10. _The Joy of Autumn_ (_Allegro vivace_). This is a splendidly exhilarating piece and the longest by far of the set. The music leaps along with the sheer joy of living, the themes being singularly fresh and bright. The whole number is written in a brilliant and masterly manner, requiring a polished pianoforte technique to secure its full effect, especially in the exultant whirl and rush in the final page. A comparison of this piece with the _In Autumn_ of the _Woodland Sketches_ (_Op_. 51) makes the great advancement of MacDowell in the technique of composition obvious even to the tyro. _The Joy of Autumn_ is one of the most brilliant and spontaneous things in modern music; it is never commonplace, it is always MacDowel-like in spirit and artistic worth, and shows its author at the height of his maturity. With this joyous and beautiful piece, MacDowell bade farewell to his God-given creative art. Happily he did not know at the time that _From a Log Cabin_ was to prove a truer-expression of his future; a prophetic description of the tragic end of his life. WORKS WITHOUT OPUS NUMBERS SIX LITTLE PIECES ON SKETCHES FOR PIANOFORTE, BY J.S. BACH, Published by Arthur P. Schmidt. 1. _Courante_. 2. _Menuet_. 3. _Gigue_. 4. _Menuet_. 5. _Menuet_. 6. _Marche_. These are illuminating little MacDowell-like adaptations of some sketches by "one of the world's mightiest tone poets," as MacDowell described J.S. Bach. They are charmingly and cleverly written, although not always satisfying, it is to be feared, to the strict purist. FROM THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (TRANSCRIPTIONS FOR PIANOFORTE OF HARPSICHORD AND CLAVICHORD PIECES). Published by Arthur P. Schmidt. BOOK I: 1. _Courante_ (_Rameau_). 2. _Sarabande_ (_Rameau_). 3. _Tempo di Minuetto_ (_Grazioli_). 4. _Le Bavolet Flottant_ (_The Waving Scarf_)(_Couperin_). 5. _Gigue_ (_Mattheson_). 6. _Sarabande_ (_Loeilly_). BOOK II: 7. _Gigue_ (_Loeilly_). 8. _La Bersan_ (_Couperin_). 9. _L'Ausonienne_ (_Couperin_). 10. _Aria from Handel's_ "_Susanna_" (_Lavignac_). 11. _Gigue_ (_Graun_). These pieces were much used by MacDowell in his lessons, as illustrations of eighteenth century music, and were published in two books about a dozen years after his death. They have not met with unanimous approval, for his transcriptions of the old pieces for the harpsichord and clavichord, in a manner suited to the modern pianoforte, is considered by many purists to be too free. The fact is that in their original form they are quite unsuitable for the modern pianoforte, being far too slight. MacDowell has, for many of us, done the right thing by filling in their implied harmonies and otherwise bringing out their qualities, so that they may be done justice under present-day keyboard conditions. TWO SONGS FROM THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY, FOR MALE CHORUS. _First Published_, 1897 (Arthur P. Schmidt). 1. _Winter Wraps his Grimmest Spell_.