After the death of Schumann we see the art of song-writing spreading to every European country which cultivated music at all. Germany, in addition to Brahms, Wagner, and Liszt, can show Cornelius, Jensen, and Lassen among the most prominent. Scandinavia is represented by Kjerulf and Grieg. The French have a long line of well-known song writers, many of them scarcely above the level of mediocrity and not one showing any touch of first-rate talent. In Italy we see a slender interest in song writing, which, however, produced a rather large number of songs, some of much beauty. Russia, in addition to the truly national composers (who will be treated in another chapter), had distinguished song writers in Rubinstein and Tschaikowsky. England, still in a dry formalistic period, produced one true romanticist of great talent--Arthur Goring-Thomas--and several popular writers whose work shows less distinction. And America (if we extend the period slightly for the sake of convenience) shows one song writer--Edward MacDowell--who ranks almost among the greatest. Many of these composers rank now much lower than they did in their lifetime. Others will likely drop more and more out of sight as more recent work becomes known. Tschaikowsky and Gounod, for instance, have been much overrated in the past. A few others, like Cornelius, are not so well known as they deserve to be, and as they presently will be if heaven showers discrimination upon singers and concert audiences. In any case, the values represented in this chapter are largely values in transition. Even among these composers, most of whom are dead, there are still reputations to be made and lost. II Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was essentially a writer in the small forms. His ill health and also probably the cast of his genius prevented him from undertaking labors that called for great concentration and endurance. But in the small forms he is one of the most delightful of the romanticists of the second half of the nineteenth century. He used harmonic color with telling results. He was a master of rhythmic effects. In particular he introduced into his music something of the peculiar folk-idiom of his country (whether he did it in conscious imitation of the folk-songs does not matter). He was one of the first of the distinctly national composers to become universally known and popular. His melody is always engaging; the national peculiarities of it are not so obtrusive or so unusual as to alienate the ordinary listener. He is distinctly easy to enjoy. He was highly successful in the creation of poetic effect, in which he was helped by the provocative unusualness of his idiom. In the musical painting of pictures, in the suggestion of moods that have a sensuous tinge, there were few of his contemporaries who can equal him.