to the _Poème_ for violin, you may rest assured that I
will write it. Only at the present moment I am so
preoccupied with the 'Fall of the House of Usher!' They
talk too much to me about it. I'll have to put an end to
all that or I will go mad. Once more I want to write it,
and above all _on your account_. And I believe you will
be the only one to play the _Poème_. Others will attempt
it, and then quickly return to the Mendelssohn Concerto!

"Believe me always your sincere friend,

"CLAUDE DEBUSSY."

"He never did write it," said Mr. Hartmann, "but it was not for want of
good will. As to other transcriptions, I have never done any that I did
not feel instinctively would make good fiddle pieces, such as
MacDowell's _To a Wild Rose_ and others of his compositions. And
recently I have transcribed some fine Russian things--Gretchaninoff's
_Chant d'Automne_, Karagitscheff's _Exaltation_, Tschaikovsky's
_Humoresque_, Balakirew's _Chant du Pechêur_, and Poldini's little
_Poupée valsante_, which Maud Powell plays so delightfully on all her
programs."




VII


JASCHA HEIFETZ