An 'Elegy' (opus 2), in variation form, is wrought with technical nicety, but leans dubiously upon an ultra-conservative treatment. 'Country Pictures' (opus 9), six pieces for pianoforte, show much fancy and charm. No. 1, 'Cloud Pageant,' is colorful and pictorially suggestive, interesting in its thematic inversions, and develops massively. No. 2, 'Chimney Swallows,' is clever in motion, and particularly in its insistence on the interval of the 'second.' No. 4, 'The Whippoorwill,' is a charming piece of classical realism, and No. 5, 'The Quiet Hour,' comes as near to ultra-modernism as the composer ventures. Other works are: 'Five Children's Songs' (opus 1), with texts from Stevenson; 'Romance' and 'Impromptu' (opus 3), for pianoforte; a whimsical set of 'Variations on Yankee Doodle in the Styles of Various Composers'; 'Pastorale' for violin, clarinet and piano (opus 8); and 'Passacaglia' (opus 10), for organ. Mr. Mason is a native of Boston and a member of a famous family of musicians, being a grandson of Lowell Mason, and a nephew of Dr. William Mason. He is a graduate of Harvard, where some of his early musical studies were pursued under Paine. Since 19 he has held the associate professorship of music in Columbia University, and he has done much by lectures and literary work to promote musical appreciation. His 'From Grieg to Brahms' (1902) and its sequels have exerted a wide influence. * * * * * Emanating from strongly academic influences, David Stanley Smith (b. 1877), who has for a number of years been associated as assistant professor with the musical department of Yale University, exhibits a marked romantic tendency of imagination, albeit one exceptionally well guarded by a devotion to the structural ideals of the classic writers. The distinguished character of his talent has brought him rapidly to the front, and none of his more important works have had to wait long for a hearing. Smith places a strong insistence upon coherence in thematic development and tonality as the only basis upon which to found a musical work, and, while partial to high harmonic color and ready to depart from the text-books in harmonic usage, he is unwilling to allow color effect to usurp the place of structural continuity. Desirous and capable as he is of advancing upon the debatable borders of modern harmonic resource, he does not burn the bridges of conservatism behind him. His music bespeaks a sensitively poetic nature, sentiment, color and emotion rising easily through the foundational stratum of a thorough but not overweighted technique.