but always writing what he believes to be his best. His artistic sincerity is shown by the several versions which exist of some of his songs; his richness of invention by the variants in these versions. Most of the songs are highly elaborate and dramatic. Sometimes, as often happened with Berlioz, they tend to the pretentious and pompous. They are never easy to grasp. But each and every one of them is worth a musician’s study and the student of singing in particular cannot well afford to let Berlioz remain a closed book to him. The earlier songs, written before 1830, are in general simple and conventional. At times we feel the young man who has not yet realized his creative powers. But even these early songs have a high standard compared to the sort of thing that was being produced at the time. Before 1830 Berlioz was still under the spell of Gluck (if, indeed, he ever emerged from it) and his conventionality is that of the great master of opera rather than that of the familiar French _chanson_. ‘The Dead Shepherdess,’ dating from 1827, is remarkable for its classic dignity and beauty. The Irish Songs, in 1829 and 1830, composed to words by Thomas Moore, show the surging up of the revolutionary fervor which took hold of him about this time and came to fruit in the _Symphonie Fantastique_ that so startled and shocked Parisian audiences. The songs are in the strophic form, as were most of Berlioz’s songs, but otherwise they are unusual enough to prove a problem for the singer. They are by no means steady in quality, and doubtless there is evidenced a failure on the structural side, an inability to keep genius within firmly controlled limits. ‘At Sunset’ is typical. It is irregular and so filled with detail that it tends to become ‘spotty.’ It is obviously an attempt at atmosphere--at the same atmosphere upon which the recent French song-writers have built their reputation. The singer’s problem lies in keeping these details from protruding from the general design and still giving them their individual value. The task of selecting the essential in the song and keeping this to the fore is truly a task for the singer’s intellect, that intellect which is called on so little in the mass of French songs. ‘Rich and Rare’ has much sensuous beauty and is a real problem in expressive singing. ‘Farewell Bessy’ is altogether lovely. But the finest of the songs is the last, the ‘Elegy.’ Here Berlioz reaches a height of tragic impressiveness which he never equalled in his songs and equalled only rarely in his symphonic music. The effect of this song in concert is tremendous.