Nevin's piano works are distinctly Chopinesque.
Suave and elegant figures, grateful to the player, abound in these works and show the hand of the skillful pianist that Nevin was. Some of these piano pieces have become quite as popular as have the songs, and the collections entitled 'In Arcady' and 'A Day in Venice' have been placed in the household répertoire.
Ethelbert Nevin made no claims for his art. Almost unconscious of the larger world of a more universal expression, which the past and present might have offered to him, he created his own limited world and lived therein. We shall mistake, however, if we judge too slightingly of this world as the dilettante expression of a mere précieux. Something there is of genius in a man who can speak to so many. Ethelbert Nevin was an ornament to American music and the fame of his works will outlive the bulk of our more esoteric art.
It is difficult to find a fitting name to follow that of Nevin. While we have had writers in the smaller forms who equalled and even surpassed Nevin in dramatic force, or in subtleties of construction, the remainder of our purely lyrical writers, it must be said, are on a considerably lower plane and there is lacking in the work of most of them the elegance and fastidiousness which bring these small works within the pale of art. The status of many American songs is—unfortunately with truth—described in Grove's Dictionary (Vol. IV, 'Song'), where it is said: 'Many other American composers whose songs, whilst enjoying a great popularity, descend almost to the lowest level of vocal music.'
Ethelbert Nevin.
After a photograph from life
There are, however, a good many men whose works are saved from this condemnation. Notable among these is Wilson G. Smith (born in 1855), whose songs and piano contributions, while they must perhaps be designated as salon pieces, possess, nevertheless, a genuine charm. Many of Smith's piano pieces are an intentional imitation of other composers, in which field he is particularly happy. Of his songs there are a number which have been much sung. Rupert Hughes, with a just critical sense, not always his, points out the excellence of Smith's song 'If I but Knew,' as especially notable.
Certain of Reginald de Koven's songs rival in popularity the light operas of that composer (see Chap. XV). After many years of use 'O Promise Me' still retains its place in the popular affections, as was demonstrated in the repeated encores demanded for it when it was interpolated in a recent revival of 'Robin Hood.' De Koven's lyricism, however, is of the lightest order and his failure to strike a deeper vein is well attested in the empty pomposity of his setting of Kipling's 'Recessional.'