‘Byron’ (Poem No. 6) for chorus and orchestra, given at Leeds, Dec. 7, 1904, is a setting of Keats’ ‘Sonnet to Byron,’ beginning ‘Byron, how sweetly sad thy melody.’ As regards form it is modelled somewhat on Beethoven’s ‘Choral Symphony,’ but the orchestra is more continuously active and its relation to the poem more intimate. The orchestra section, in fact, is about half the work and it may be played separately as a symphonic poem without its choral complement, a _coda_ being provided for the purpose. There is some beautiful passage-work for the clarinet in the orchestral score and the part-writing is worthy of all praise. ‘Queen Mab’ (Poem No. 5) for chorus and orchestra, also heard at Leeds (1904), is only incidentally choral and interest is largely centred in the orchestral part. The ‘Dramatic Choral Symphony’ (homage to E. A. Poe), written around quotations from Poe’s writings and philosophical in trend, may be said to suffer to some extent from the difficulty of effectively setting philosophical reflection to music. This disadvantage is even more marked in ‘Apollo and the Seaman,’ a ‘Dramatic Symphony with Choral Ending for Male Choir,’ which was produced in Queen’s Hall, London, in 1908. To quote a French critic:[88] ‘Mr. Holbrooke, eager to show his originality, had this “illuminated symphony” given in quite a special way. Scriabine had already added chord projections of light to his orchestra, and thought of joining perfumes to them in his future scores. Mr. Holbrooke was content with a projection of the magic-lantern kind. Queen’s Hall was plunged into obscurity and the text of Mr. Trench’s poem was projected on the sheet, Mr. Holbrooke’s chords sounding forth in the meantime. Then, announced by the stroke of a gong, there appeared an enormous head of Apollo and, after a long pedal-point suggesting the beginning of _Rheingold_, the seance went on, proving conclusively that there is nothing less musical (save possibly Nietzsche) than this dialogue between a sailor and Apollo, disguised as a merchant, upon the immortality of the soul and other poetic topics.’ Joseph Holbrooke has written a number of individual anthems and choruses in addition to these larger works, among them the ‘dramatic choral song (No. 2)’ entitled ‘To Zanthe’ (words by Poe), not to forget the choruses in his opera ‘The Children of Don and Dylan.’ That his is a great talent is not to be denied; yet the consensus of opinion seems to agree that he has not as yet ‘found’ himself. Before passing on to a consideration of the work of Henry Walford Davies, whose musical sympathies are those of the Elgarian school rather than those of the English modernists, we will refer, briefly, to the choral compositions of the younger English followers of Scott and Holbrooke.