CHAPTER XIII

ROMANTICISTS AND NEO-CLASSICISTS

Influences and conditions of the period--Edward MacDowell--Edgar Stillman Kelley--Arne Oldberg; Henry Hadley; F. S. Converse--E. R. Kroeger; Rubin Goldmark; Brockway; H. N. Bartlett; R. G. Cole--Daniel Gregory Mason; David Stanley Smith; Edward Burlingame Hill--Philip G. Clapp; John Beach; Arthur Bergh; Joseph Henius; F. E. Ward; Carl Busch; Walter Damrosch--The San Francisco Group; Miscellany--Women Composers.

Between the founders of musical composition in America, who felt chiefly the influence of that musical world of which Beethoven was the great central figure, and those who have looked to aboriginal and other native sources for inspiration on the one hand, or European ultra-modern tendencies on the other, there exists a large and important group of American composers whose artistic origin is to be associated with the so-called 'romantic' school, of which Schumann is the generally accepted protagonist. Proudly as the dramatic phase of the romantic movement shone forth at the same time in the genius of Richard Wagner, it was left with the non-dramatic wing of the romantic school to establish the ideals which should dominate and direct the romantic movement which was subsequently to arise in America. There are a number of reasons why this should have been the case, as there are also reasons to believe that the full influence of Wagner's ideas has not yet been felt in America. In the first place, it was during the epoch of the romantic movement that the German musician and music teacher first began to look to the new world as a field for the broad extension of his labors. Every city and town of America came to have its German music teachers; they were accepted everywhere as representatives of the highest musical civilization of the world, and it is, in fact, to this early German musical emigration that the substantial foundations of our American musical education are due. As qualifying factors, however, in the influence which he was to exert upon the future, there were two facts in general which characterized him: his profession, which was usually that of pianist and piano teacher, and his anathematization of Wagner. While Beethoven was his musical god, in his capacity of pianist he also spread the influence of that side of the romantic movement which perpetuated, and developed, the tradition of piano music. Thus Schumann and Chopin, and their contemporaries, came to a measurable fullness of appreciation in America at a time when Wagner was held to be a mad and dangerous musical anarchist.

Quite aside from this group of circumstances, it was also true that nothing could be more remote from the American civilization of the time than the possibility of any semblance of the realization of Wagner's ideals. Opera was the most fitful and exotic of institutions, and the theatre in general, except for such occasional meteoric apparitions as Edwin Booth, was in a condition of the greatest crudity, as well as being under the ban of a puritanism which, fortunately, in these latter days, is beginning somewhat to relax its tenacity. Because of the unripeness of American life for a creative art of music, the influence of the early German invasion did not produce many composers. It had, however, implanted ideals which were to assume the greatest importance in the future. When the overwhelming Wagnerian flood at last arrived, in the splendid productions of the music-dramas under the direction of Seidl and the Damrosches, it found the ideals of the classical and romantic schools already well implanted; more than that, it found a rapidly increasing group of young composers who had arisen under the influence of those ideals. The result was that these composers, who did not share the prejudices of their Teutonic musical forbears, drank in with avidity the wonderful new harmonies of Wagner, and set about incorporating them, not in music-dramas, but in the sonatas and symphonies arising from the classical tradition, and all manner of free forms to which the romantic school had given birth. The Wagnerian harmonies were accepted, but the forms of the earlier movements were retained, except where the followers of Liszt ventured forth on scantily charted seas of formal emancipation. Similarly other new influences began to be felt, and Tschaikowsky, in a new symphonic emotionalism, and Brahms, in a new flowering of thematic development, gave encouragement in the retaining of earlier forms. The dual product of these various influences was, on the one hand, a romanticism which claimed both harmonic and formal freedom, and a neo-classicism which welcomed the new harmonic world opened up by Wagner, but inclined to cling to the forms of the classical epoch.

I

As the first modern American composer to step forth with a highly characterized poetic individuality, Edward Alexander MacDowell (b. 1861, d. 1908) quickly took, and his work has held, since his untimely death in 1908, a unique and preëminent place in American music. As the first great pioneer of the romantic school in America his place is certainly assured, and, while the perspective thus far gained upon his work has by no means led to a unanimity of opinion concerning it, the dignity, charm, and poetic fancy of a great part of it must assuredly give it an enduring position in the musical world. All barriers of adverse criticism and opinion fall before creativeness, to the extent to which it is truly creative, and it is the creative character of MacDowell's music that insures its persistence. Noteworthy is it also that it is through his greatest works, such as the second piano concerto and the Celtic Sonata, that his fame chiefly endures, a convincing evidence that his highest aspirations did not strike wide of their mark.

An inquiry into the nature of MacDowell's genius must perforce lead us to a recognition of his Celtic antecedents and sympathies; for with all his early German experience and training, with all his substantial Teutonic technical foundation gained thereby, he was first and last a Celt in spirit. Over the heavy bog of German harmony and counterpoint his sensitive fancy danced like restless thistledown, following the lightest whimsey of the breeze and the most tremulous maneuverings of shadow-play. In his more powerful tone painting it is the elements, rather than the passions, that command him. The old nature-worship which is so ineradicable an element of the psychic constitution of the Celt, and which leads him to commune with the innumerable and elusive hosts of the land of faery, never forsook the soul of MacDowell, or ceased to direct the course of his genius. Impatient of the restraints of the outer world, and of its weight of poetry-quenching affairs and transactions, his spirit hurried ever to a communion with the moods and mysteries of nature, and to that corresponding dream-world of intensified nature-perceptions within the soul to which these are the appointed and the alluring gateway. MacDowell's dream-world was directly conjoined with that of 'Fiona Macleod,' whose subjective nature-pictures offer a close literary parallel to the tone-pictures of the composer. These two traversed the same region, which is that of the psychic perceptions, but the account of it brought back by MacDowell presents one striking fundamental difference from all accounts rendered by poetry-making Celts who have remained upon their native soil. In the American the soul no longer cries out from under an age-long burden of poverty and oppression; the heartache and the world-weariness have been sloughed off in the new-world birth. No outcry of the heart is the music of MacDowell, but an eager self-surrendering to the interpretation of the facts and moods of nature, the rocking of a lily-pad on cool waters, the lonely drift of an iridescent iceberg, the mad sudden impact of a hurrying gust. Often are these interpretations of an almost uncanny intimacy, so subtle and sensitive is their touch.

In one very important respect the personal analogy between MacDowell and William Sharp breaks down. The creator of 'Fiona Macleod' gained the freedom of the psychic world only at the expense of his virility. The _man_, Sharp, was left behind, when 'Fiona's' turn came, a fact attested by the writings of the latter at every point. MacDowell found no need for the splitting up of his personality into its masculine and feminine elements; he carried his manhood with him into the sphere of the psychic and brought forth not artistic shadowings merely, but also, especially in his heroic moments, solid structures. For all his instinctive abhorrence of the ponderousness often associated with the expression of the Teutonic spirit, his severe Frankfort training often served him in good stead; it may, indeed, have been the balance-wheel of his entire artistic life.

Too much the child of nature's dream-world to sound the depths of passion, too restless with the joy of nature's kaleidoscopic shift and play to touch the spiritual heights of peace, well severed from the material world, but not yet united with the spiritual, MacDowell hovered in the mid-region of the psychic, happily lost in its shadowy wonderworld of dissolving forms and elusive beauty. This was at once the limitation and tragedy, as well as the genius, of MacDowell's life and art. He remained a wanderer on the borderlands of spirit, never coming to his spiritual home, and at the end his mind itself wandered never to return in this life. But he had struck a telling blow for American musical art, and placed the nation upon a new musical footing.

MacDowell was a nationalist only by virtue of his instinctive sensitiveness to his environment. As the English critic, Ashton-Johnson, has pointed out, his autumn scenes spontaneously portray not the mere brown decay of the European "fall," but the golden splendor of the American autumn. The Indian and the negro find their way into his works here and there in delicate touches, because the tradition of them is in the American air and scarcely to be avoided.

MacDowell's teachers in theory were Savard, at the Paris Conservatoire, and Joachim Raff, in Frankfurt, and in piano, at these places respectively, Marmontel and Heyman. An interim was spent with Ehlert in Wiesbaden. Franz Liszt was MacDowell's friend and helped him to recognition in Germany. No American composer has been so prominent as MacDowell as a concert pianist. His sensitive performances of his own works served to make them broadly known and to establish the traditions of their interpretation. The composer took up his residence in America again in 1888, after twelve years of absence, first in Boston, and later in New York, where, until his unfortunate friction with the academic authorities, he exerted a wide influence as professor of music at Columbia University. The malady which alienated him from his powers in his last years, and which finally brought about his end, called universal attention to America's musical awakening and prowess by the same stroke in which it removed the nation's musical leader.

MacDowell attained his chief critical recognition through his two concertos and four sonatas for piano. The second concerto, in D minor, with its alternate phases of nobility and charm, stands as a monument to the composer's highest powers, with regard both to pianistic and orchestral mediums of expression. The composer's harmonic warmth and individuality, his freshness of melodic inspiration, his marked capacity for skillful and colorful orchestration, his eager and highly pitched temperament, are all manifest throughout the work. Of the four sonatas, the 'Tragica,' 'Eroica,' 'Norse,' and 'Keltic,' the last has been universally judged the greatest, and one of his greatest works. Lawrence Gilman calls it his 'masterpiece.' As their titles indicate, these works are all programmatic, though not slavishly so, and romantic in the highest degree. Their material, derived from the rich storehouse of Gaelic legend, finds the composer on his native spiritual heath, and in them he speaks with an authority not surpassed, perhaps not equalled, in the whole range of his work beside.

The 'Indian Suite' (opus 48) has been the most frequently heard of MacDowell's orchestral works, which have, as a class, been somewhat overshadowed by the piano compositions. In it the composer has touched but lightly upon his Indian thematic sources, building from his own fertile imagination a work of substantial character in five movements, depicting his conception of various phases of Indian life. The fourth movement, a dirge, has won great favor through its sheer imaginative beauty, but the work as a whole has not proved wholly convincing, and is far less true to the Indian than the sonatas are to the Gaelic genius. It represents, however, a matured mastery of orchestration and the formal presentation of ideas. An earlier orchestral suite (opus 42) is a less notable work, reflecting the influence of Raff, and is seldom heard. 'The Saracens' and 'The Lovely Alda,' two colorful orchestral fragments from a once-projected 'Roland' symphony, are not infrequently heard, and with pleasure, but, while characteristic of the composer's genius, are scarcely representative of it. An earlier 'Hamlet and Ophelia' overture has fared rather less well.

In a great number of little piano compositions, grouped under various titles, MacDowell has left an exquisite and extensive legacy of works which mirror forth the world of multitudinous fancy which he delighted to haunt. Not conceived with the view of displaying modern concert technique, but in a vein of sincere and intimate poetic expression, these works have been cherished and enjoyed wherever the piano is played. Reflecting more particularly the earlier phases of the composer's artistic sympathies are two suites (opera 10 and 14), 'Forest Idyls' (opus 19), 'Six Idyls' (opus 28), 'Four Little Poems' (opus 32), 'Marionettes' (opus 38), and 'Twelve Studies' (opus 39). The works in this form by which MacDowell has chiefly endeared himself to the rank and file of American music-lovers, are 'Woodland Sketches' (opus 51), containing 'To a Wild Rose' and 'To a Water Lily;' 'Sea Pieces' (opus 55); 'Fireside Tales' (opus 61), and 'New England Idyls' (opus 62), the last work of the composer.

By no means the least of MacDowell's contributions to musical literature, either in quantity or quality, are his songs, of which there are some ten groups for solo voice, and various part songs, chiefly for male voices. In the spheres of charm, fancy, and 'atmospheric' intuition these undoubtedly hold a very high place, though in respect to passion and imaginative vigor the same can scarcely be said, despite the claims of Henry T. Finck, who places MacDowell with the highest rank of the world's song-writers. The highest type of song-writing would seem to demand not so much a passion for beauty as a passion for passion itself, either physical or spiritual, and such a quality, while not absent from it, was not central to the ethereal character of MacDowell's genius.

Lawrence Gilman's 'Edward MacDowell' presents a sympathetic and illuminating study of the composer and his work.

II

One of the rocks upon which the high character of modern American music is founded is the art-activity of Edgar Stillman-Kelley (b. April 14, 1857). While he has not given forth his compositions in rapid succession or in great quantity, he has, nevertheless, struck a series of telling blows for the honor and dignity of creative musical art in America. Especially is this true in view of the fact that he has formulated, maintained and promulgated definite ideals of music throughout a period which has been characterized mainly, in this respect, by confusion and groping, and, too frequently, even by grovelling. In a post-Wagnerian period in which vacillation, obscurity, and disorder have reigned throughout a large part of the musical world, he has steadily advanced the standard of lucidity, order, and faith. Lofty in imagination, of a high sense of beauty, and at the same time exceptional in scholarship and breadth of intellectual vision, he combines qualities which must necessarily single him out as a leader of importance in the musical movement to which America has given birth. The same qualities have also fitted him to exercise a beneficent influence, in certain directions, upon more recent and newly appearing phases of native musical evolution. It has been Stillman-Kelley's fate that both his name and his influence have outdistanced the general knowledge of his works. Two circumstances may be held accountable for this: the fact that he has given out no quantity of works in small forms through which his music might become accessible to music-lovers everywhere through the universal medium of the piano, and the further fact that it is particularly in just such forms as Stillman-Kelley has produced that, as a nation, we are slow in giving our own composers a wide hearing. The American symphony, on American programs, must wait, first, and perhaps rightfully, upon the classics, and, second, and often with bitter wrong, upon the sensational European novelties of the hour.

So independent and individual a thinker is Stillman-Kelley, so _sui generis_ his work, that it can be explained by no theory of particular or individual influences, but only by a knowledge of the composer's broad survey of the modern field, with emphasis, to be sure, upon the greatest in Germanic tradition. The fundamentals of that tradition one feels the composer to have grasped, but of the principles thus deeply assimilated he makes his own use. In short, he follows principles, and not men, and for this reason the Wagnerian 'passage,' the Tschaikowskian phrase, which drip so easily from the pen of many latter-day composers, are never to be encountered in Stillman-Kelley's music. Into this technique, acquired through close observation and analysis of the works of the masters, the composer imports his own spirit; he has his own story to tell and is very certain of the manner in which he wishes to tell it. The superficial criticism of the day, which looks for raw and sensational departures from the pre-Debussyian musical scheme, will find Stillman-Kelley conservative, at moments even downright Teutonic; but the gulf which separates him, in spirit and message, from both his precursors and contemporaries, European and American, must be plain to every observant person. In this rapid age people are, however, not apt to be closely observant, and it appears that there will still be a considerable interval before Stillman-Kelley's true artistic and intellectual stature will be recognized.

To grasp the nature of the high distinction which must be accorded him, it must be understood that Stillman-Kelley's formative period was that very epoch of the Wagnerian cataclysm which blasted the individuality of composers as the cyclone devastates the forest. So surcharged with the dominating personality of Wagner was this epoch that it seemed no composer sympathetic to that personality could breathe the air of its period and retain his musical individuality. Futile blotches of misunderstood Wagnerian harmony took the place of compositions. This was the tide that Stillman-Kelley stemmed, and his position takes on the aspect of solitary grandeur when it is perceived that he is the only composer in the contemporary American ranks, receptive to the changing order, who can be said to have come through wholly unscathed. While guided primarily by a sense of the beautiful, it was through sheer force of mentality, and standing alone, that the composer achieved this feat and preserved for his nation a straight path for the classical tradition and ideal without relinquishing that freedom of mind which alone can secure the growth of the individual through the apprehension and application of contemporary thought.

The thought can almost be ventured that Stillman-Kelley was the first composer to use the post-Wagnerian harmonic vocabulary without the result sounding like Wagner. If a heroic instinct for thematic development in the face of the harmonic orgies of the time contributed to this achievement, it was secondary to a contribution of even greater distinction. This more original contribution may be termed the application of a geometrical poetic sense to the new harmony. Of the tyrant that enslaved the composers of the time Stillman-Kelley promptly made himself the master. Out of the new material he generated for his use _harmonic motives_, symmetrical blocks of harmony, bearing a

## particular relation to his thematic material, and, by the application

of these well-defined and well-rounded harmonic motives to his formal structure, he attained, at a stroke, the employment of the new medium, the preservation of clarity and order, and thereto a new musical personality. He did not recede to an archaic classical purism and offer the familiar excuse of those who found in Wagner the ruination of pure music. He advanced bravely on to the dangerous ground of the new territory and made it his own without sacrificing the fundamental classical character of his ideals and without losing his wits.

Both in spirit and technique Stillman-Kelley's artistic personality may be seen in microcosmic scope, as it were, in his highly individual song, 'Israfel' to the poem of Edgar Allan Poe. Here are the serene beauty, the highly imaginative harmonic tinting, the touch of the fantastic, the formal amplitude and symmetry, the predominance of phantasy over passion, which characterize all of the composer's work. The companion song, 'Eldorado,' on Poe's poem of that name, is equally typical of the composer's genius, though strongly contrasted with 'Israfel' in subject.

Stillman-Kelley first became known through his intensely characteristic and 'atmospheric' music for 'Macbeth,' dating from early days in San Francisco. This he has in later years revised and cast in the form of an orchestral suite, composing for the play a wholly new overture of momentous proportions. This is a massive and sombre work, dealing with the conflict of conscience and evil ambition, its murky content being relieved only by the introduction of a theme of the joys of Gaelic royalty, which later on assumes a grim aspect, being stated in conjunction with the theme of ambition.

The 'Aladdin' suite has perhaps been less infrequently heard than Stillman-Kelley's other orchestral works. In this work the composer availed himself of certain Chinese themes, of which he made a characteristically thorough study while in San Francisco (and which resulted also in his widely known song 'The Lady Picking Mulberries'). This suite is in the composer's most genial vein and is a _tour de force_ of piquant orchestration. Its movements depict 'The Wedding of Aladdin and the Princess,' 'A Serenade in the Royal Pear Garden,' 'Flight of the Genie with the Palace,' and 'The Return and Feast of the Lanterns.'

Stillman-Kelley's greatest recent offering is his 'New England' symphony, in B minor, produced by the Litchfield County Choral Union, at Norfolk, Conn., June 3, 1913. In it the composer has sought to embody 'something of the experiences, ambitions, and aspirations of our Puritan ancestors.' It was greeted as a work of large importance, needing further hearing for its full appreciation. The composer has completed sketches of a 'Gulliver' symphony and an 'Alice in Wonderland' suite, the subjects of both of which attest his love of the fantastic and call attention to his equal devotion to the element of humor. There is an orchestral score of 'Israfel.'

In chamber music form he has produced a quintet for strings and piano which has had much success on both sides of the Atlantic, and a less well-known string quartet in variation form. There are also a few early songs and piano compositions. Mention should be made of the composer's very successful and famous music for the dramatic presentation of 'Ben Hur,' and the exquisite 'Song of Iras' taken from it.

Born in Wisconsin, Mr. Stillman-Kelley has lived successively in Stuttgart, San Francisco, New York, New Haven (where he occupied the chair of music at Yale University during a year's absence of Horatio Parker), and Berlin. He now (1914) holds a 'composer's fellowship' at Western College, Oxford, Ohio, giving lectures there and at the Cincinnati conservatory. His chief teacher in theory was Seifriz, in Stuttgart.

III

Among the most earnest and advanced leaders of American music stands Arne Oldberg (b. 1874), a musical personality of the highest nobility and idealism, and a consummate master of his art. Unquestionably as fully equipped master of thematic development in the cyclic forms as America has produced, his loftily conceived chamber music and orchestral works present themselves in a spiritual and technical serenity, artistic authenticity and completeness, which baffle the critical beholder. Indeed, it is with the music-makers who wrote before relentless Beethoven forced the skyey goddess down into the world-struggle that Oldberg has the closest spiritual kinship. Never since Mozart has music been more bafflingly 'absolute' than in the bulk of his works in orchestral and chamber music, and piano forms. The appearance of these works, so modern from the standpoint of thematic and formal development in this epoch, seems to call for a revision of modern musical psychology and philosophy. Much of modern 'pure' music is too dramatic to endure a comparison in this respect, or else too philosophical and too deeply involved in the world-problem. To Brahms' technical system that of Oldberg more nearly corresponds than to any other.

In this music, at the same time, there is no reversion to the style of an earlier day; it carries no slogan of 'back to Mozart.' Trained as he was in the severe school of Joseph Rheinberger, to Oldberg, to be sure, the modern French school does not exist, but neither, for that matter, does the traditional shadow of turgidity and heaviness which hangs about the Teutonic genius even at its most idealistic. Those who think to perceive a measure of old-fashionedness in his music are looking at the letter rather than the spirit, which is ever onward and creative, though in its own way, and without admitting that modern progress lies only in the adoption of the Gallic idiom. It is the music of spiritual upliftment and refreshment, waiting its day until sensationalism and mere color-riot shall have lost their power to appeal.

The two quintets for piano and strings (opera 16 and 24) present a joyous and upspringing lyricism all but unknown to the music of the day, together, especially in the latter and more mature work, with a thematic involution that would be appalling were it not for the exuberant spontaneity of their inspiration. A string quartet in C minor (opus 15) is a less complete revelation of the composer's powers. A woodwind quintet in E flat major (opus 18), on the other hand, is a miracle of gladness and of grave and haunting loveliness.

A symphony in F (opus 23), twice rewritten but not yet performed, contains a slow movement that represents the composer at his highest level of contemplative beauty. The overture 'Paolo and Francesca' (opus 21) marks a departure from his usual absolutism; it is a work of large dimensions and great warmth of feeling, and made a deep impression upon the listeners when performed by the Theodore Thomas Orchestra on January 17-18, 1908. The same orchestra has given performances of Oldberg's 'Academic Overture,' written for the Northwest University at Evanston, Ill., a 'Theme and Variations' (opus 19), and a set of 'Symphonic Variations,' for organ and orchestra (opus 35), the variation form being one in the possibilities of which Oldberg has great faith. An almost uniform success has followed these various performances. A second symphony, in C minor (opus 34) has followed the first in F, and there is a recent 'Orchestral Rhapsody' (opus 36). An 'Arabesque' for piano (opus 31) shows the composer in a new vein. The admirable 'Symphonic' concerto for piano and orchestra (opus 17), and the horn concerto (opus 20), are almost entirely unknown. There are besides these works a considerable number of piano works, a sonata (opus 28) of great lyrical charm, a very extraordinary set of 'Thematic Variations,' a poetic and stirring 'Legend,' a set of three beautiful and highly interesting 'Miniatures,' and various other works.

Mr. Oldberg was born at Youngstown, Ohio, in 1874. He is of Norse extraction, being of the third generation on American soil, and holds the chair of music at the Northwestern University.

* * * * *

Much space would be required in which to give an adequate account of the creative activities of Henry Hadley (b. 1871), one of the most spontaneous and prolific of American composers, and one of the best known, at home and abroad.

By temperament and choice of subject matter Hadley places himself in the ranks of the romanticists, but his tenacious loyalty to the symphonic form, among a wide variety of other forms, bespeaks a neo-classical leaning and is scarcely to be explained by a mere desire to essay expression in all forms. Moreover, while in orchestral technique Hadley is a student and, in some sort, a disciple of Richard Strauss, unlike that composer he inclines, in his orchestral works other than symphonic, to the overture form rather than the less closely knit 'tone-poem.' In orchestral realism he follows Strauss but a short way, eschewing violence and holding a rather unique middle course between realism and impressionism; something more than impressionist merely, a _suggestive realist_ he might be termed.

Everywhere in Hadley's music is energy, fancy, the spirit of youth. It bubbles and glints, running an inexhaustible gamut of varying tints and ingenious and poetic tonal designs. It is the music of immense enjoyment of objective life, of actions, sights, emotions. Too eager and full of action to be deeply reflective, too happy to be philosophic, it is the part of Hadley's music to quicken the sense of life and of delight in the teeming visible world about us. Sombre, pensive, or bleak it may be at times, according to the composer's expressive need, but it is the tone-poet's fancy that decrees it, never a confession of _Weltschmerz_ on the composer's part.

The first symphony, 'Youth and Life' (opus 25), is highly characteristic of the buoyancy, the nervous energy, and the imaginative fertility of the composer. The second, 'The Four Seasons' (opus 30), is a delicate balance, within the classical form, of romanticism, impressionism, and symbolism. It is romanticism that predominates, however, although such distinct impressions as those of wintry blasts and falling autumn leaves are happy and noteworthy features of the work. The languor and sun-warmed luxuriance of mid-summer finds poignant and beautiful expression. The third symphony, in B minor (opus 60), seems to be less well known than the others. The fourth symphony, 'North, East, South, West' (opus 64), was received with enthusiasm when produced under the direction of the composer at a meeting of the Litchfield County Choral Union, on June 6, 1911. Hadley indulges in a little aboriginal Americanism in the 'South' and 'West' movements, though his only definitely discernible 'nationalism' lies in his inherent temperamental character. The four symphonies reveal a constantly progressive growth in modern harmonic vision and in orchestral mastery. The only American composer to enter the field of symphonic conducting as a profession, Hadley, in his technical development, has made the most of his contact with the orchestra.

There are three overtures, 'Hector and Andromache,' the jubilant 'In Bohemia,' and one of sombre character to Stephen Phillips' 'Herod.' A tone-poem, 'Salome,' finds him at his nearest to Strauss in ideals, even if not in style. His most recent orchestral work, produced in 1914, is entitled 'Lucifer.' From earlier days are several 'Ballet Suites,' an 'Oriental Suite' and a 'Symphonic Fantasie.' The still more recent 'Culprit Fay,' after Rodman Drake's poem, has won various and deserved honors. Hadley's one grand opera, 'Safie,' dating from his incumbency as opera conductor in Mainz, Germany, was produced there on April 4, 1909, but has not been heard in America. There are songs in great number and variety, several cantatas, a number of works in different small forms, and considerable church music.

Hadley is a native of Massachusetts, and comes of a musical family. Among his teachers are, first, his father, and later Chadwick in Boston and Mandyczewski in Vienna. He has several times been a prize-winner with his compositions, the second symphony winning the Paderewski Prize and one offered by the New England Conservatory, both in 1901, and the 'Culprit Fay' winning the National Federation of Musical Clubs' Prize in 1909. Mr. Hadley became conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in 1909 and the San Francisco Orchestra in 1911, which latter post he still holds.

* * * * *

One of the sturdiest musical figures in the ranks of American _arrivés_ is Frederick Shepherd Converse (b. 1871), artistically of strong romantic leanings, although brought up under the classic influences of the widely influential course in theory conducted by the late James K. Paine at Harvard University. A taker of honors here, as well as at Munich under Rheinberger, where he went after a period of study with Chadwick in Boston, Converse has realized a degree of scholarship seldom attained or even aspired to in America. He is typically representative of what might be called the second generation of modern American composers, the one following immediately upon that of Foote, Chadwick, and their colleagues. Like all the active minds of his generation, he exhibits the tendency to break the shackles of classical tradition while still preserving reverence for its ideals. With the exception of one retrospective inspiration, the string quartet (opus 18), he appears to be done with the sonata form at about the eighth opus number. Previous to that he had produced a symphony in D minor (opus 7), a sonata for violin (opus 1), a string quartet, and an overture. The later string quartet has qualities of admirable lyrical beauty.

It is in his large romantic outreachings that Converse is best and most favorably known. Indeed, the composer himself styles his first orchestral tone-poem, the 'Festival of Pan,' a 'romance.' Subsequent orchestral works in so-called 'free' form (an absurd term, since every authentic form gains its strength through conformity to some law, even if not a familiar one) are 'Endymion's Vision,' a bit too 'free' in form but of rich and imaginative orchestral color, and, better known and more highly appraised, 'The Mystic Trumpeter,' after Walt Whitman. 'Night' and 'Day,' two poems for piano and orchestra, and _La Belle Dame Sans Merci_, ballade for baritone and orchestra, as well as the orchestral works mentioned, have all been produced by orchestras and artists of the first prominence and with marked success.

Mr. Converse has made two heroic ventures onto the still unwon but yielding field of American grand opera. 'The Pipe of Desire,' with text by George E. Barton, a one-act opera, is in mood a reflection from the poets of the Celtic twilight. It was given a special production of three performances in Boston, in 1906, and experienced a brief revival, in March, 1910, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and in the following January in Boston. A second opera, in three acts, 'The Sacrifice,' dealing with a romantic Spanish-Californian subject, is regarded as showing a marked advance in operatic style. It was produced by the Boston Opera Company in March, 1911, with a measure of success, but the scope of its bearings has not yet been extended. Mr. Converse's most recent large work was the composition of the music for the 'Pageant and Masque of St. Louis,' May 28-31, 1914, a broad and vigorous piece of writing. In general, his music is of strong fibre, harmoniously and melodically and warm in color, though his style has not yet broken wholly away from its academic moorings. For several years after 1902 he served as instructor and professor in the musical department of Harvard University.

IV

A very substantial and influential personality in American musical life is that of Ernest R. Kroeger, who was born in St. Louis, Mo., August 10, 1862, and whose activities have ever since been identified with that city. The list of his published compositions is enormous and comprises works in many forms. As is the case with most American composers, his orchestral and chamber music works remain in manuscript, and consist of three 'symphonic overtures,' 'Sardanapalus,' 'Hiawatha,' and 'Atala,' the first Oriental in character, the two latter Indian, overtures on the subjects of 'Thanatopsis' and 'Endymion,' a 'Lalla Rookh' suite, two string quartets, and, for piano with strings, a trio, quartet, and quintet.

Despite Kroeger's scholarly handling of the sonata and fugue forms his tendency is strongly romantic, as is indicated by the subjects not only of his overtures but of the great number of his piano works, which touch a whole world of romance from Greek mythology to Indian and negro folk-lore. Among his more representative piano works are '12 Concert Études' (opus 30), a suite (opus 33), four 'sonnets' (opus 36), Sonata in D flat (opus 40), Prelude and Fugue in B flat minor (opus 41), 'Mythological Scenes' (opus 46), ten 'American Character Sketches' (opus 53), and twenty 'Moods' (opus 60). Widely known as a writer of songs of much poetic charm and appeal, his best works in this form are the 'Persian Love Song' (from opus 43), the famous 'Bend Low, O Dusky Night' (from opus 48), Ten Songs (opus 65), and a song cycle, 'Memory' (opus 66). He has written much for the organ, and there is a sonata for violin and piano (opus 32), also a recent large work for recitation or action, 'The Masque of Dead Florentines' (opus 75), on Maurice Hewlett's poem. In style Kroeger leans strongly upon the German tradition, but is fond of writing in an Oriental vein. He has held many positions of responsibility, among them being the presidency of the Music Teachers' National Association, and the important post of Master of Programs at the St. Louis World's Fair, which service won him an office in the French Academy. His influence has been far-reaching in the musical upbuilding of the Middle West.

Leaning somewhat more heavily upon the classic than the romantic aspects of German tradition, the work of Rubin Goldmark (b. 1872) makes serious claim to a place of high regard in the field of American music. While having had the advantages of European study, Goldmark also reflects a measure of the considerable influence exerted by Dvořák upon composition in America, having been one of those under the guidance of the Bohemian composer during his period of teaching in New York. In so far as this influence is discernible in one of Goldmark's well-defined musical personality, it is to be sought in the general nature of his musical ideals, and only very slightly in the specific Americanism encouraged by Dvořák (1841-1904). A firm emotional texture, gained by warmth of both harmony and melody, and a virility arising from a marked rhythmic sense characterize Goldmark's music. His creative impulse is guided more by emotional sincerity and verity than by the element of charm, though it is not without moments of tender and limpid beauty.

His trio for piano, violin and 'cello is an exceptionally substantial opus 1, and his 'Hiawatha' overture won enthusiastic praise from no less discerning a critic than James Huneker. Among his earlier works are a sonata for piano and violin, a 'Romanza' for 'cello, and a number of piano compositions and songs, the latter especially revealing an imagination of distinctive character. An 'Ode to Colorado' for mixed voices issues from the composer's occasional residence in Colorado Springs, as also four 'Prairie Idylls' for piano. From Goldmark's maturer powers springs the quartet in A major, for piano and strings, which, in its class, won the Paderewski Prize in 1909, the poetic merits of the work being revealed in a subsequent performance by the Kneisel Quartet. The impressive and highly-appraised tone-poem 'Samson' was produced by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in March, 1914.

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One of the first of the post-Chadwickian generation of American composers to step into prominence was Howard Brockway (b. 1870), who received a very thorough training under the American O. B. Boise in Berlin. He brought back, among other large works, a symphony which he had composed at the age of twenty-four and which had called much attention to his gifts and potential career when performed at a concert of his works in Berlin. Walter Damrosch once said, 'The trouble with American composers is they write one symphony when they come back from Europe and then do nothing more.' A significant half-truth is contained in the remark. The classical musical education requires, tacitly or otherwise, the symphonic effort. Then come the American environment and the dampening absence of a market for symphonies by Young (and Old) America; then the writing of songs in order to find a way to a hearing; and _then_, if the composer is to belie the Damroschian dictum, a gradual artistic resurrection harmonious with American institutions, purposes, and ideals.

Brockway did, in fact, give out a quantity of small works, songs and piano compositions, on his return to America, all of which, it may be said, reveal a sensitive and truly poetic musical nature, capable of lifting itself well up through the dense and earthy atmosphere of technique into the realm of poetic perception and expression. The outcome of his return to large forms it is a bit early to predict. The knowledge of a manuscript quintet for strings and piano, and a piano concerto, under his highest opus numbers, 36 and 37, adumbrates an auspicious future for his expression in large forms. Meanwhile a suite for 'cello and piano (opus 35) has been given out, and an admirable cantata, 'Sir Olaf,' has been heard. From his earlier portfolio credit is to be given him for the beautiful violin sonata (opus 9) and the significant 'Ballade' and 'Sylvan Suite' (op. 11 and 19), both for orchestra.

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An extraordinarily prolific composer is Homer N. Bartlett (1845-1911), the separation of whose more distinguished works from the mass that he has written will be effected only by the sifting process of time. From the _Salonstück_ period of his 'outrageously' popular 'Grand Polka de Concert' (opus 1), through the ambitious violin concerto (opus 109), which was entirely rewritten in 1908, and the symphonic poem 'Apollo' from the same period, to the works bearing the Himalayan opus numbers 215 and 220, a 'Meditation' and an _Air à la Bourrée_ for violin, is a far cry. In providing a list of his works the composer writes at the end, 'opus numbers here increase to 231, although I am striving to keep them down.' This great output shows a steady increase in distinction, and covers a wide range of tendencies, almost wholly in the direction of romanticism.

'Khamsin,' which Hughes refers to as a fragment of a cantata, was rewritten in 1908 as an extended dramatic aria for tenor solo, in three connected parts. In its earlier form it was heard at a New York Manuscript Society concert, and is regarded as representative of the best and most dramatically inspired of Bartlett's work. Two movements of an ingeniously exotic 'Japanese Suite' for orchestra were heard at the Central Park orchestral concerts in 1910 and revealed a good control of orchestral resource. There are also clever piano compositions on Japanese themes, a Japanese 'Revery' and 'Romance' (opus 221), and 'Kuma Saka' (opus 218) for four hands. There are also an opera, 'La Vallière,' written in 1887, an operetta, 'Magic Hours' (opus 225), and many choruses, songs, piano compositions, including a prize-winning nocturne ('Kranbach' prize), violin compositions, organ works, and songs. Bartlett was born in 1846 at Olive, N. Y., and has been active as a teacher and organist in New York City.

Mr. Rossetter G. Cole is best known as the composer of the melodrama 'King Robert of Sicily' (op. 22), to which David Bispham's stirring interpretation has brought great popularity. This work contains some of Mr. Cole's best inspirations; while adhering to idioms that are conventional, there is an admirable following of the dramatic line and a real atmospheric descriptiveness. It is harmonically conventional, at times markedly Wagnerian, and there are some excellent effects in ecclesiastical harmonies. In an earlier melodrama, 'Hiawatha's Wooing,' op. 20, Indian themes are utilized, though but slightly. Still earlier published works are 'The Passing of Summer,' a 'lyrical idyll' for soli, chorus and orchestra, while still in manuscript there is a sonata for violin and piano (op. 8), works which placed by the side of Mr. Cole's later compositions become comparatively unimportant. Of recent publication a 'Ballade' for cello and orchestra (op. 25) and two organ pieces, 'Fantasie Symphonique' (op. 28) and 'Rhapsody' (op. 30), are written for their respective instruments with a well-calculated effectiveness. One of Mr. Cole's recent compositions is a bit of descriptive piano writing entitled 'Sunset in the Hills.' This shows a considerably more advanced harmonic scheme and one much richer in color, which now fade into the more delicate tints of an idyllic MacDowell-like mood.

V

Generations of composers succeed each other quickly in America with, however, but the flimsiest of boundaries, chronological and artistic. We now come to a group of composers, in general slightly younger than those already considered, who in the romantic and neo-classical fields may be regarded as 'runners up,' whose 'arrival' is well under way and who press hard for the highest rank and honors in their field in the national and even in the international musical life. No order of precedence will be attempted in making note of their achievements, as none has been made hitherto with a few exceptions in favor of seniority and fame.

One of the staunchest and most uncompromising upholders of a severe classical ideal is Daniel Gregory Mason (b. 1873). With sureness, if not over-rapidly, he has developed a mode of expression singularly lucid, symmetrical and thorough in its formal unfoldment. Thoughtful in the extreme, modest in the nature and statement of his themes, he seeks the source of power in completeness and symmetry of outline, in the bringing of his themes to the fullest and most rounded development, and in clarity of harmonic structure. Not even the strictest of classicists, in these days, can wholly escape the influence of the romantic epoch, and if a sympathy with the ideals of Schumann has in a measure qualified Mason's musical outlook in the first instance, it has yielded to a stronger leaning to the artistic creed of Brahms. Some of the composer's pages bear a marked Brahms-like aspect. These earlier influences have been broadened and enriched in Mason's later work by a studious devotion to the music of César Franck and of Vincent d'Indy, the composer having studied with the latter in 1902 and later. These latter influences have produced a very evident effect upon his harmonic scheme, which presents a conservative use and treatment of thoroughly modern resources, though with a characteristic avoidance of anything approaching to the harmonic sensationalism of much latter day music. In all ways, in fact, Mason's music is a protest against the sensational tendency of the time.

The composer's most ambitious work is a symphony for grand orchestra (opus 11), in C minor, written in 1913-14. It is in four movements, the last two connected, without program, and is 'cyclic' in construction. Another important work is a quartet in A major (opus 7). The sonata for violin and piano (opus 5), in G minor, which has been widely performed, is thoroughly representative of the composer's ideals. The first movement, suave and musical, though not particularly striking in its themes, is in an extended sonata form, rather highly modernized with respect to secondary themes and transitional passages, and reveals much ingenuity in thematic variation and transformation. The warm melody of the second movement, andante tranquillo, is of memorable beauty. The last movement is in the nature of a spirited tarantella, with an admirably contrasted theme of choral-like character, an effect one may fancy to bear a slight analogy to the _finale_ of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata.

An 'Elegy' (opus 2), in variation form, is wrought with technical nicety, but leans dubiously upon an ultra-conservative treatment. 'Country Pictures' (opus 9), six pieces for pianoforte, show much fancy and charm. No. 1, 'Cloud Pageant,' is colorful and pictorially suggestive, interesting in its thematic inversions, and develops massively. No. 2, 'Chimney Swallows,' is clever in motion, and

## particularly in its insistence on the interval of the 'second.' No. 4,

'The Whippoorwill,' is a charming piece of classical realism, and No. 5, 'The Quiet Hour,' comes as near to ultra-modernism as the composer ventures. Other works are: 'Five Children's Songs' (opus 1), with texts from Stevenson; 'Romance' and 'Impromptu' (opus 3), for pianoforte; a whimsical set of 'Variations on Yankee Doodle in the Styles of Various Composers'; 'Pastorale' for violin, clarinet and piano (opus 8); and 'Passacaglia' (opus 10), for organ.

Mr. Mason is a native of Boston and a member of a famous family of musicians, being a grandson of Lowell Mason, and a nephew of Dr. William Mason. He is a graduate of Harvard, where some of his early musical studies were pursued under Paine. Since 19 he has held the associate professorship of music in Columbia University, and he has done much by lectures and literary work to promote musical appreciation. His 'From Grieg to Brahms' (1902) and its sequels have exerted a wide influence.

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Emanating from strongly academic influences, David Stanley Smith (b. 1877), who has for a number of years been associated as assistant professor with the musical department of Yale University, exhibits a marked romantic tendency of imagination, albeit one exceptionally well guarded by a devotion to the structural ideals of the classic writers. The distinguished character of his talent has brought him rapidly to the front, and none of his more important works have had to wait long for a hearing. Smith places a strong insistence upon coherence in thematic development and tonality as the only basis upon which to found a musical work, and, while partial to high harmonic color and ready to depart from the text-books in harmonic usage, he is unwilling to allow color effect to usurp the place of structural continuity. Desirous and capable as he is of advancing upon the debatable borders of modern harmonic resource, he does not burn the bridges of conservatism behind him. His music bespeaks a sensitively poetic nature, sentiment, color and emotion rising easily through the foundational stratum of a thorough but not overweighted technique.

His symphony in F minor was performed by the Chicago Orchestra under Stock in December, 1912, and was well received. It is thoroughly representative of the composer's blending of modern and classic ideals and methods. The quartet in E minor (opus 19), departing from earlier styles chiefly in rhythmic intricacy, has been played by the Kneisels in many cities. An 'Overture Joyeuse' (opus 11) was conducted by the composer at one of the Chickering production concerts in 1904; it finds the composer scarcely emancipated from academic trammels. This and a much later 'symphonic sketch,' 'Prince Hal,' have both been conducted by the composer with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. A 'Symphonic Ballad' (opus 24) has been given with this orchestra, and also at the concerts of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. 'Pan,' a chorus for women's voices, on Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem, with orchestra and Pan-pipe obbligato inevitably assigned to the oboe, has been widely heard, and is a work brimming with color and rhythm. 'The Wind-Swept Wheat' and 'The Dark' are also for women's chorus with orchestra. A mixed chorus with orchestra, 'The Fallen Star,' won the Paderewski Prize in 1909. A trio in G major (opus 16) and an orchestral 'Allegro Giocoso' have, like all the foregoing works, been publicly performed, as well as numerous anthems and songs. Smith was born in Ann Arbor, Mich., and educated at Yale.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VII

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VIII

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A. F.

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