The earliest of the MacDowell songs is a group of Scotch melodies, an endeavor to imitate the Scotch style, yet not so closely as to do away with individuality. ‘Deserted,’ to the old words ‘Ye Banks and Braes of Bonny Doon,’[30] is appealing and tragic, altogether a fine piece of work. But the Scotch songs of opus 34 are more beautiful and more personal. Both ‘Menie’ and ‘My Jean’ (words by Burns) deal in the Scotch cadences and phrases, but they might also stand as a study for the great songs of opus 47. The songs of opus 26, entitled ‘From an Old Garden,’ show MacDowell at his best in his lighter moods. ‘The Blue Bell,’ which maintains a mood half of banter and half of pathos, is admirable, and ‘The Myrtle,’ with its harmonic freedom yet cogent expression, is of decided technical interest. Leaving to the last the two greatest of MacDowell’s song groups, let us make mention in passing of opus 56, two excellent songs, ‘The Swan Bent Low to the Lily’ and ‘A Maid Sings High and a Maid Sings Low,’ which are as personal as anything the composer has done; of opus 58 with the pleasing ‘Merry Maids,’ and of opus 60, with ‘Tyrant Love,’ another very personal song, and ‘Fair Springtide,’ original and invigorating. The two great opus numbers referred to are 40 and 47. The ‘Six Love Songs’ of opus 40 include one which is perhaps the best known of all MacDowell’s vocal work--‘Thy Beaming Eyes.’ In this song we must admire the strenuousness of the hot emotion which the composer is able to conjure up, but we cannot help wishing that he had chosen a medium a little less vulgar. This song contains much of MacDowells ability, but of MacDowell’s artistic message it contains less than almost any other. The second song of the group, ‘Sweetheart, Tell Me,’ is delicate and perfect as a cut gem. But by all means MacDowell’s greatest song-group is opus 47, ‘Eight Songs.’ The first of the group is the second of the composer’s songs in popularity--‘The Robin Sings in the Apple Tree.’ Nowhere has MacDowell been more felicitous in the delineation of mood in tiny details; the number of treasures in this short song is truly surprising. The ‘Midsummer Lullaby’ is a masterpiece. Again it is the accuracy of mood-painting that strikes us, this time the hot laziness of the full summer day. The third piece, the ‘Folksong,’ is in MacDowell’s most vigorous and admirable style. ‘The West Wind Croons in the Cedar Trees,’ ‘In the Woods,’ and ‘Through the Meadow’ are nature songs of much distinction, showing grace, buoyancy, or sentiment, as the case may be. But the finest song of the group, and the finest of all MacDowell’s songs, is ‘The Sea,’ to William Dean Howells’s words. Here we have in full strength the mood of tragic grandeur which has been struck seldom in modern art-songs. This song, at least, has not a touch of banality, not a note of mannerism, not a phrase which is not at once great music and genuine poetry. Many of MacDowell’s songs