owadays. But it is not Wagner's
music, and it is not trite academia. There is no finicky tinsel and no
cheap oddity.

Considering the heights at which both words and music aimed, it is
amazing that they did not fall into utter wreck and nauseating bathos.
That they have proved so effective shows the sure-footedness of
genius. It is all good, especially the soprano solo.

This music is exquisite, wondrously exquisite, and it is followed by a
maestoso e solenne movement of unsurpassable majesty. I have never
read anything more purely what music should be for grandeur. And it
praises our ain countree! It might well be taken up by some of our
countless vocal societies to give a much needed respite to Haendel's
threadbare "Messiah."

When one considers the largeness of the works to which Paine has
devoted himself chiefly, he can be excused for the meagreness and
comparative unimportance of his smaller works for piano and vocal
solo. The only song of his I care for particularly is "A Bird upon a
Rosy Bough" (op. 40), which is old-fashioned, especially in
accompaniment, yet at times delicious. The song "Early Spring-time" is
most curiously original.

Of piano pieces there are a sprightly "Birthday Impromptu" and a fuga
giocosa, which deals wittily with that theme known generally by the
words "Over the Fence Is Out!" The "Nocturne" begins like Schumann,
falls into the style of his second Novellette, thence to the largo of
Beethoven's Sonata (op. 10, No. 3), thence to Chopinism, wherein it
ends, an interesting assemblage withal!

A long "Romance" for the piano is marked by some excellent incidents
and much passion, but it lacks unity. It is the last work in "An Album
of Pianoforte Pieces," which is otherwise full of rare delights. It is
made up of opera 25, 26, and 39. Opus 25 contains four characteristic
pieces,--a "Dance" full of dance-rapture, a most original "Impromptu,"
and a "Rondo Giocoso," which is just the kind of brilliantly witty
scherzo whose infrequency in American music is so lamentable and so
surprising. Opus 26 includes ten sketches, all good, especially
"Woodnotes," a charming tone-poem, the deliciously simple "Wayside
Flowers," "Under the Lindens," which is a masterpiece of beautiful
syncopation, a refreshingly interesting bit in the hackneyed
"Millstream" form, and a "Village Dance," which has much of that
quaint flavor that makes Heller's etudes a perennial delight.

Besides these, there are a number