her is written
with considerable elaboration, so that the general effect is not so
narcotic as usual with duets for children. Dennee has written, among
many works of little specific gravity, a "Suite Moderne" of much
skill, a suite for string orchestra, an overture and sonatas for the
piano and for the violin and piano, as well as various comic operas.
He was born in Oswego, N.Y., September 1, 1863, and studied
composition with Stephen A. Emery.

A composer of a genial gaiety, one who has written a good minuet and
an "Evening Song" that is not morose, is Benjamin Lincoln Whelpley,
who was born at Eastport, Me., October 23, 1863, and studied the piano
at Boston with B.J. Lang, and composition with Sidney Homer and
others. He also studied in Paris for a time in 1890. He has written a
"Dance of the Gnomes," that is characteristic and brilliantly droll,
and a piano piece, called "Under Bright Skies," which has the panoply
and progress of a sunlit cavalcade.

Ernest Osgood Hiler has written some good music for the violin, a
book of songs for children, "Cloud, Field, and Flower," and some
sacred music. He studied in Germany for two years.

_The Chicago Colony._

Most prominent among Chicago's composers is doubtless Frederic Grant
Gleason, who has written in the large forms with distinguished
success. The Thomas Orchestra has performed a number of his works,
which is an excellent praise, because Thomas, who has done so much for
American audiences, has worried himself little about the American
composer. At the World's Fair, which was, in some ways, the artistic
birthday of Chicago, and possibly the most important artistic event in
our national history, some of Gleason's works were performed by
Thomas' organization, among them the _Vorspiel_ to an opera, "Otho
Visconti" (op. 7), for which Gleason wrote both words and music.

[Illustration: FREDERIC GRANT GLEASON.]

This _Vorspiel_, like that to "Lohengrin," is short and delicate. It
begins ravishingly with flutes and clarinets and four violins,
pianissimo, followed by a blare of brass. After this introductory
period the work runs through tenderly contemplative musing to the end,
in which, again, the only strings are the four violins, though here
they are accompanied by the brass and wood-winds and tympani, the
cymbals being gently tapped with drumsticks. The introduction to the
third act of the opera is more lyrical, but not so fine. Another opera
is "Montezuma" (op. 1