oldenes entfaerben,
Schleicht sich durch den Hain,
Auch vergeh'n und sterben,
Daeucht mir suess zu sein.

... failing,
From the rose unbound,
Falls, its life exhaling,
Dead upon the ground.
Golden colors flying,
Slant from tree to tree;
Such release and dying,
Sweet would seem to me.

Copyright, 1889, by G. Schirmer, Jr.

A FRAGMENT FROM "HERBSTGEFUeHL."]

Nevin's songs, whose only littleness is in their length, though
treated with notable individuality, are founded in principle on the
_Lieder_ of Schumann and Franz. That is to say, they are written with
a high poetical feeling inspired by the verses they sing, and, while
melodious enough to justify them as lyrics, yet are near enough to
impassioned recitative to do justice to the words on which they are
built. Nevin is also an enthusiastic devotee of the position these
masters, after Schubert, took on the question of the accompaniment.
This is no longer a slavish thumping of a few chords, now and then,
to keep the voice on the key, with outbursts of real expression only
at the interludes; but it is a free instrumental composition with a
meaning of its own and an integral value, truly accompanying, not
merely supporting and serving, the voice. Indeed, one of Nevin's best
songs,--"Lehn deine Wang an meine Wang,"--is actually little more than
a vocal accompaniment to a piano solo. His accompaniments are always
richly colored and generally individualized with a strong
contramelody, a descending chromatic scale in octaves making an
especially frequent appearance. Design, though not classical, is
always present and distinct.

Nevin's first published work was a modest "Serenade," with a neat
touch of syncopation, which he wrote at the age of eighteen. His
"Sketch-Book," a collection of thirteen songs and piano pieces found
an immediate and remarkable sale that has removed the ban formerly
existing over books of native compositions.

The contents of the "Sketch-Book" display unusual versatility. It
opens with a bright gavotte, in which adherence to the classic spirit
compels a certain reminiscence of tone. The second piece, a song, "I'
the Wondrous Month o' May," has such a springtide fire and frenzy in
the turbulent accompaniment, and such a fervent reiterance, that it
becomes, in my opinion, the best of all the settings of this poem of
Heine's, not excluding even Schumann's or that of Franz. The "Love
Song," though a