inspired efforts. The great demerit of the sonata, however, is its
lack of cohesive thought. As a whole it suggests the spectacle of
a highly gifted poet, full of emotional ardour and desire for self
expression, but lacking the requisite skill to bind long continued
effort into a cohesive whole; and who makes the mistake of trying
to cramp his undoubtedly beautiful ideas by compressing them into
a set form. The _Sonata Tragica_ is more of a traditional sonata
than its successors, the _Eroica, Op. 50_, the _Norse, Op. 57_, and
the _Keltic, Op. 59_, but as a work of art is less successful. Its
subjects are quite fine, showing, individually, great strength of
character and tender feeling, but they often appear to have no
definite connection with each other. In the first movement
especially we find this defect, for the second subject, with its
lovely tenderness, contrasts awkwardly with the boldness and
strength of the first. The cause of this would seem to be that a
quieter second subject is demanded by the form of the sonata, but
its effect on the movement as a whole is patchy and illogical.
MacDowell evidently made some efforts to effect cohesion,
transferring ideas from one movement to another in the process,
but the attempts generally are not successful. He tries to write
in the traditional form, and only succeeds in drawing the
student's attention to the futility of it. Later, in the _Norse_
and the _Keltic_ sonatas, he threw form overboard when it suited
him; and wrote far greater works in doing so. There is no
doubting the quality of the music in the _Sonata Tragica_,
however, for it contains passages of dramatic fire, breadth and
sweep of line, beauty of expression and a strength of character
that can only be the work of a great tone poet. The work was
undoubtedly written at a white heat of inspiration, for at the
time MacDowell was not only grieved over the death of his old