ch should accomplish results worthy of the glorious
musical traditions of that country.

England is shaking off her subserviency[340] to the influence of
Handel and Mendelssohn, and at last has made a promising start toward
the achievement of works which shall rank with her glories in poetry,
in fiction and in painting. Among the older group we have such names
as Sullivan, with his inimitable series of operas, the _Mikado_,
_Gondoliers_, _Iolanthe_, etc.; Parry, with some notable choral works,
and Stanford--a most versatile man--Irish by birth, and with the humor
and spontaneity natural to his race; his _Irish Symphony_ and his
opera _Shamus O'Brien_ would give lustre to any period. The only
genius of the first rank however which England has produced since the
days of Purcell is Edward Elgar (1857-still living). Practically
self-educated and spending his early life in his native country he
escaped the influences of German training which so deadened the
efforts of former composers, such as Pierson and Bennett. Elgar's
music is thoroughly English in its sturdy vigor[341] and wholesome
emotion. With something first-hand to say he has acquired such a
technique in musical expression that his compositions rank in
workmanship with those of the great continental masters. In his use of
the modern orchestra Elgar need be considered second to none. His
overtures _In the South_ and _Cockaigne_, his two Symphonies and his
_Enigma Variations_ are universally acknowledged to be models of
richly-colored and varied scoring. Although his music is English it is
never parochial but has that note of universal import always found in
the work of a real genius. Among the younger men there are Wallace,
both composer and writer on musical subjects (his Threshold of music
being particularly stimulating), Holbrook, Vaughan Williams, Roger
Quilter, Arthur Hinton, Balfour Gardiner and John Ireland, a composer
of genuine individuality, as is evident from his Violin Sonata in D
Minor.

[Footnote 340: Some pithy remarks on the habitual English attitude
toward music may be found in the history of Stanford and Forsyth, page
313, _seq._]

[Footnote 341: See for example the broad theme in the middle portion
of the March, _Pomp and Circumstance_.]

Even such outlying parts of the world as Australia and South America
have contributed executive artists of great ability though, to our
knowledge, as yet no composer.

What, now, in this connection can be