rownies," 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