ry modest one for two such fine pieces of orchestral tone
poetry. _The Saracens_ is a piece of great power, dramatic and
wild in spirit and vivid in harmonic and instrumental colouring.
It represents the scene in which the traitor, Ganelon, determines
on the deed that results in the death of Roland. The whole
passage is vividly suggested by the music.

_The Lovely Alda_ is a very beautiful and human piece. Alda was
Roland's bethrothed and the music aims at suggesting her
loveliness and her mourning for her lover. There are passages of
intensely impressive melancholy in the _Fragment_ and its human
feeling is typical of MacDowell. Altogether the two pieces are
music on a high plane and worth attention for their own intrinsic
value, quite apart from their connection with the symphony that
never materialised. They bear a stamp of seriousness of effort
and a conscious responsibility that only the really great
composer is able to indicate.

OPUS 31. SIX POEMS AFTER HEINE, FOR PIANOFORTE.

_Composed, Wiesbaden_, 1887. _First Published_, 1887 (J. Hainauer.
Revised Edition--Arthur P. Schmidt. British Empire--Winthrop
Rogers, Ltd.).

1. _We Sat by the Fisherman's Cottage._

2. _Far Away, on the Rock-coast of Scotland._ (Scotch poem.)

3. _My Child, We Were Once Children._

4. _We Travelled Alone in the Gloomy Post-chaise._

5. _Shepherd Boy's a King._

6. _Death Nothing is but Cooling Night._ (_Poeme erotique_.)

Certain of these pieces, in the edition revised by the composer,
are rather good, and are full of suggestive effort. They have,
too, a touch of the composer's individuality about them, although
not of his greater kind. The pianoforte writing is well done and
effective, but lacks the sweep of line and power of the later
works. As a whole, however, the _Six Poems after Heine_ are quite
creditable and self contained pieces, each number bearing some
Heine verses indicating its poetic basis.

The first piece is contemplative and contains some distinctly
MacDowell-like harmonic touches.

The second graphically depicts the raging sea of the rocky coast
of Scotland, a grey old castle and a beautiful, but ailing, woman
harpist, whose gloomy song goes out into the storm. The music is
powerful and picturesque in the storm passages, while the sad
Scottish song of the woman adds vivid local colour to the whole.

The third number is rather poor and devoid of any real interest.

The journey in the po