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England Conservatory of Music. In 1878 he was organist for the third
Cincinnati May Festival, and in 1879 accepted a position in the College
of Music in that city, at the same time taking charge of the organ in the
Music Hall, with what success those who attended the May Festivals in
that city will remember. He remained in Cincinnati three years and then
returned to his old position in Boston. Mr. Whiting ranks in the first
class of American organists, and has also been a prolific composer. Among
his vocal works are a mass in C minor (1872); mass in F minor (1874);
prologue to Longfellow's "Golden Legend" (1873); cantatas, "Dream
Pictures" (1877), "The Tale of the Viking" (1880); a concert overture
("The Princess"); a great variety of organ music, including "The
Organist," containing twelve pieces for that instrument, and "the First
Six Months on the Organ," with twenty-five studies; several concertos,
fantasies, and piano compositions, and a large number of songs.

The Tale of the Viking.

"The Tale of the Viking" was written in competition for the prize offered
by the Cincinnati Musical Festival Association in 1879, and though
unsuccessful, is still regarded as one of the most admirable and
scholarly works yet produced in this country. The text of the cantata is
Longfellow's "Skeleton in Armor," that weird and stirring story of the
Viking, which the poet so ingeniously connected with the old mill at
Newport.

The work comprises ten numbers, and is written for three solo voices
(soprano, tenor, and barytone), chorus, and orchestra. A long but very
expressive overture, full of the dramatic sentiment of the poem, prepares
the way for the opening number, a short male chorus:--

"'Speak! speak! thou fearful guest
Who, with thy hollow breast
Still in rude armor drest,
Comest to daunt me!
Wrapt not in Eastern balms,
But with thy fleshless palms
Stretched, as if asking alms,
Why dost thou haunt me?'"

Next comes a powerful chorus for mixed voices ("Then from those cavernous
Eyes"), which leads up to the opening of the Viking's story ("I was a
Viking old"), a barytone solo, which is made very dramatic by the skilful
division of the song between recitative and the melody. In the fourth
number the male chorus continues the narrative ("But when I older grew"),
describing in a vivacious and spirited manner the wild life of the
marauders on the sea and their winter wass