motive being prominent. The opening theme is now thundered out
_fortissimo_ and the piece ends with a sense of stern and
rock-like strength of character.

9. _From a Log Cabin_ (_Con profondo espressione_). This piece,
which should be played with great expression, stands on a level
with _Mid-Winter_, No. 3 in this album. It strikes the new and
sombre note already referred to and carries with it a sense of
deep and vast import. The composer's unerring feeling for
atmosphere is given full play. The piece as a whole is deep and
problematic. The lines at its head:

_A house of dreams untold_,
_It looks out over the whispering tree-tops
And faces the setting sun_.

refer to MacDowell's log-cabin in which he used to compose, and
they are the same that are inscribed over his grave. _From a Log
Cabin_ opens quietly, with a grave theme and a clashing
accompaniment that produces a different effect to that of any of
the composer's earlier work, but recalls vividly the bleak second
theme of _Mid-Winter_. Some powerful though small climaxes may be
noticed, and then a new theme is heard softly, _con tenerezza,
pensieroso_, over a florid accompaniment. After this has run its
course, it is followed by intensely passionate outbursts of
sorrow, the whole culminating in a thunderous repetition of the
first theme. This reappears with great solemnity, which is
emphasized by tolling, drum-like strokes, in the bass. The close
is mysterious and impressive; the widespread chords, the wailing,
clashing discords in the final bar but one, and the far away last