years later. The work, as a whole, has atmosphere, freshness,
buoyancy, and it is scored with exquisite skill and charm; but somehow
it does not seem either as poetic or as distinguished as one imagines
it might have been made. It is carried through with delightful high
spirits, and with an expert order of craftsmanship; but it lacks
persuasion--lacks, to put it baldly, inspiration.

Passing over a sheaf of piano pieces, the "Twelve Virtuoso Studies" of
op. 46 (of which the "Novelette" and "Improvisation" are most
noteworthy), we come to a stage of MacDowell's development in which,
for the first time, he presents himself as an assured and confident
master of musical impressionism and the possessor of a matured and
fully individualised style.




CHAPTER V

A MATURED IMPRESSIONIST


With the completion and production of his "Indian" suite for orchestra
(op. 48) MacDowell came, in a measure, into his own. Mr. Philip Hale,
writing apropos of a performance of the suite at a concert of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra[12] in December, 1897, did not hesitate to
describe the work as "one of the noblest compositions of modern
times." Elsewhere he wrote concerning it: "The thoughts are the
musical thoughts of high imagination; the expression is that of the
sure and serene master. There are here no echoes of Raff, or Wagner,