Another extreme ultra-modern of Gallic musical sympathies is Henry Eichheim, who is known by a group of 'Seven Songs,' a showing not great in quantity but of a quality revealing at once a convincing distinction of achievement. It is not, however, the emotional refinements of the French poets to which Eichheim responds, but to the alluring and shadowy tints of the 'Celtic Twilight.' From Yeats he has chosen 'The Heart of the Woman' and 'Aedh Wishes His Beloved were Dead'; from Fiona Macleod, 'When the Dew is Falling,' 'The Undersong,' 'Across the Silent Stream,' and 'The Lament of Ian the Proud'; while he has made a single departure in the 'Autumn Song' of Rossetti. Individual and subtly felt as these songs are, Eichheim is concerned not so much with sheer or extreme ingenuity of means as with the attainment of the expression of deep and dreamful moods, modern in poetic expression, and hence demanding an equally modern musical treatment. This the composer gives them, finding a deeply sincere expression through the highly modern means employed. Perhaps the most eloquent of the 'Seven Songs' is 'Aedh Wishes His Beloved were Dead,' its solemn march of rich harmonic progressions conveying an emotion of singular depth and beauty. Eichheim has also written three symphonic poems.
Victor Herbert has made departures into the realms of serious music, notably of late years, in two grand operas, 'Natoma,' in three acts, and 'Madeleine.' 'Natoma,' the text of which is by Joseph D. Redding, was first produced on February 23, 1911, in Philadelphia and subsequently in New York and Chicago. It deals with a story of Spanish and Indian life in California in the early part of the last century. The opera has had a very considerable measure of success and reveals Herbert's skillful handling of the orchestra, his power in broad concerted forms, and his unsuspected knowledge of Indian music. 'Madeleine,' produced at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in the season of 1913-14, was not regarded with an equal favor.
Besides some already included in this chapter there are other composers of foreign birth who either live or have sojourned here, as well as American composers who have preferred to live chiefly abroad.
Walter Morse Rummel, who makes his home in Berlin and Paris, has made for himself an individual and significant place in modern music. The tonal emancipation which Debussy gained through a basic devotion to the Gregorian chant, Rummel with increasing success seeks and finds in certain mediæval songs of the folk, in particular those of the troubadours of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. His earlier works, for example the 'Five Songs,' dating from 1906, seem conventional in scheme, although one notes their essential refinement and esprit. The 'Ten Songs for Children, Young and Old,' are of another stamp. Innocently simple in appearance, they reveal on closer observation all the sophistication of a profound devotee of the ecclesiastical modes, or, it may be, the spontaneous utterance of one with whom these have become 'second nature.' Like 'Alice in Wonderland,' they will speak with equal pertinence to children and grown-ups. 'A Fairy Suite,' for piano, being 'Five Short Stories Preceded by a Prologue and Followed by a Moral,' are an achievement of similar intent, scintillating with fancy, charm, humor, and modern interest. As the 'Prologue' and 'Moral' are practically identical, the purpose of the latter would seem to be to exhort us always, in art, to return to our main subject.
'Hesternæ Rosæ' consists of a collection of troubadour and other mediæval songs, rhythmically reconstructed from the original neumes, and hence hypothetical. They are profoundly interesting and merit close study. Rummel has composed also a quartet for strings, a violin sonata, for piano a 'Prelude,' 'Sea Voices,' and 'Seven Little Impressions for a Simple Mind,' and many songs.
Hugo Kaun, an American resident of Berlin, has been a prodigious producer, his work being in keeping with the modern German musical scheme. He has much structural power, a fertile imagination, and a considerable sense of beauty. His chief works are three symphonies, a piano concerto, a violin concerto, a Fantasiestück for violin, eight chamber music works, five symphonic poems, and an enormous quantity of songs, the best known, perhaps, being 'My Native Land,' and many short piano pieces. He has also written two oratorios, the most important being 'Mother Earth.'
Paul Allen, of Boston, has lived chiefly in Italy, where, as one would expect, he has produced operas. Two of these are 'The Philtre' and 'Milda,' each in one act. They follow the modern Italian operatic scheme and show the composer's close sympathy with the spirit of modern Italian stage music. He has written extensively for the piano also, among his writings in this form being an Alla Tarantella, an excellent and refined little work, sensitive to the genius of Italian folk-music, and a 'Meditation' having remarkable depth of feeling, a work emerging from a real emotion and expressed in unusually beautiful terms.
Kurt Schindler, of German birth, and latterly a resident of New York, has put out about twenty-five songs possessing charm and simplicity, though not of a very strong modernity. One of the best, and a work of true beauty, is the 'Faery Song' on Keats' poem. 'Adoration' is another of the Keats group, and in another group the composer has set poems of Wilde, Swinburne, and—a strange third to companion such a pair—Meredith. He has also 'Five Folk-Song Paraphrases,' the originals drawn from Italy, Russia, and France.
Platon Brounoff, a Russian living in New York, has composed, among other works, an overture, 'Russia,' which has been performed at the Central Park concerts under Arnold Volpe's direction, and a characteristic piano suite, 'In the Village.'