In these songs we see the piano beginning to sing with the voice on terms of equality. In number 15, one of the ‘Hebrew Melodies’ of Byron, we see the formal accompaniment very highly developed. It has become quite pianistic, with much figuration, and a profusion of chromatic passings which remind us of Schumann piano pieces. Yet this is a true accompaniment in the old-fashioned sense, and not, as in some of the later songs, an independent piano composition. _Lass mich ihm am Busen hängen_ and _Du bist wie eine Blume_ are charming examples of Schumann at his simplest. We cannot point out the precise elements of beauty, yet we feel that the music subtly matches the simplicity of the words. In other terms, we see in these two songs that ultimate test of artistic mastery--the command over style. And in these instances the style subsists quite as much in the voice as in the piano part. The great piano stylist of the preceding decade has begun to turn his peculiar gifts to pure vocal music. The grandiose _Talismane_ (‘Talismans’) is perhaps not of high value musically, but it shows the engaging freshness of Schumann’s romantic invention. The three Burns songs--‘Somebody,’ ‘The Highlander’s Farewell,’ and ‘The Highland Cradle Song’--are simply melodies of great beauty and are to be sung as such. The last-named offers a problem to the singer in the need of combining the somewhat jerky, rocking motion of the cradle with the calm monotony which overspreads the whole. The five songs, opus 27, need not detain us. Of the three songs from Emmanuel Geibel the last, _Der Hidalgo_ (‘The Hidalgo’), is particularly interesting. As an attempt at local color (which was never Schumann’s _forte_) it has no special value. But the vigor of the accompaniment, with its varied bolero rhythm, and the quiet passages on the words ‘_Die Schönen von Sevilla_,’ suggest once more some of the wonderful piano passages of the _Dichterliebe_.