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they bring the resources of the modern pianoforte into full and
sonorous play, sweeping the whole of the keyboard with their
stirring expressions. It is possible that as they are not in
general demand, the average virtuoso does not consider their
technical difficulties worth conquering. Nay, it is even doubtful
whether the pianist's mind could always rise to the heights of
fervent poetry and imagination whither MacDowell was often
carried and the memories of which are embodied in his finest
music.

As a tone poet MacDowell has none of the sensuous emotionalism
that wins popularity in the drawing room and at the musical
recitals of popular pianists. He is never sentimental and his
strength and passion is always finely controlled, never feverish.
His music is singularly free from the emotionalisms of sex, the
love-impulse with him is always noble and restrained. In all his
moods there is a human spirit and some definitely suggested
content, the most notable purist exceptions being the two
pianoforte concertos. His tone colourings are never used densely
or oppressively, but only serve to heighten the suggestiveness of
the whole. He loved the pianoforte as an instrument for personal
melodic and harmonic expression, and understood the range of its
tonal resources. His biggest music for it is written with very
broad and extended chords, strong in character, but always
wonderfully clear and ringing, and eminently suited for
pianoforte sonority. His tone nuances range from a shadowy,
mysterious _pppp_ to a virile, massive _ffff_.

MacDowell's best orchestral composition is his _Second (Indian)
Suite, Op_. 48. This is one of his most noble works, scored with
masterly skill and vividly suggesting the great plains and
forests, the wild and lonely retreats, the festivals, sorrows,
rejoicings, and romances and also the stern, rude manliness of
the North American Indians, whose pathetic annals form such a
stirring page in American history. MacDowell also wrote three
symphonic poems for orchestra, another suite, and some symphonic
sketches.

The songs of MacDowell make an important section of the catalogue
of his works, and are chiefly notable for their beauty and
tenderness of expression, and he was at his very best when
writing in the pure lyric form. His efforts comprising Ops. 56,
58 and 60 are of a rare and expressive order. He also composed a
number of fine part-songs for male-voice choruses. Most of his
best vocal wor