conceived as the need for a reformation of conditions affecting his
work; and on January 18, 1904, after long and anxious deliberation and
discussion with his wife, he tendered his resignation as head of the
department. His attitude in the matter was grievously misunderstood
and misrepresented at the time, to his poignant distress and
harassment. The iron entered deeply into his soul: it was the
forerunner of tragedy.

When he took up his work at Columbia his activity as a concert pianist
had, of course, to be virtually suspended. With the exception of two
short tours of a few weeks' each, he gave up his public appearances
altogether until the year of his sabbatical vacation (1902-03). In
December, 1902, he went on an extensive concert tour, which took him
as far west as San Francisco and occupied all of that winter. The
following spring and summer were spent Abroad, in England and on the
Continent. In London he appeared in concert, playing his second
concerto with the Philharmonic Society on May 14. He returned to
America in October, and resumed his work at Columbia.

Meanwhile his composition had continued uninterruptedly. Indeed, the
eight years during which he held his Columbia professorship were, in a
creative sense, the most important of his life; for to this period
belong the "Sea Pieces" (op. 55), the two superb sonatas, the "Norse"
(op. 57) and the "Keltic" (op. 59), and the best of his songs--the
four of op. 56 ("Long Ago," "The Swan Bent Low to the Lily," "A Maid
Sings Light," "As the Gloaming Shadows Creep"), and the three of op.
58 ("Constancy," "Sunrise," "Merry Maiden Spring"): a product which
contains the finest flower of his inspiration, the quintessence of
his art.[7] He wrote also during these years the three songs of op.
60 ("Tyrant Love," "Fair Springtide," "To the Golden Rod"); the