In the field of sacred music Bantock has also been active. A ‘Mass in B-flat major’ for male voices (1893), an anthem, a setting of the 82d Psalm, and the two oratorios ‘Christ in the Desert’ (Gloucester Festival, 1907) and ‘Gethsemane,’ should be mentioned. Of these the latter is the more important and was given at the Gloucester Festival of 1910. An episode from the life of Christ, it has been written for baritone solo, chorus, orchestra and organ to biblical words. A richly ornamented orchestral prelude in A-flat is succeeded by a species of symphony for baritone, orchestra and chorus in four sections: ‘In the Garden,’ ‘The Agony,’ ‘The Prayer,’ ‘Betrayal.’ Rhythmic in movement and clear in expression, its music is especially dramatic in the ‘Betrayal Scene,’ which leads over to a chorus followed by a short solo and an eight-part choral finale. V In Joseph Holbrooke, born July 6, 1878, in Croydon, we have, in contrast to Bantock, a member of that ultra-modern English school of composition of which Cyril Scott, ‘the English Debussy,’ is perhaps the best known exponent. Holbrooke has attracted wide attention because of his daring individuality and his boldness of invention, as well as the disregard for convention shown in his brilliantly colored mode of scoring for orchestra. He has chosen Edgar Allan Poe as his poet _par excellence_ and his most important choral and orchestral works (among the latter ‘The Raven’ (1900), ‘Ulalume,’ ‘The Haunted Palace,’ ‘The Masque of the Red Death’) are associated with the verse of the American poet. At the Birmingham Festival of 1906 ‘The Bells,’ ‘the Mohammedan-hated Bells’ of Poe and Holbrooke, jostled Bantock’s ‘Omar Khayyam,’ when heard for the first time. With remarkable breadth of tonal laying-out, and an incessant employment of chords of the eleventh and thirteenth, the resonant clamor of the bells is brought out in the work with clever programmatic effect, in perfect accord with Poe’s words. A long orchestral prelude leads weirdly over into the first chorus, in A minor. Following this come four choral numbers, ‘Sledge-Bells,’ ‘Wedding-Bells’ (female voices), ‘Alarm Bells’ and ‘Iron Bells,’ each ringing the changes on the titular suggestion in appropriate tonal inflections. Holbrooke’s choral effects throughout are incisive and are heightened by a remarkable fidelity to his text.