Loeffler’s work is original, the work of a musician completely master of the modern orchestra and of modern harmony with its colorful and expressive effects. Besides this there was a spirit that never before had come into art. This was given the name of Impressionism, the getting of effects from objects, painted, or described in literature, without elaborate details. In music, composers who try to suggest to the hearer an image existing in their own minds are called Impressionists. This image may be a thought, an emotion, a definite object, a poem, a picture, a beautiful tree, the grandeur of Niagara, any one of a thousand things that await the hand of the Alchemist-Musician to be transmuted into tone. All Loeffler’s compositions reflect this impressionism, and he was the first, but not the last of these poetic tone impressionists in America. He is foremost a composer of symphonic poems: _La Mort de Tintagiles_ (_The Death of Tintagiles_) after the play by Maurice Maeterlinck, _A Pagan Poem_ after Virgil, _La Bonne Chanson_ (_The Good Song_) after Verlaine, _La Vilanelle du Diable_, _The Mystic Hour_ with male chorus, _Psalm 137_ with female chorus. He also wrote an eight part mixed chorus, _For One who Fell in Battle_. Other orchestral works include a suite in four movements for violin and orchestra called _Les Veillées de l’Ukraine_ (_Evening Tales of the Ukraine_), concerto for ’cello and orchestra, first played by Alwyn Schroeder with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, _Divertissement_ for violin and orchestra, and _Spanish Divertissement_ for saxophone and orchestra. There are also important works for chamber music: two rhapsodies for clarinet, viola and piano, an octet for strings and two clarinets, a quintet and a quartet built on Gregorian modes; and he has written a group of songs for medium voice and viola obligato with French texts by Verlaine and Beaudelaire, two impressionist poets. THE RED MAN ATTRACTS COMPOSERS The next composer, Henry F. Gilbert, born in Somerville, Massachusetts (1868), brings us into an interesting field, the study of Negro and Indian folk music. After working with Edward MacDowell, Gilbert turned his attention to a thorough investigation of Negro music, resulting in orchestral works based on Negro themes such as, _American Humoresque_, _Comedy Overture on Negro Themes_, _American Dances_, _Negro Rhapsody_, and _The Dance in Place Congo_, a symphonic poem which was mounted as a ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House (1918). Gilbert tells that the _Comedy Overture_ was rescued from a wreck that was to have been a Negro Opera, based on Joel Chandler Harris’ _Uncle Remus_. What a pity he did not complete it! The _American Humoresque_ is based on old Negro minstrel tunes like _Zip Coon_, _Dixie_, and _Old Folks at Home_.