Mrs. Beach at her best writes in a broad and bold vein with a pulsing rhythmical sense, a natural melodic line, and she exhibits an extraordinary strength in the sustained and impassioned quality of her climaxes. On the other side, Mrs. Beach may be accused of having a harmonic sense rather too persistently conventional and in her less inspired moments her fault is that which Mr. Hughes[87] has pointed out, namely, a tendency to over-elaboration. There are several other composers whose labors are identified with the musical life of Boston, although in some instances they have not been continuously resident there. Louis Adolphe Coerne received his early training at Harvard under Prof. Paine and was later awarded a doctor's degree in philosophy by the same university for his excellent book 'The Development of the Modern Orchestra.' Coerne's achievement in composition has been considerable; he is the author of two operas, one of which has been successfully performed in Germany. Other works include a symphonic poem on 'Hiawatha' and a ballet, 'Evadne.' James C. D. Parker is one of the names associated with the older days of Boston's musical growth, for Mr. Parker graduated from Harvard in 1848 and his 'Redemption Hymn' was performed by the Handel and Haydn Society in 1877. He is best known by several melodious songs and by his church music. George Whiting and George W. Marston are names which perhaps belong more properly in the list of church composers, as they were both closely identified with that field. The former, however, has written several works of large dimension, notably a cantata, 'The Golden Legend,' which has been much praised, while Mr. Marston's name is known outside of church circles by a surprisingly long list of songs, which, though slight in construction, are not without imaginative qualities. Although not attaining to such a mastery of the more amplified forms as does Mrs. Beach, Margaret Ruthven Lang has made several successful essays in the form of orchestral overtures, which have been played. Miss Lang's best-known works, however, are her songs, the widespread popularity of certain ones of which has given her a real and lasting fame as a song writer. III In grouping the foregoing names and labelling them as the 'Boston group' it must not be understood to imply that the art of these writers forms a school in the sense of its having a common distinctive idiom or style. The group marks in some of its members, as has been said before, an early era of American composition. The fact that Boston became the birthplace of America's first serious musical art was probably due to the presence there of the largest and best permanent orchestra, to the establishment of the first university department of music (at Harvard), and doubtless also in no small degree to the general intellectual life of the New England metropolis.