'It has been my ideal not to allow any composer or school of music to influence me to the point of imitating them. I have striven to express my own individuality regardless whether it was good, bad, or indifferent. I prefer _my own hat_ to a _borrowed crown_. Of course, I have had many admirations and have absorbed musical nutriment from many sources. I believe that catholicity of education is a thing greatly to be desired.... More than the music of any individual composer; more than the music of any particular school,--the folk-tunes of the world, of all nationalities, races, and peoples, have been to me a never-failing source of delight, wonder, and inspiration. In them I can hear the spirit of all great music. Through them I can feel the very heart-beat of humanity. Simple as these folk-melodies are in structure, they yet speak to me so poignantly, and with such a deep sincerity of expression, as to be (for myself, at least) more pregnant with inspirational suggestion than the music of any _one_ composer.' [Illustration] American Composers: John Alden Carpenter, Charles Martin Loeffler, Henry F. Gilbert Campbell-Tipton. Finishing in his earliest period with the strictly German influence, Gilbert had also done with the exhibition of a predominating modern French influence before his colleagues had awakened to the existence of such a thing. It is, however, significant to note that the 'Negro Episode' for orchestra, and arranged also for piano, dates from earliest days. An orchestral 'Legend' was a companion piece. The modern French influence appears in the richly colored and highly poetic soprano aria, 'Salammbô's Invocation to Tänith,' on Flaubert's text; in the very imaginative songs, 'Orlamonde' (Maeterlinck), and 'Zephyrus' (Longfellow), and in the fanciful tone-poem for piano, 'The Island of the Fay,' after Poe. From this general period came, in strong contrast, the barbaric and famous 'Pirate Song,' as well as the delicate 'Croon of the Dew,' and the 'South American Gypsy Songs.' A strong Celtic influence now asserted itself, based upon the Irish literary revival and a study of ancient bardic and other Celtic folk-songs. The chief results were the 'Lament of Deirdre,' a remarkable song of intensest pathos and mood-heaviness; four very individual songs called 'Celtic Studies'; and the 'Fairy Song,' all on verses of the Irish poets. A fine piece of American savagery from this period, presumably deriving from Whitmanic influences, is the song on Frederick Manley's poem, 'Fish Wharf Rhapsody.' These various phases finally yielded to a strong impulse toward a bold expression of Americanism, and Gilbert composed the 'Comedy Overture on Negro Themes,' a vigorous and jubilant work which has been widely heard and has awakened much interest in the composer. A less important 'Humoresque on Negro Minstrel Tunes,' for