Brockway did, in fact, give out a quantity of small works, songs and piano compositions, on his return to America, all of which, it may be said, reveal a sensitive and truly poetic musical nature, capable of lifting itself well up through the dense and earthy atmosphere of technique into the realm of poetic perception and expression. The outcome of his return to large forms it is a bit early to predict. The knowledge of a manuscript quintet for strings and piano, and a piano concerto, under his highest opus numbers, 36 and 37, adumbrates an auspicious future for his expression in large forms. Meanwhile a suite for 'cello and piano (opus 35) has been given out, and an admirable cantata, 'Sir Olaf,' has been heard. From his earlier portfolio credit is to be given him for the beautiful violin sonata (opus 9) and the significant 'Ballade' and 'Sylvan Suite' (op. 11 and 19), both for orchestra.
An extraordinarily prolific composer is Homer N. Bartlett (1845-1911), the separation of whose more distinguished works from the mass that he has written will be effected only by the sifting process of time. From the Salonstück period of his 'outrageously' popular 'Grand Polka de Concert' (opus 1), through the ambitious violin concerto (opus 109), which was entirely rewritten in 1908, and the symphonic poem 'Apollo' from the same period, to the works bearing the Himalayan opus numbers 215 and 220, a 'Meditation' and an Air à la Bourrée for violin, is a far cry. In providing a list of his works the composer writes at the end, 'opus numbers here increase to 231, although I am striving to keep them down.' This great output shows a steady increase in distinction, and covers a wide range of tendencies, almost wholly in the direction of romanticism.
'Khamsin,' which Hughes refers to as a fragment of a cantata, was rewritten in 1908 as an extended dramatic aria for tenor solo, in three connected parts. In its earlier form it was heard at a New York Manuscript Society concert, and is regarded as representative of the best and most dramatically inspired of Bartlett's work. Two movements of an ingeniously exotic 'Japanese Suite' for orchestra were heard at the Central Park orchestral concerts in 1910 and revealed a good control of orchestral resource. There are also clever piano compositions on Japanese themes, a Japanese 'Revery' and 'Romance' (opus 221), and 'Kuma Saka' (opus 218) for four hands. There are also an opera, 'La Vallière,' written in 1887, an operetta, 'Magic Hours' (opus 225), and many choruses, songs, piano compositions, including a prize-winning nocturne ('Kranbach' prize), violin compositions, organ works, and songs. Bartlett was born in 1846 at Olive, N. Y., and has been active as a teacher and organist in New York City.
Mr. Rossetter G. Cole is best known as the composer of the melodrama 'King Robert of Sicily' (op. 22), to which David Bispham's stirring interpretation has brought great popularity. This work contains some of Mr. Cole's best inspirations; while adhering to idioms that are conventional, there is an admirable following of the dramatic line and a real atmospheric descriptiveness. It is harmonically conventional, at times markedly Wagnerian, and there are some excellent effects in ecclesiastical harmonies. In an earlier melodrama, 'Hiawatha's Wooing,' op. 20, Indian themes are utilized, though but slightly. Still earlier published works are 'The Passing of Summer,' a 'lyrical idyll' for soli, chorus and orchestra, while still in manuscript there is a sonata for violin and piano (op. 8), works which placed by the side of Mr. Cole's later compositions become comparatively unimportant. Of recent publication a 'Ballade' for cello and orchestra (op. 25) and two organ pieces, 'Fantasie Symphonique' (op. 28) and 'Rhapsody' (op. 30), are written for their respective instruments with a well-calculated effectiveness. One of Mr. Cole's recent compositions is a bit of descriptive piano writing entitled 'Sunset in the Hills.' This shows a considerably more advanced harmonic scheme and one much richer in color, which now fade into the more delicate tints of an idyllic MacDowell-like mood.
V
Generations of composers succeed each other quickly in America with, however, but the flimsiest of boundaries, chronological and artistic. We now come to a group of composers, in general slightly younger than those already considered, who in the romantic and neo-classical fields may be regarded as 'runners up,' whose 'arrival' is well under way and who press hard for the highest rank and honors in their field in the national and even in the international musical life. No order of precedence will be attempted in making note of their achievements, as none has been made hitherto with a few exceptions in favor of seniority and fame.
One of the staunchest and most uncompromising upholders of a severe classical ideal is Daniel Gregory Mason (b. 1873). With sureness, if not over-rapidly, he has developed a mode of expression singularly lucid, symmetrical and thorough in its formal unfoldment. Thoughtful in the extreme, modest in the nature and statement of his themes, he seeks the source of power in completeness and symmetry of outline, in the bringing of his themes to the fullest and most rounded development, and in clarity of harmonic structure. Not even the strictest of classicists, in these days, can wholly escape the influence of the romantic epoch, and if a sympathy with the ideals of Schumann has in a measure qualified Mason's musical outlook in the first instance, it has yielded to a stronger leaning to the artistic creed of Brahms. Some of the composer's pages bear a marked Brahms-like aspect. These earlier influences have been broadened and enriched in Mason's later work by a studious devotion to the music of César Franck and of Vincent d'Indy, the composer having studied with the latter in 1902 and later. These latter influences have produced a very evident effect upon his harmonic scheme, which presents a conservative use and treatment of thoroughly modern resources, though with a characteristic avoidance of anything approaching to the harmonic sensationalism of much latter day music. In all ways, in fact, Mason's music is a protest against the sensational tendency of the time.
The composer's most ambitious work is a symphony for grand orchestra (opus 11), in C minor, written in 1913-14. It is in four movements, the last two connected, without program, and is 'cyclic' in construction. Another important work is a quartet in A major (opus 7). The sonata for violin and piano (opus 5), in G minor, which has been widely performed, is thoroughly representative of the composer's ideals. The first movement, suave and musical, though not particularly striking in its themes, is in an extended sonata form, rather highly modernized with respect to secondary themes and transitional passages, and reveals much ingenuity in thematic variation and transformation. The warm melody of the second movement, andante tranquillo, is of memorable beauty. The last movement is in the nature of a spirited tarantella, with an admirably contrasted theme of choral-like character, an effect one may fancy to bear a slight analogy to the finale of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata.
An 'Elegy' (opus 2), in variation form, is wrought with technical nicety, but leans dubiously upon an ultra-conservative treatment. 'Country Pictures' (opus 9), six pieces for pianoforte, show much fancy and charm. No. 1, 'Cloud Pageant,' is colorful and pictorially suggestive, interesting in its thematic inversions, and develops massively. No. 2, 'Chimney Swallows,' is clever in motion, and particularly in its insistence on the interval of the 'second.' No. 4, 'The Whippoorwill,' is a charming piece of classical realism, and No. 5, 'The Quiet Hour,' comes as near to ultra-modernism as the composer ventures. Other works are: 'Five Children's Songs' (opus 1), with texts from Stevenson; 'Romance' and 'Impromptu' (opus 3), for pianoforte; a whimsical set of 'Variations on Yankee Doodle in the Styles of Various Composers'; 'Pastorale' for violin, clarinet and piano (opus 8); and 'Passacaglia' (opus 10), for organ.