instinct for creating atmosphere. The technical mastery is finer
than that shown in the _Woodland Sketches_, and the tonality
ranges in the thirty-six bars of its length from _fortissimo_ to
softly breathed _ppp_, and at the end even _pppp_.

3. _Mid-Winter_ (_Lento_). Here we find a piece of dramatic
significance and great power. Its deeper meaning is expressed in
the verses that head it:--

_In shrouded awe the world is wrapped,
The sullen wind doth groan,
'Neath winding-sheet the earth is stone,
The wraiths of snow have flown_.

_And lo! a thread of fate is snapped,
A breaking heart makes moan;
A virgin cold doth rule alone
From old Mid-winter's throne_.

The piece opens with an impressive theme uttered _ppp_. The whole
atmosphere soon becomes one of vast and solemn content, rising to
an intense short outburst. Soon a new and rather bleak theme is
heard with mournful, clashing harmonies; the whole effect is
vividly recalled in _From a Log Cabin_, No. 9 of these idyls, the
only piece in the set to equal this one in force. After some
commentary, a series of three rushing, ascending scale passages
are introduced, beginning _pppp_, then gradually becoming louder
until they culminate on high and powerful chords. The opening
theme reappears at the height of the climax and is expressed with
passionate intensity. Gradually the music dies solemnly away