_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 érotique_.) 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 post-chaise is told fairly graphically in the fourth piece. The music is not very interesting, although its hurried progress suggests the monotony of travel in a rumbling vehicle on a night journey. The fifth piece is lovely and tender, but not particularly expressive. The last of the set opens with a noble, half-sad melody that is typical of MacDowell. Its agitated middle section provides a good contrast. Two of the poems were played in orchestral garb for the first time in England at a London Queen's Hall Promenade Concert on October 3rd, 1916. They were No. 6, _Poeme érotique_, and No. 2, _Scotch Poem_. OPUS 32. FOUR LITTLE POEMS, FOR PIANOFORTE. _Composed, Wiesbaden, about_ 1888. _Revised by the Composer_, 1906. _Copyrighted_ 1894 _and_ 1906 (Breitkopf & Härtel). 1. _The Eagle._ 2. _The Brook._ 3. _Moonshine._ 4. _Winter._ These pieces are, in their revised version, more individual and more worth playing than any of the preceding small pianoforte works by MacDowell. They have his true ring and stamp, although even here not in its most highly-developed form, and they exemplify his already unerring power to create atmospheres of far-reaching significance, even in tiny spaces, for all four poems are but two-page pieces, and the most striking, _The Eagle_, is but twenty-six bars in length. 1. _The Eagle_ is a tone picture of Tennyson's lines:-- _He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.