he Gardener." He gets for a moment far from its florid
grace in "I Looked within My Soul," which has an unwonted bigness, and
is a genuine _Lied_.

In later years Johns' songs have been brought out in little albums,
very artistically got up, especially for music (which has been
heinously printed, as a rule, in this country). These albums include
three skilfully written "English Songs," and three "French Songs,"
"Soupir" taking the form of melodic recitative. Opus 19 is a group of
"Wonder Songs," which interpret Oliver Herford's quaint conceits
capitally.

Opus 26 collects nine songs, of which "Princess Pretty Eyes" is
fascinatingly archaic. It is good to see him setting two such remotely
kindred spirits as Herrick and Emily Dickinson. The latter has hardly
been discovered by composers, and the former is too much neglected.

Johns has also written a few part songs and some instrumental works,
which maintain his characteristics. A delightful "Canzone," a happy
"Promenade," and "Mazurka" are to be mentioned, and a number of pieces
for violin and piano, among them a finely built intermezzo, a
berceuse, a romanza that should be highly effective, and a witty
scherzino. He has written for strings a berceuse and a scherzino,
which have been played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and certain
part songs, as well as a chorus for female voices and string
orchestra, have been sung in London.

Johns was born at New Castle, Del., November 24, 1857, of American
parents. Though at first a student of architecture, he gave this up
for music, and studied at Boston under Wm. F. Apthorp, J.K. Paine,
and W.H. Sherwood, after which he went to Berlin, where he studied
under Kiel, Grabau, Raif, and Franz Rummel. In 1884 he made Boston his
home.

If San Francisco had found some way of retaining the composers she has
produced, she would have a very respectable colony. Among the others
who have come east to grow up with music is William Arms Fisher, who
was born in San Francisco, April 27, 1861. The two composers from whom
he derives his name, Joshua Fisher and William Arms, settled in
Massachusetts colony in the seventeenth century. He studied harmony,
organ, and piano with John P. Morgan. After devoting some years to
business, he committed his life to music, and in 1890 came to New
York, where he studied singing. Later he went to London to continue
his vocal studies. Returning to New York, he took up counterpoint and
fugue with Horatio W