orte effect.

In the second series of instrumental numbers are included four of the
beautiful cycle, "Forest Scenes." Each of these is like a little
sonnet--brief, picturesque, and individual. In the first we have the
vague and shadowy effect of the entrance into the forest, the
shimmering leaves, the sunlight and shade, and whatever fanciful
explanation one likes of the imaginative tone-sonnet of the author. In
the "Wayside Inn" the thematic style of Schumann is well illustrated,
and also the variety of effect possible to be obtained from a very
small amount of musical material. The reference to the title is not
very apparent, since the speed of the piece and its quick and forcible
character deprive it of the reposeful "Stimmung" one would anticipate
from the title assigned. I do not know the true explanation of the
"Prophetic Bird." It is a most lovely little bit, and is now so well
known in the concert-room as not to need further discussion.

The "Farewell to the Forest" is one of the most delightful songs
without words in the whole Schumann category. Its melody is musical
and new, and the changing rhythms, the occasional coming out of a
middle voice, and the general effect of the whole are alike interesting
and absorbing.

In the next instrumental number we come upon another mood of Schumann,
or rather upon two of them. The "Night-piece" is of a lyric quality
enjoyable by every one. Nearly all young players object to the speed
which Schumann has marked, and many play it much more slowly; this,
however, is not warranted, since in the nature of the case Schumann
must have known what he intended, and when we have made an allowance
for the undue slowness of his metronome at given tempi, we are still
not warranted in making this slower than eighty for quarters. To take
it still more slowly is to change the character of all the latter part
of the piece. If well played it is sufficiently reposeful in the form
in which we now have it. In the second part there is some delightful
imitative work between the motive in the treble and its answer in the
tenor.

With the Novelette in F, opus 21, we come into the domain of what we
might call the higher Schumann, for in these works and in those which
follow upon this list greater demands are made upon the player, and the
music itself is deeper, stronger, more original, and therein more
satisfactory. The novelette consists of two main parts. First comes a
march-like