yle balladry to both its own
opportunity and the otherwise-smothered fire of such a poem as Sidney
Lanier's "Sunset," which is positively Shakespearean in its passionate
perfection.

In religious music, however, Mr. Buck has made a niche of its own for
his music, which it occupies with grace and dignity.

_Horatio W. Parker._

[Illustration: Autograph of Horatio W. Parker]

[Illustration: HORATIO W. PARKER.]

When one considers the enormous space occupied by the hymn-tune in New
England musical activity, it is small wonder that most of its
composers should display hymnal proclivities. Both Buck and Parker
are natives of New England.

Parker was born, September 15, 1863, at Auburndale, Mass. His mother
was his first teacher of music. She was an organist, and gave him a
thorough technical schooling which won the highest commendation later
from Rheinberger, who entrusted to him the first performance of a new
organ concerto. After some study in Boston under Stephen A. Emery,
John Orth, and G.W. Chadwick, Parker went to Munich at the age of
eighteen, where he came under the special favor of Rheinberger, and
where various compositions were performed by the Royal Music School
orchestra. After three years of Europe, he returned to America and
assumed the direction of the music at St. Paul's school. He has held
various posts since, and has been, since 1894, the Battell Professor
of Music at Yale.

His rather imposing list of works includes a symphony (1885), an
operetta, a concert overture (1884), an overture, "Regulus" (1885),
performed in Munich and in London, and an overture, "Count Robert of
Paris" (1890), performed in New York, a ballad for chorus and
orchestra, "King Trojan," presented in Munich in 1885, the
Twenty-third Psalm for female chorus and orchestra (1884), an "Idylle"
(1891); "The Normans," "The Kobolds," and "Harold Harfager," all for
chorus and orchestra, and all dated 1891; an oratorio, three or more
cantatas, and various bits of chamber-music. His opus number has
already reached forty-three, and it is eked out to a very small degree
by such imponderous works as organ and piano solos, hymns, and songs.
In 1893, Parker won the National Conservatory prize for a cantata, and
in 1898 the McCagg prize for an a cappella chorus.

Parker's piano compositions and secular songs are not numerous. They
seem rather the incidental byplays and recreations of a fanry chiefly
turned to sacred music of the larger f