iter as from any other, as they are among his
best-known works.

The first volume of selected songs of Brahms contains six. The first
one,--

"O sink, O sink thy grief, my child,
To the bottom of the deep, deep sea,"--

is founded upon a poem by Robert Reinick. In the edition which I
notice (Schirmer) there are three texts--German, English, and French.
This song is of a very serious and impassioned character, the melody
somewhat slow and deliberate. The accompaniment, as so often happens
in the songs of Brahms, is purposely developed out of a different
rhythmic figure from that of the song itself. In this instance the
melody runs in pulses and half pulses, whereas the accompaniment runs
in triplets; that is to say, the chords in the right hand run in
triplets, while the bass preserves the rhythm of the song itself. The
entire rhythmic sense is sustained, or nearly sustained, by half-pulse
motion, running at the same time with a continually sustained triplet
motion, three to a pulse.

The musical handling of this song presents several peculiarities, the
most notable of which is the entrance of the bass upon a dissonance,
which at the same time is an advance imitation (to speak Hibernically)
of the leading motive of the melody. The effect of this combination
with the rhythmic figure already noticed gives the song a much more
impassioned character than it would otherwise have.

It would be difficult to say why Brahms has so long remained unpopular
with singers, considering how well he uses the voice. In the second
line, "A stone, alas, in the sea will sink; my grief returns to me,"
the lower part of the accompaniment is at the same pitch and identical
with the melody itself, but the voice breaks through at the emphatic
climax of the phrase, "grief." This is taken upon high G-flat, and is
supported with full harmony by both hands, giving the effect of a much
stronger harmonic climax, and also affording the singer the needed
assistance in maintaining the high pitch.

The second song in the series is a very beautiful one, "To a Violet."
This is on a poem by Holty, beginning:

"Hide, O flow'ret, within thy blue recesses,
Hide these pale dews of sorrow."

The entire effect of the song and the accompaniment is extremely tender
and delicate, one of the important features in the artistic effect
being the arpeggios of the accompaniment, which is throughout in
sixteenth-note motion, whereas the melody, i