In ‘Morven and the Grail,’ Parker has produced his largest choral work since the _Hora Novissima_ and ‘Legend of St. Christopher.’ This oratorio was written for the Centenary Festival of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, April 11-15, 1915. It calls for four soloists--Morven, baritone; Sigurd, tenor; St. Cecilia, soprano; Our Lady, alto; Angels of the Grail, a second solo quartet. The poem by Brian Hooker is a work of unusual charm and has accompanying it a quaint synopsis of the story, relating how ‘Morven, seafaring upon the quest of the Grail, heareth the Angels thereof calling to him, and will follow the world’s dream even unto the end of the world. He cometh to Avalon, the heaven of Pleasure, and there for a time abideth in bliss.’ But hearing Sigurd, the Volsung, riding against the Dragon and realizing that man can not be content forever in joy, he departeth and cometh to Valhalla of the Old Gods, where he abideth in glory until, ‘hearing in his soul as it were the voice of St. Cecilia hymning Christ her Lord,’ he proceedeth to the Saints in Paradise, the heaven of holiness, where again for a time he abideth in peace. In spirit he heareth ‘Our Lady communing with her child new-born into the world’ and learneth that man may not forever content himself at rest and that the desire of the soul is not to be found in Paradise, nor in any place, but that it followeth everywhere; ‘wherefore he will depart out of that heaven to be born again and become as a little child.’ The heavens being then opened to him, in a vision he heareth the song of the Grail and the Angels singing of man, living on ‘between Hell and Heaven in wonder everlasting.’ The closing argument is as follows: ‘And forasmuch as God of His own heart so imagineth all things that they die and rise again, therefore shall the earth declare the glory of God, world without end.’ George W. Chadwick has written in nearly all the larger forms of choral, orchestral and chamber music. In the opening years of the century he wrote two choral works of large dimensions, ‘Judith’ and ‘Noël,’ both in oratorio form, though the action of the first is so intense and dramatic that it could well be performed with full operatic machinery. Both are conceived in the form of the classical oratorio, though Chadwick’s musical vocabulary is clearly modern, his harmony being rich, warm and distinctly individual. ‘Judith’ is a work of massive proportions, one of the few great choral works yet produced in America. ‘Noël’ is simpler in structure, yet contains numbers of compelling beauty.