neers as Paine, Chadwick, MacDowell, Foote, Parker, Osgood,
Whiting and Mrs. H.H.A. Beach have written works, often in
the larger forms, showing genuine inspiration and fine workman-
ship, many of which have won permanent recognition outside of
their own country. Of late years a younger group has arisen, the
chief members[342] of which are Converse, Carpenter, Gilbert,
Hadley, Hill, Mason, Atherton, Stanley Smith, Brockway, Blair
Fairchild, Heilman, Shepherd, Clapp, John Powell, Margaret
Ruthven Lang, Gena Branscombe and Mabel Daniels. These
composers all have strong natural gifts, have been broadly ed-
ucated, and, above all, in their music is reflected a freedom, a
humor and an individuality which may fairly be called Ameri-
can; that is, it is not music which slavishly follows the “made-
in-Germany” model.[343] The composer of greatest genius and
scope in America is undoubtedly Charles Martin Loeffler; but,
although he has become a loyal American, and although his
best works have been composed in this country, we can hardly
claim him as an American composer, for his music vividly re-
flects French taste and ideals. His inspired works—in particular
La Mort de Tintagiles,The Pagan Poemand a Symphony (in
one movement)—are of peculiar importance for their connection
with works of literature and for consummate power in orches-
tration. Not even Debussy has expressed more subtly the tragic
spirit of Maeterlinck than has Loeffler inLa Mort de Tintagiles;
andThe Pagan Poem, founded on an Eclogue of Virgil portrays
most eloquently the romance of those pastoral days. Loeffler’s
latest work, a String Quartet[344] dedicated to the memory of
Victor Chapman, the Harvard aviator, is remarkable for the
heart-felt beauty of its themes and for advanced technique in
treating the four solo instruments.
[Footnote 342: This valuation of American composers is made
solely on the basis of published compositions.]
[Footnote 343: For additional comments on this point see an ar-
ticle by the author in the Musical Quarterly for January, 1918.]
[Footnote 344: Performed recently several times by the Flonza-
ley Quartet.]
Let us now indulge in a few closing remarks of advice to the
young student faced with all this perplexing novelty. Our stud-
ies should have made plain two definite facts: first, that the
real message of music is contained in its melody—that part of