 29, 36, 357. + +Fuchs, Robt., 419. + +Furst, Wm., 444. + + +Gale, Clement R., 445. + +Gale, Norman, 88. + +Gavaert, 426. + +Gaynor, Mrs. Jessie L., 441. + +Genee, 335. + +German Influence, etc., 17, 40, 49, 59, 119, 132, 260. + +Gerok, 106. + +Gilchrist, W.W., 196, 209. + +Gilder, R.W., 277. + +Gilmore, P.S., 124, 261. + +Gleason, F.G., 348, 376, 382. + +Godard, 358. + +Godowski, L., 444. + +Goethe, 43, 95, 255. + +Goetschius, Percy, 388. + +Goldmark, Carl, 279, 281. + +Goldmark, Rubin, 278, 282. + +Goodrich, A.J., 28, 130, 171, 199, 380, 388, 391. + +Goodrich, J. Wallace, 348. + +Gottschalk, Louis Moreau, 17, 301, 422. + +Gounod, 321. + +Grabau, 371. + +Grand Operas, 152, 262. + +Gray, XII. + +Greek Music, 72, 73, 155. + +Greene, XII. + +Grieg, 39, 54, 134, 190, 281, 396. + +Grill, 132, 249. + +Guilbert, Yvette, 129. + +Guilmant, 358, 412. + +Guyon, 322. + + +Hadley, H.K., 241, 247. + +Haggard, Rider, 214. + +Hale, F.W., 358. + +Hale, Mrs. Philip, 439. + +Hale, Philip, 186, 288, 439. + +Halir, Carl, 432. + +Hall, Bishop, XIII. + +Hamerik, A., 444. + +Hammond, Dr. Wm. A., 62. + +Haendel, 15, 152, 162, 184, 246, 432. + +Haendel and Haydn Society, 374, 428. + +Hanscom, E.W., 275. + +Hanslick, 129. + +Harris, Victor, 336. + +Harvard University, 154, 222. + +Hastings, F.S., 344. + +Haupt, 151, 257, 311, 412. + +Hauptmann, 167, 257, 347. + +Hawley, C.B., 32. + +Haydn, 403, 407. + +Heindl, H., 244. + +Heine, 44, 88, 104, 105, 196, 215, 247, 309, 364, 413. + +Heller, 164, 350. + +Hemans, 202. + +Henderson, W.J., 185. + +Henley, W.E., 431. + +Henselt, 104. + +Herbert, XIII. + +Herbert, Victor, 444. + +Herford, Oliver, 369. + +Herrick, XIII., 87, 179, 228, 369, 407, 413. + +Heyman, 37. + +Hieber, 263. + +Hiler, E.O., 375. + +Hood, Helen, 441. + +Homer, Sidney, 375. + +Hopkins, H.P., 349. + +Hopper, 126. + +Horace, 430. + +Hovey, Richard, 110, 351. + +Howe, Mrs. J.W., 424. + +Humorous Music, 25, 64, 212, 433. + +Humperdinck, 348. + +Huneker, James, 39, 52, 54, 281. + +Huss, H.H., 291, 297, 351. + +Hyllested, August, 444. + + +Iceland, 447. + +Indian Music, 22, 48, 49. + +Irving, 170. + + +Jacobsen, O.F., 322. + +Jadassohn, 211, 271. + +Japanese Music, 139, 142. + +Jensen, G., 136, 350. + +Joachim, 97. + +John, 343. + +Johns, Clayton, 368, 370. + +Jonson, XII., 57, 88. + +Jordan, Jules, 274. + +Joseffy, 71, 278, 444. + + +Kaltenborn, Franz, 19, 279, 295. + +Keats, 152, 296. + +Kelley, Edgar S., 27, 57, 76, 140, 272. + +Kerker, Gustave, 444. + +Kiel, 237, 371, 396. + +Kieserling, R., Jr., 270. + +Kipling, 50, 206, 359. + +Klein, B.O., 444. + +Klindworth, Karl, 95, 96, 97, 111. + +Kneisel, Franz, 263, 286, 432. + +Koelling, Adolph, 444. + +Korn, Mrs. Clara A., 441. + +Kortheuer, H.O.C., 299. + +Kotzschmar, 150. + +Krehbiel, H.E., 273, 361. + +Kroeger, E.R., 420, 422. + +Kruger, 59. + +Kullak, 342, 387. + + +Lachaume, Amie, 444. + +Lachmund, C.V., 349. + +Lang, B.J., 95, 212, 226, 375, 432. + +Lang, M.R., 424, 432, 438. + +Lanier, S., 169, 171, 173. + +Lassen, Edward, 132, 190. + +Lassus, 15. + +Lawes, Harry, 153, 248, 328. + +Leading Motives, 80. + +Ledochowski, 59. + +Lewing, Adele, 445. + +Liebling, Emil, 445. + +Liszt, 37, 59, 97, 190, 196, 237, 341, 387. + +Lodge, XIII. + +Loeffler, C.M., 444. + +Longfellow, 81, 223, 224. + +Loomis, C.B., 84. + +Loomis, H.W., 27, 77, 91. + +Loretz, J.M., 344. + +Loeschorn, 411. + +Lowell, 201. + +Lulli, 16. + +Lyly, XIII. + + +MacDowell, E.A., 18, 23, 34, 57. + +Macmonnies, 242. + +Mandyczewski, 244. + +Manney, C.F., 348. + +Manuscript Societies, 20. + +March-tunes, 112. + +Marlowe, XII. + +Marmontel, 37. + +Marston, G.W., 358, 364, 368. + +Marteau, Henri, 134. + +Martin, E.S., 30. + +Marx, A.B., 389. + +Mason, Dr. Wm., 340, 341, 387. + +Mason, Lowell, 17, 157, 340. + +Maud, Constance, 441. + +McCagg Prize, 176. + +McCaull, 126. + +McLellan, C.M.S., 63. + +Mendelssohn, 59, 155, 157, 184. + +Mendelssohn Club, 209. + +Mendelssohn, Fanny, 425. + +Mendelssohn Glee Club, 199, 200, 325. + +Meyerbeer, 126. + +Miles, General, 116. + +Millard, H., 337. + +Miller, C.C., 392. + +Millet, 313. + +Mills, S.B., 321. + +Milton, 152, 328. + +Montaigne, 31. + +Monteverde, 16. + +Moody and Sankey, 157. + +Morgan, John P., 371. + +Morgan, Matt., 120. + +Moscheles, 167, 311, 347, 381. + +Mosenthal, J., 324. + +Moskowski, 396, 439. + +Mozart, 116, 306, 395. + + +Namby-pamby, 25. + +National Airs, 259. + +Negro Music, 22, 23, 48, 122, 128, 131, 137. + +Neidlinger, W.H., 391, 394. + +Neitzel, 136. + +Nevin, Arthur, 342. + +Nevin, Ethelbert, 92, 111. + +Nevin, R.P., 94. + +New York Colony, 269, 282, 350. + +Nicode, 129. + +Nobles, M., 120. + +Norris, Homer A., 29, 348, 357, 358, 388. + +Northeastern Saeengerbund, 191. + + +Offenbach, 120. + +Omar, 338. + +Orientalism, 45. + +Orth, John, 175, 445. + +Oxenford, John, 329. + + +Page, N.C., 139, 143, 272. + +Paine, John Knowles, 18, 162, 226, 263, 370. + +Palestrina, 16, 284. + +Pantomime Music, 79, 110. + +Papperitz, 132, 249. + +Parker, H.W., 174, 188, 192, 371, 347. + +Parker, J.C.D., 373. + +Parker, Mrs. E.G., 183. + +Parrot, John, 60. + +Pasmore, H.B., 272. + +Pendleton, C, 345. + +Penfield, S.M., 347. + +Perabo, Ernst, 445. + +Peri, 15. + +Perosi, 284. + +Perugino, 12. + +Philadelphia, 197. + +Pierne, 134. + +Plaidy, 167, 257, 381. + +Poe, 14, 76. + +Porpora, 15. + +Pratt, S.G., 234, 240, 347. + +Proctor, A.A., 81. + +Program Music, 41, 44. + +Prout, E., 389. + +Pugno, 134. + +Purcell, 14, 248. + +Puritan Influence, 14, 15. + + +Radeck, 361. + +Raff, 37, 41, 97, 147. + +Raif, O., 381, 396, 439. + +Ralegh, XIII. + +Rameau, 16. + +Rankin, McKee, 60. + +Raphael, 12. + +Reinecke, 132, 211, 271, 347. + +"Rene Victor," 439. + +Rheinberger, J., 211, 292, 355. + +Richter, E.F., 167, 249, 257, 342, 381, 387. + +Rietz, 167. + +Rive-King, Julie, 441. + +Robyn, A.G., 419. + +Robyn, Wm., 419. + +Rogers, J.H., 411, 414. + +Rogers, Mrs. C.K., 445. + +Rohde, 311, 412. + +Rossini, 183. + +Rotoli, Augusto, 445. + +Rubinstein, 77, 129. + +Rueckert, 193. + +Rummel, Franz, 371. + +Runciman, John F., 14. + +Russell, L.A., 144. + +Russian music, 57, 447. + +Rutenber, 324. + + +Saar, L.V., 444. + +Saint-Saens, 108. + +San Francisco, 59, 272, 371. + +Sappho, 424. + +Savard, 37. + +Sawyer, H.P., 441. + +Scarlattis, 15. + +Scharwenka, X., 396, 444. + +Schiller, 95. + +Schimon, 249. + +Schnecker, P.A., 445. + +Schoenefeld, 128, 135. + +Schubert, 103, 261, 350. + +Schumann, VII., 56, 88, 91, 98, 101, 104, 106, 163, 173, 177, 215, 397. + +Schuyler, Wm., 415, 419. + +Scotch influence, 38, 39, 61, 196. + +Scott, 12, 171. + +Seeboeck, W.C., 444. + +Seidl, A., 236, 245, 261, 279, 322, 349, 422. + +Seiffritz, 59, 343. + +Seiss, 350. + +Severn, E., 445. + +Shakespeare,. XII., 31, 57, 60, 87, 95, 150, 152, 173, 228, 239, 297. + +Sharp, Wm., 81. + +Shelley, 351. + +Shelley, H.R., 304, 308. + +Sherwood, Wm. H., 19, 60, 286, 311, 370, 383, 387. + +Shirley, XIII. + +Sidney, XIII., 228. + +Siloti, A., 192. + +Singer, Otto, 396, 444. + +Sitt, H., 192. + +Smith, G., 309, 319. + +Smith, Wilson G., 395, 406. + +Sommer, Charles, 414. + +Sonatas, 51, 56, 84. + +Sophokles, 154, 161. + +Sousa, John P., 112, 128. + +Spanish influence, 119. + +Spanuth, A., 444. + +Speidel, 59, 343. + +Spencer, Fanny M., 441. + +Spenser, XIII. + +Spohr, 257. + +Stair, Patty, 414, 441. + +Stedman, E.C., 171, 277, 373. + +Sternberg, Constantin von, 444. + +Stevenson, R.L., 12, 105. + +St. Louis Colony, 270, 415, 422. + +Stoeckel, G.J., 305. + +Strauss, J., 114. + +Strauss, R., 407. + +Strong, G.T., 445. + +Suckling, 228. + +Swinburne, 383. + +Symphonies, 64, 147, 218, 298. + + +Taft, F., 347. + +Tartini, 15, 62. + +Taussig, 342, 381. + +Tennyson, 42, 55, 328. + +Theokritos, 384. + +Theorists, 28, 388. + +Thomas, Theodore, 18, 151, 153, 168, 169, 257, 261, 264, 349, 376, 380, +432. + +Tschaikowski, 232, 372, 391. + +Tufts, John W., 366. + + +Upton, Geo. P., 152, 380. + +Urban, 135. + + +Van der Stucken, Frank, 19, 188, 196, 292. + +Vergil, 229. + +Verlaine, 81. + +Vieh, G.C., 419. + +Vierling, 135. + +Vogrich, Max, 444. + +Von Boehme, 94. + +Von Buelow, H., 96. + + +Wagner, 50, 56, 99, 111, 114, 125, 157, 162, 201, 207, 223, 237. + +Wagner, Frau Cosima, 97. + +Waller, Henry, 444. + +Warren, G.W., 324, 346. + +Warren, R.H., 345, 347. + +Warren, S.P., 311. + +Weatherby, F.E., 329. + +Weitzmann, 381, 387. + +Welsh Music, 447. + +Wheeler, A.C., 320. + +Whelpley, B.L., 375. + +Whiting, 283, 291. + +Whiting, G.E., 360. + +Whitman, Walt, 14, 418. + +Whittier, 153. + +Widor, 412. + +Wiegand, Emil, 270. + +Wieprecht, 151. + +Willaert, 15. + +Wither, XIII. + +Women as Composers, 423, 441. + +Wood, Mrs. M.K., 440. + +Woodberry, G.E., 161. + +Wotton, XIII. + +Wuellner, 136. + + +Yale University, 175. + +Young, Mrs. E.M., 445. + + +Zeck, F., Jr., 272. + +Zeno, 12. + +Zola, 418. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Contemporary American Composers, by Rupert Hughes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN COMPOSERS *** + +***** This file should be named 23800.txt or 23800.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/8/0/23800/ + +Produced by David Newman, Jeffrey Johnson, Suzanne Lybarger, +Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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