It is in the work of Vincent d’Indy, principal heritor of the musical and spiritual legacy of César Franck, that a more conservative standpoint makes itself felt. And this is only natural, when we consider that the counterpoint of the sixteenth century is the point of departure of the composer’s own creative activity. He stands for the classic tradition persisting along modern lines of development. His sympathies are with Wagner rather than Debussy, and in his operas or, as he terms them, ‘dramatic actions,’ _Fervaal_ and _L’Etranger_, he merges Wagnerian practice and his individual concept with effective results, though with a rejection of all that atmospheric vagueness which makes the charm of _Pelléas_. His best known choral work is _Le chant de la cloche_ (‘Song of the Bell’), awarded a prize by the City of Paris in 1885. This is a dramatic legend, opus 18, for chorus, solos and orchestra, broad in outline, rich in detail, Wagnerian in structure, yet the composer’s own in thematic content. The orchestra is handled with great brilliancy. A later work, opus 23, _Sainte-Marie Magdeleine_, a cantata for two solo voices, female chorus and accompaniment of harmonium and piano, is a work of the type of Debussy’s _Enfant prodigue_, a miniature oratorio intended to form part of an evening’s concert-program. It is needless to add that, musically, it shows no semblance to Massenet’s oratorio of the same name. We have also by d’Indy _La Chévauchée du Cid_, a Hispano-Moorish scene for baritone, chorus and orchestra; a ‘Festival Cantata’ for inaugural purposes; an _Ode à Valence_, for solo, chorus and orchestra; and _L’Art et le Peuple_, for four-part male chorus. For some time d’Indy has been working upon a dramatic choral work on an extended scale, _La légende de Saint-Christophe_ (a subject which Rheinberger and Horatio Parker have already treated in oratorio form), and it is said to be nearing completion. It will be looked forward to with interest, especially as it represents one of the composer’s periodical returns from symphonic to choral composition. While the works of the composers already discussed may be said to represent the most important achievements in contemporary French choral writing, a number of others have been more or less active in the same field. Among these are: Gustave Charpentier (tone-drama, _La vie du poete_, 1892), the late Augusta Holmès (_Hymne à Apollon_, dramatic scene, and _Nocturne_, both for baritone solo and chorus. _Danse d’Almées_, for contralto solo and chorus, and ‘The Vision of the Queen,’ scene for solos and female chorus); C. de Grandval (_Sainte Agnes_, dramatic cantata, 1892); Bourgault-Ducoudray (_Esprit de la France_, for mixed chorus) and others; but in general the ultra-modernists, Ravel, Dukas, Magnard, and others have neglected the domain of choral for that of symphonic composition.