is a very
perfect tone suggestion of the loveliness of a quiet, starlit
sea.

5. _Song_ (_In changing moods_). This opens softly with a cheery
song which has a rough and hearty chorus. A deeper emotion is
sounded where the music is marked _passionately_, and after this
comes a passage of wistful tenderness. The song is resumed,
together with its chorus, but near the end the tender portion is
recalled, and the piece ends with a subdued and thoughtful
reminiscence of the air.

6. _From the Depths_ (_In languid swaying rhythm_).This is one of
MacDowell's greater inspirations and is headed:--

_And who shall sound the mystery of the seas._

This is a magnificent tone poem. We first have a picture of the
sea, calm, but sinister, and then we see it working up to its
full power and fury in a storm. The gradations of tone range from
a sombre, mysterious _ppp_ to an _fff_ of furious power. The
writing is very full and rich, and there are passages of a
stupendous strength and magnificence of effect seldom found
outside MacDowell's own music.

7. _Nautilus_ (_Delicately, gracefully_). This is headed:--

_A fairy sail and a fairy boat_

and is the gem of the set. The writing is of exquisite
gracefulness and charm. The scenery, as the little voyage
proceeds, is of fresh loveliness and constantly changing, while
the curious, indecisive rhythm is unmistakably suggestive of an
uncanny boat trip in quiet water. The whole piece is one of
perpetual charm and delight to the ear.

8. _In Mid-Ocean_ (_With deep feeling_). Here we find the deeper
note struck again:--

_Inexorable! Thou straight line of eternal fate...._

The music of this piece is transporting in its majestic nobility
and magnificent, sweeping strength. It is one of the most superb
of MacDowell's short pieces. From the deep and sonorous opening
bars, through passionately mounting fury, to the sombre and
mysterious close--in all of it we are confronted with the work of
an unmistakably inspired master. With this fitting, unsurpassed
picture, not of the outward might of the sea alone, but of the
mysterious, relentless and terrible beauty of its significance as
Fate, MacDowell concluded his _Sea Pieces_--Tone poems of
artistic supremacy, of inimitable strength and loveliness of
expression, that will live as long as there are men and women who
are stirred by the deep power of music to give expression to
God's Creation.

OPUS 56. FOUR SONGS, FOR VOICE AN