And who shall sound the mystery of the seas.
This is a magnificent tone poem. We first have a picture of the sea, calm, but sinister, and then we see it working up to its full power and fury in a storm. The gradations of tone range from a sombre, mysterious ppp to an fff of furious power. The writing is very full and rich, and there are passages of a stupendous strength and magnificence of effect seldom found outside MacDowell's own music.
7. Nautilus (Delicately, gracefully). This is headed:—
A fairy sail and a fairy boat
and is the gem of the set. The writing is of exquisite gracefulness and charm. The scenery, as the little voyage proceeds, is of fresh loveliness and constantly changing, while the curious, indecisive rhythm is unmistakably suggestive of an uncanny boat trip in quiet water. The whole piece is one of perpetual charm and delight to the ear.
8. In Mid-Ocean (With deep feeling). Here we find the deeper note struck again:—
Inexorable! Thou straight line of eternal fate….
The music of this piece is transporting in its majestic nobility and magnificent, sweeping strength. It is one of the most superb of MacDowell's short pieces. From the deep and sonorous opening bars, through passionately mounting fury, to the sombre and mysterious close—in all of it we are confronted with the work of an unmistakably inspired master. With this fitting, unsurpassed picture, not of the outward might of the sea alone, but of the mysterious, relentless and terrible beauty of its significance as Fate, MacDowell concluded his Sea Pieces—Tone poems of artistic supremacy, of inimitable strength and loveliness of expression, that will live as long as there are men and women who are stirred by the deep power of music to give expression to God's Creation.
OPUS 56. FOUR SONGS, FOR VOICE AND PIANOFORTE.
First Published, 1898 (P.L. Jung. Later assigned to Arthur P. Schmidt).