performed in the composer's native city, New York. In the year
following this latter event, the _Hamlet_ section was played in
the same city. The first complete performance at Boston, Mass.,
was on January 28th, 1893, the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing
with Nikisch as conductor. _Hamlet and Ophelia_ really consists
of two separate poems for orchestra, and was first published in
that form, but MacDowell himself afterwards authorised its
alteration into one work, and he named it _First Symphonic Poem_.
The piece is not an altogether unworthy product of his genius. It
bears unmistakable evidence of Teutonic influence, but there is a
certain originality of thought and a freshness of spirit about it
that make for serious work. It was by far the most important of
MacDowell's music up to this period, for in addition to a skill
and brilliance of harmonic and orchestral colouring, it has a
depth of feeling and fuller exposition of personality than its
predecessors. It has a sense of romance, a beauty of melodic
outline and an attempted justification of title that are, at
least, sincerely effected, and although it is far from being one
of its author's representative works, it must be remembered that
he was but twenty-four years of age at its completion. As a
youthful achievement it is very fine, the creation of a gifted,
though immature, tone poet, and full of a promise that the future
was to amply fulfil. The title and dedication of the work are
interesting, and both indicate its link with the English dramatic
world. The performance of the English Shakespearian actors, Sir
Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, inspired MacDowell whilst in London
in 1884, on his honeymoon trip with Mrs. MacDowell.