[96] A "canon" is the most strict and rigid form of what musicians call "imitation." In canonic writing, two or more parts, or "voices," take up and repeat, or "imitate," in succession precisely the same phrase or subject. A theme is said to be "inverted" when it is repeated in contrary motion, turned upside-down, as it were, ascending intervals being represented by descending, and vice versa.
[97] An orchestral implement used to produce a bell-like tone.
[98] Maurice Rollinat, a godson of George Sand, was born in Châteauroux, France, in 1853 (some authorities say 1846). He was both poet and composer—though his music has not compelled respect among the knowing. He was a celebrity in Paris during the early eighties, when his volume of poems, Les Névroses, appeared, the volume which contained La Villanelle du Diable. He died in a mad-house at Ivry on October 26, 1903. Two other poems from Les Névroses—L'Étang and La Cornemuse—have suggested music to Loeffler: they form the poetic bases of his two "Rhapsodies" for oboe, viola, and piano, published in 1905.
[99] Piano, two flutes, oboe, clarinet, English horn, two horns in F, three trumpets (behind the scenes), viola, and double-bass.
[100] From the English version of F. W. Mackail, London, 1889.
MACDOWELL
(Edward MacDowell: born in New York City, December 18, 1861; now living there and in Peterboro, N. H.)