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).