ann songs are so remarkable as to demand separate treatment.
Those upon the present list are so placed because they represent in a
general way the more noticeable moods of Schumann in this form of art.
They can be sung high or low, as the singer's voice requires, but they
are more satisfactory if sung by a soprano voice, I think.

The first upon the list is the merry and arch little "Hat of Green,"
which with folk-tone sweetness and simplicity brings out a situation as
old as the world and as new as the morning. The musical treatment is
very clever and interesting.

The "Wanderer's Song" is characteristically German, representing the
song of the young student as he sets out upon his student career as
traveler, for seeing strange lands; or the emigrant who leaves his land
to find a better home, but never one so well loved as his own native
country. It is full of heart and courage until the middle part, where
the intermezzo in the key of E major tells of softer feelings--of
longing and homesickness.

"Moonlight," again, represents the peculiarly mystic and dreamy side of
the Schumann nature, and there are few songs in the whole world so
sweet and so beautiful as this; but it needs a pure, clear, and very
true soprano voice, controlled with musical feeling. Thus interpreted
it is indeed a dream.

The next two songs upon the list are out of the famous cycle called
"Woman's Love and Life"--the poems of no great depth, but the subjects
of lasting and universal application and interest. "He, the Noblest"
gives a very spirited and sensitive musical setting to the woman's
opinion of the loved one; words and music bring to expression one of
the most ideal moments of woman's life. The next, "Thou Ring Upon My
Finger," tells its own story, but here, again, the music is well worth
while for its own sake. It is interesting as an instrumental piece
without the aid of the voice. Few songs as musical have been written.
The last upon the list, "Spring Night," while out of another
cycle,--the so-called "Liederkreis,"--is nevertheless of quite similar
excellence to the preceding.

All need to be sung with abandon, and above all with sentiment, poetry,
and flexible rhythm, yet always with abounding musical life. To sing
such songs well is to be an artist.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHOPIN.

FREDERIC FRANCOIS CHOPIN.

Born March 1, 1809, at Zelazowa-Wola, near Warsaw.
Died October 17, 1849, in Paris.

Chopin was the