Conditions in contemporaneous American choral writing are quite analogous to those in England. Several of our most prominent choral writers had already won substantial recognition before the twentieth century opened. Foremost among these elder composers who have continued to write in the concert forms of oratorio and cantata are George W. Chadwick (born 1854) and Horatio W. Parker (born 1863). But a host of younger composers has arisen to seek artistic preferment in this field. This augmented interest is no doubt due in part to the remarkable increase in the number of choral societies in the United States beginning in the last decade of the nineteenth century and the consequent increase in the demand for choral novelties; but it is due in still larger part to the increased interest in composition itself in the United States, an interest that has been fostered and nourished by a noticeably greater willingness on the part of the American public in the most recent years to receive with some favor really meritorious works by native composers. This meed of home recognition, the greatest possible stimulus to all creative purpose, will no doubt increase in measure with the years. Horatio Parker has added several to his already long list of choral works given in Chapter VI: ‘King Gorm the Grim’ (1908), a fiery choral ballad on a Danish theme (words after Theodor Fontane); ‘The Leap of Roushan Beg’ (1913), a ballad for men’s voices with tenor solo (poem by Longfellow); ‘Alice Brand’ (1913), a short cantata for three-part female chorus with solos (poem by Sir Walter Scott); and ‘A Song of Times,’ a short cantata for chorus and orchestra.