4. The final movement, _Allegro eroico_, opens with a bold,
heroic theme in spread chords, followed by a quieter subject. The
music goes triumphantly on with increasing brilliance, complexity
and heroic ardour. At length a great final version of the heroic
theme is heard, _Maestoso_, and soon we come to the dramatic
moment of the whole sonata. At the very height of exaltation we
are overwhelmed by a shattering descent of double octaves,
_precipitate_. The heroism and self-confident ardour so carefully
built up are swept away and the significant strains of the
introduction to the work are heard, now augmented in time value.
The music bursts into fury and the sonata ends with immensely
powerful and ringing chords, but it is the shout of tragedy and
not of victory. Thus closes a work that may well stand to-day as
a musical representation of the composer's own life story. The
sonata was first played in London on February 25th, 1902, by
Lucie Mawson.



OPUS 46. TWELVE VIRTUOSO STUDIES, FOR PIANOFORTE.

_Composed_, 1893-94. _First Published_, 1894 (Breitkopf &
Härtel).

1. _Novelette_.

2. _Moto Perpetuo_.

3. _Wild Chase_.