An American ultra-modernist of extensive attainments, but whose work has as yet come very little into public attention, is T. Carl Whitmer. In an age when sensationalism and sensuousness have predominated in the taste of the musical world it is not surprising to find but slight public progress being made by a composer whose whole tendency is in the direction of a highly clarified spirituality, as is the case with this composer. Whitmer has a spiritual kinship with that small group of composers (Arthur Shepherd in America, Hans Pfitzner in Germany, and d'Indy in France may be included in it) who, however different they may be in musical individuality, unite in banishing utterly from music not only the vulgar but also even the more distinguished aspects of the sensuously sweet, which chiefly and most quickly (except for the rhythmic element) recommends music to the multitude the world over. Whitmer's music is psychologically subtle and spiritually rarefied; in color it corresponds to the violet end of the spectrum. It shuns realistic and elemental qualities and seeks an ethereal expression which gives it not infrequently a sense of over-earthliness. Its salient characteristics are well represented in a soprano song, 'The Fog Maiden,' an achievement of extraordinary originality and distinction of mood. Among the composer's many other songs are the scintillating and crisp 'My Lord Comes Riding,' the poignantly expressive 'Song from the Gardener's Lodge,' the sanely ultra-modern 'Just To-night,' 'Song from Pippa Passes,' 'My Star,' 'Ah! Love, but a Day,' 'Cloud and Wind,' 'Nausicaa,' 'Willowwood,' 'Ballad of Trees and the Master,' 'I Will Twine the Violet,' 'Christmas Carol,' and 'Our Birth Is but a Sleep.' Whitmer's manuscripts include no less surprising an offering than six 'Mysteries,' or spiritual music-dramas, 'The Creation,' 'The Covenant,' 'The Nativity,' 'The Temptation,' 'Mary Magdalene,' and 'The Passion,' upon which works the composer has published a little essay entitled 'Concerning a National Spiritual Drama.' For chorus with orchestra is an 'Elegiac Rhapsody,' and for orchestra alone a set of 'Miniatures,' originally for piano, of which 'Sunrise' is the most important. There are an 'Athenian' sonata for violin and piano, various organ works, anthems, and women's choruses, and a number of 'Symbolisms'--readings of original texts with piano accompaniment. IV