published them, after his plan for a symphony had been abandoned,
is a very modest one for two such fine pieces of orchestral tone
poetry. _The Saracens_ is a piece of great power, dramatic and
wild in spirit and vivid in harmonic and instrumental colouring.
It represents the scene in which the traitor, Ganelon, determines
on the deed that results in the death of Roland. The whole
passage is vividly suggested by the music.

_The Lovely Alda_ is a very beautiful and human piece. Aldâ was
Roland's bethrothed and the music aims at suggesting her
loveliness and her mourning for her lover. There are passages of
intensely impressive melancholy in the _Fragment_ and its human
feeling is typical of MacDowell. Altogether the two pieces are
music on a high plane and worth attention for their own intrinsic
value, quite apart from their connection with the symphony that
never materialised. They bear a stamp of seriousness of effort
and a conscious responsibility that only the really great
composer is able to indicate.



OPUS 31. SIX POEMS AFTER HEINE, FOR PIANOFORTE.

_Composed, Wiesbaden_, 1887. _First Published_, 1887 (J. Hainauer.
Revised Edition--Arthur P. Schmidt. British Empire--Winthrop
Rogers, Ltd.).

1. _We Sat by the Fisherman's Cottage._

2. _Far Away, on the Rock-coast of Scotland._ (Scotch poem.)