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  DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSES
  OF PIANO WORKS

  FOR THE USE OF TEACHERS,
  PLAYERS, AND MUSIC CLUBS


  BY
  EDWARD BAXTER PERRY


  PHILADELPHIA
  THEODORE PRESSER CO.
  LONDON, WEEKES & CO.




  Copyright, 1902, by Theodore Presser
  International Copyright


  Printed in the United States of America




                          My Keys


                            I.

    To no crag-crowning castle above the wild main,
    To no bower of fair lady or villa in Spain;
    To no deep, hidden vaults where the stored jewels shine,
    Or the South's ruddy sunlight is prisoned in wine;
    To no gardens enchanted where nightingales sing,
    And the flowers of all climes breathe perpetual spring:
                To none of all these
                They give access, my keys,
                My magical ebon and ivory keys.

                            II.

    But to temples sublime, where music is prayer,
    To the bower of a goddess supernally fair;
    To the crypts where the ages their mysteries keep,
    Where the sorrows and joys of earth's greatest ones sleep;
    Where the wine of emotion a life's thirst may still,
    And the jewels of thought gleam to light at my will:
                To more than all these
                They give access, my keys,
                My magical ebon and ivory keys.

                            III.

    To bright dreams of the past in locked cells of the mind,
    To the tombs of dead joys in their beauty enshrined;
    To the chambers where love's recollections are stored,
    And the fanes where devotion's best homage is poured;
    To the cloudland of hope, where the dull mist of tears
    As the rainbow of promise illumined appears;
                To all these, when I please,
                They give access, my keys,
                My magical ebon and ivory keys.




                  Only an Interpreter


    The world will still go on the very same
    When the last feeble echo of my name
    Has died from out men's listless hearts and ears
            These many years.

    Its tides will roll, its suns will rise and set,
    When mine, through twilight portals of regret,
    Has passed to quench its pallid, parting light
            In rayless night,

    While o'er my place oblivion's tide will sweep
    To whelm my deeds in silence dark and deep,
    The triumphs and the failures, ill and good,
            Beneath its flood.

    Then other, abler men will serve the Art
    I strove to serve with singleness of heart;
    Will wear her thorned laurels on the brow,
            As I do now.

    I shall not care to ask whose fame is first,
    Or feel the fever of that burning thirst
    To win her warmest smile, nor count the cost
            Whate'er be lost.

    As I have striven, they will strive to rise
    To hopeless heights, where that elusive prize,
    The unattainable ideal, gleams
            Through waking dreams.

    But I shall sleep, a sleep secure, profound,
    Beyond the reach of blame, or plaudits' sound;
    And who stands high, who low, I shall not know:
            'Tis better so.

    For what the gain of all my toilsome years,
    Of all my ceaseless struggles, secret tears?
    My best, more brief than frailest summer flower,
            Dies with the hour.

    My most enduring triumphs swifter pass
    Than fairy frost-wreaths from the window glass:
    The master but of moments may not claim
            A deathless name.

    Mine but the task to lift, a little space,
    The mystic veil from beauty's radiant face
    That other men may joy thereon to see,
            Forgetting me.

    Not mine the genius to create the forms
    Which stand serenely strong, thro' suns and storms,
    While passing ages praise that power sublime
            Defying time.

    Mine but the transient service of a day,
    Scant praise, too ready blame, and meager pay:
    No matter, though with hunger at the heart
            I did my part.

    I dare not call my labor all in vain,
    If I but voice anew one lofty strain:
    The faithful echo of a noble thought
            With good is fraught.

    For some it cheers upon life's weary road,
    And some hearts lightens of their bitter load,
    Which might have missed the message in the din
            Of strife and sin.

    My lavished life-blood warmed and woke again
    The still, pale children of another's brain,
    Brimmed full the forms which else were cold,
            Tho' fair of mold.

    And thro' their lips my spirit spoke to men
    Of higher hopes, of courage under pain,
    Of worthy aspirations, fearless flight
            To reach the light.

    Then, soul of mine, content thee with thy fate,
    Though noble niche of fame and guerdon great
    Be not for thee: thy modest task was sweet
            At beauty's feet.

    The Artist passes like a swift-blown breeze,
    Or vapors floating up from summer seas;
    But Art endures as long as life and love:
            For her I strove.




  Contents

                                                                PAGE
  Introduction,                                                   11
  Esthetic versus Structural Analysis,                            15
  Sources of Information Concerning Musical Compositions,         23
  Traditional Beethoven Playing,                                  32
  Beethoven: The Moonlight Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2,                 45
  Beethoven: Sonata Pathetique, Op. 13,                           50
  Beethoven: Sonata in A Flat Major, Op. 26,                      55
  Beethoven: Sonata in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2,                    61
  Beethoven: Sonata in C Major, Op. 53,                           64
  Beethoven: Sonata in E Minor, Op. 90,                           68
  Beethoven: Music to "The Ruins of Athens,"                      72
  Weber: Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65,                         81
  Weber: Rondo in E Flat, Op. 62,                                 86
  Weber: Concertstueck, in F Minor, Op. 79,                        90
  Weber-Kullak: Luetzow's Wilde Jagd, Op. 111, No. 4,              93
  Schubert: (Impromptu in B Flat) Theme and Variations,
    Op. 142, No. 3,                                               99
  Emotion in Music,                                              105
  Chopin: Sonata, B Flat, Op. 35,                                113
  The Chopin Ballades,                                           118
  Chopin: Ballade in G Minor, Op. 23,                            123
  Chopin: Ballade in F Major, Op. 38,                            130
  Chopin: Ballade in A Flat, Op. 47,                             137
  Chopin: Polonaise, A Flat Major, Op. 53,                       142
  Chopin: Impromptu in A Flat, Op. 29,                           147
  Chopin: Fantasie Impromptu, Op. 66,                            149
  Chopin: Tarantelle, A Flat, Op. 43,                            152
  Chopin: Berceuse, Op. 57,                                      156
  Chopin: Scherzo in B Flat Minor, Op. 31,                       158
  Chopin: Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15,                               161
  Chopin: Waltz, A Flat, Op. 42,                                 168
  Chopin's Nocturnes,                                            172
  Chopin: Nocturne in E Flat, Op. 9, No. 2,                      174
  Chopin: Nocturne, Op. 27, No. 2,                               176
  Chopin: Nocturne, Op. 32, No. 1,                               179
  Chopin: Nocturne, Op. 37, No. 1,                               183
  Chopin: Nocturne, Op. 37, No. 2,                               186
  Chopin: Polish Songs, Transcribed for Piano by Franz Liszt,    191
  Liszt: Poetic and Religious Harmonies, No. 3, Book 2,          194
  Liszt: First Ballade,                                          199
  Liszt: Second Ballade,                                         201
  Transcriptions for the Piano by Liszt,                         203
  Wagner-Liszt: Spinning Song from "The Flying Dutchman,"        205
  Wagner-Liszt: Tannhaeuser March,                                208
  Wagner-Liszt: Abendstern,                                      209
  Wagner-Liszt: Isolde's Love Death,                             210
  Schubert-Liszt: Der Erlkoenig,                                  213
  Schubert-Liszt: Hark! Hark! the Lark,                          216
  Schubert-Liszt: Gretchen am Spinnrad,                          217
  Liszt: La Gondoliera,                                          219
  The Music of the Gipsies and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies,     222
  Rubinstein: Barcarolle, G Major,                               237
  Rubinstein: Kamennoi-Ostrow, No. 22,                           241
  Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite, Op. 46,                                247
  Grieg: An den Fruehling, Op. 43, No. 6,                         257
  Grieg: Voeglein, Op. 43, No. 4,                                 260
  Grieg: Berceuse, Op. 38, No. 1,                                261
  Grieg: The Bridal Procession, from "Aus dem Volksleben,"
    Op. 19, No. 2,                                               264
  Saint-Saens: Le Rouet d'Omphale,                               271
  Saint-Saens: Danse Macabre,                                    276
  Counterparts among Poets and Musicians,                        281




  DESCRIPTIVE
  ANALYSES OF
  PIANO WORKS


  Introduction


The material comprised in the following pages has been collected for use
in book form by the advice and at the earnest request of the publisher,
as well as of many musical friends, who express the belief that it is of
sufficient value and interest to merit a certain degree of permanency,
and will prove of practical aid to teachers and students of music. A
portion of it has already appeared in print in the program books of the
Derthick Musical Literary Society and in different musical journals; and
nearly all of it has been used at various times in my own Lecture
Recitals.

The book is merely a compilation of what have seemed the most
interesting and valuable results of my thought, reading, and research in
connection with my Lecture Recital work during the past twenty years.

In the intensely busy life of a concert pianist a systematic and
exhaustive study of the whole broad field of piano literature has been
utterly impossible. That would require the exclusive devotion of a
lifetime at least. My efforts have been necessarily confined strictly to
such compositions as came under my immediate attention in connection
with my own work as player.

The effect is a seemingly desultory and haphazard method in the study,
and an inadequacy and incoherency in the collective result, which no one
can possibly realize or deplore so fully as myself. Still the work is a
beginning, a first pioneer venture into a realm which I believe to be
not only new, but rich and important. I can only hope that the example
may prompt others, with more leisure and ability, to follow in the path
I have blazed, to more extensive explorations and more complete results.

Well-read musicians will find in these pages much that they have learned
before from various scattered sources. Naturally so. I have not
originated my facts or invented my legends. They are common property for
all who will but seek. I have merely collected, arranged, and, in many
instances, translated them into English. I claim no monopoly. On the
other hand, they may find some things they have not previously known. In
such cases I venture to suggest to the critically and incredulously
inclined, that this does not prove their inaccuracy, though some have
seemed to fancy that it did. Not to know a thing does not always
conclusively demonstrate that it is not so.

To the general reader let me say that this book represents the best
thought and effort of my professionally unoccupied hours during the past
twenty years. It comes to you with my heart in it, bringing the wish
that the material here collected may be to you as interesting and
helpful as it has been to me in the gathering. The actual writing has
mainly been done on trains, or in lonely hotel rooms far from books of
reference, or aids of any kind; so occasional inexactitudes of data or
detail are by no means improbable, when my only resource was the memory
of something read, or of personal conversation often years before. With
the limited time at my disposal, a detailed revision is not practicable,
and I therefore present the articles as originally written. Take and use
what seems of value, and the rest pass by.

The plan and purpose of the book rest simply upon the theory that the
true interpretation of music depends not only on the player's possession
of a correct insight into the form and harmonic structure of a given
composition, but also on the fullest obtainable knowledge concerning the
circumstances and environment of its origin, and the conditions
governing the composer's life at the time, as well as any historical or
legendary matter which may have served him as inspiration or suggestion.

My reason for now presenting it to the public is the same as that which
has caused me to devote my professional life exclusively to the Lecture
Recital--namely, because experience has proved to me that a knowledge of
the poetic and dramatic content of a musical work is of immense value to
the player in interpretation, and to the listener in comprehension and
enjoyment of any composition, and because, except in scattered
fragments, no information of just this character exists elsewhere in
print.

It being, as explained, impossible to make this collection of analyses
complete, or even approximately so, it has seemed wise to limit the
number here included to just fifty, so as to keep the book to a
convenient size. I have endeavored to select those covering as large a
range and variety as possible, with the view of making them as broadly
helpful and suggestive as may be.

It is my intention to continue my labors along this line so far as
strength and opportunity permit, in the faith that I can devote my
efforts to no more useful end.

                                                 _Edward Baxter Perry._




  Esthetic versus Structural Analysis


It has been, and still is, the general custom among most musicians, when
called upon to analyze a composition for the enlightenment of students
or the public, or in the effort to broaden the interest in their art, to
think and speak solely of the _form_, the _structure_ of the work, to
treat it scientifically, anatomically--to dwell with sonorous unction
upon the technical names for its various divisions, to lay bare and
delightedly call attention to its neatly fashioned joints, to dilate
upon the beauty of its symmetrical proportions, and show how one part
fits into or is developed out of another--in brief, to explain more or
less intelligently the details of its mechanical construction, without a
hint or a thought as to why it was made at all, or why it should be
allowed to exist. With the specialist's engrossing absorption in the
technicalities of his vocation, they expect others to share their
interest, and are surprised and indignant to find that they do not. They
forget that to the average hearer this learned dissertation upon primary
and secondary subjects, episodical passages, modulation to related and
unrelated keys, cadences, return of the first theme, etc., has about as
much meaning and importance as so much Sanskrit. It is well enough, so
far as it goes, in the classroom, where students are being trained for
specialists, and need that kind of information; but it is only one
side,--the mechanical side,--and the general public needs something
else; and even the student, however gifted, if he is to become more than
a mere technician, must have something else; for composition and
interpretation both have their mere technic, as much as keyboard
manipulation, which is, however, only the means, not the end.

Knowledge of and insight into musical form are necessary to the player,
but not to the listener, even for the highest artistic appreciation and
enjoyment, just as the knowledge of colors and their combination is
essential to the painter, but not to the beholder. The poet must
understand syntax and prosody, the technic of rhyme-making and
verse-formation; but how many of his readers could analyze correctly
from that standpoint the poem they so much enjoy, or give the scientific
names for the literary devices employed? Or how many of them would care
to hear it done, or be the better for it if they did? The public expects
results, not rules or formulas; effects, not explanations of stage
machinery; food and stimulus for the intellect, the emotions, the
imagination, not recipes of how they are prepared.

The value of esthetic analysis is undeniably great in rendering this
food and stimulus, contained in every good composition, more easily
accessible and more readily assimilated, by a judicious selection and
partial predigestion, so to speak, of the different artistic elements in
a given work, and a certain preparation of the listener to receive them.
This is, of course, especially true in the case of the young, and those
of more advanced years, to whom, owing to lack of training and
opportunity, musical forms of expression are somewhat unfamiliar; or, in
other words, those to whom the musical idiom is still more or less
strange. But there are also very many musicians of established position
who are sorely in need of something of the kind to awaken them to a
perception of other factors in musical art besides sensuous beauty and
the display of skill; to develop their imaginative and poetic faculties,
in which both their playing and theories prove them to be deficient; and
the more loudly they cry against it as useless and illegitimate, the
more palpably self-evident becomes their own crying need of it.

Esthetic analysis consists in grasping clearly the essential artistic
significance of a composition, its emotional or descriptive content,
either with or without the aid of definite knowledge concerning the
circumstances of its origin, and expressing it plainly in a few simple,
well-chosen words, comprehensible by the veriest child in music, whether
young or old in years, conveying in a direct, unmistakable, and concrete
form the same general impressions which the composition, through all its
elaborations and embellishments, all its manifold collateral
suggestions, is intended to convey, giving a skeleton, not of its form,
but of its subject-matter, so distinctly articulated that the most
untrained perceptions shall be able to recognize to what genus it
belongs.

Of course, when it is possible, as it is in many cases, to obtain and
give reliable data concerning the conception and birth of a musical
work, the actual historical or traditional material, or the personal
experience, which furnished its inspiration, the impulse which led to
its creation, it is of great assistance and value; and this is
especially so when the work is distinctly descriptive of external scenes
or human actions. For example, take the Schubert-Liszt "Erlkoenig." Here
the elements embodied are those of tempest and gloom, of shuddering
terror, of eager pursuit and panic-stricken flight, ending in sudden,
surprised despair. These may be vaguely felt by the listener when the
piece is played, with varying intensity according to his musical
susceptibility; but if the legend of the "Erlkoenig," or "Elf-king," is
narrated and attention directly called to the various descriptive
features of the work,--the gallop of the horse, the rush and roar of the
tempest through the depths of the Black Forest, the seductive insistence
and relentless pursuit of the elf-king, the father's mad flight, the
shriek of the child, and the final tragic ending, all so distinctly
suggested in the music,--the impression is intensified tenfold, rendered
more precise and definite; and the undefined sensations produced by the
music are focused at once into a positive, complete, artistic effect.

Who can doubt that this is an infinite gain to the listener and to art?
Again, take an instance selected from a large number of compositions
which are purely emotional, with no kind of realistic reference to
nature or action, the Revolutionary Etude, by Chopin, Opus 10, No. 12.
The emotional elements here expressed are fierce indignation, vain but
desperate struggle, wrathful despair. These are easily recognized by the
trained esthetic sense. Indeed, the work cannot be properly rendered by
one who does not feel them in playing it; and they can be eloquently
described in a general way by one possessing a little gift of language
and some imagination; but many persons find it hard to grasp abstract
emotions without a definite assignable cause for them, and are
incalculably aided if told that the study was written as the expression
of Chopin's feelings, and those of every Polish patriot, on receipt of
the news that Warsaw had been taken and sacked by the Russians.

Where such data cannot be found concerning a composition, one can make
the content of a work fairly clear by means of description, of analogy
and comparison, by the use of poetic metaphor and simile, by little
imaginative word-pictures, embodying the same general impression; by any
means, in short,--any and all are legitimate,--which will produce the
desired result, namely: to concentrate the attention of the student or
the listener on the most important elements in a composition, to show
him what to listen for and what to expect; to prepare him fully to
receive and respond to the proper impression, to tune up his esthetic
nature to the required key, so it may re-echo the harmonious
soul-utterances of the Master, as the horn-player breathes through his
instrument before using it, to warm it, to bring it up to pitch, to put
it in the right vibratory condition.

The plan of esthetic analysis, in more or less complete form, was used
by nearly all of the great teachers, such as Liszt, Kullak, Frau
Schumann, and others, and was a very important factor in their
instruction. It was used by all the great writers on music who were at
the same time eminent musicians, like Liszt, Schumann, Mendelssohn,
Mozart, Wagner, Berlioz, Ehrlich, and many more. Surely, with such
examples as precedents, not to mention other good and sufficient
grounds, we may feel safe in pursuing it to the best of our ability, in
print, in the teaching-room, in the concert-hall, whenever and wherever
it will contribute to the increase of general musical interest and
intelligence, in spite of the outcries of the so-called "purists," who
see and would have us see in musical art only sensuous beauty and the
perfection of form, with possibly the addition of, as they might put it,
a certain ethereal, spiritual, indefinable something, too sacred to be
talked about, too transcendental to be expressed in language, too lofty
and pure to be degraded to the level of human speech.

Who, I ask, are the sentimentalists--they, or we who believe that music,
like every other art, is _expression_, the embodying of human
experiences, than which there is no grander or loftier theme on this
earth? Trust me, it is not music nor its subject-matter that is
nebulous, indistinct, hazy; but the mental conceptions of too many who
deal with it.

If art is _expression_, as estheticians agree, and music is an art, as
we claim, then it must express something; and, given sufficient
intelligence, training, and insight, that something--the vital essence
of every good composition--can be stated in words. Not always
adequately, I grant, but at least intelligibly, as a key to the fuller,
more complex expression of the music; serving precisely like the
synopsis to an opera, or the descriptive catalogue in a picture gallery.
This is the aim and substance of esthetic analysis.

    Musicians are many who see in their mistress
      But physical beauty of "color" and "form,"
    Who hear in her voice but a sensuous sweetness,
      No thrill of the heart that is living and warm.

    They judge of her worth by "perfection of outline,"
      "Proportion of parts" as they blend in the whole,
    "Symmetrical structure," and "finish of detail";
      They see but the body--ignoring the soul.

    She speaks, but they seem not to master her meaning,
      They catch but the "rhythmical ring of the phrase."
    She sings, but they dream not a message is borne on
      The breath of the sigh, while its "cadence" they praise.

    Her saddest laments are "melodious minors"
      To them, and her jests are but "notes marked staccato";
    Her tenderest pleadings but "themes well developed,"
      Her rage--but "a climax of chords animato."

    In vain she endeavors to rouse their perceptions
      By touching their brows with her soul-stirring hand
    They measure her fingers, their fairness admire,
      Declare her "divine," but will not understand.

    Away with such worthless and sense-prompted service;
      Forgetting the goddess, to worship the shrine;
    Forgetting the bride, to admire her costume,
      Her garments that glitter, and jewels that shine:

    And give us the artists of true inspiration,
      Whose insight is clear, and whose brains comprehend,
    To interpret the silver-tongued message of music
      That speaks to the heart, like the voice of a friend;

    That wakens the soul to the joys that are higher
      And purer than all that the senses can give,
    That teaches the language of lofty endeavor,
      And hints of a life that 'twere worthy to live!

    For music is Art, and all Art is expression,
      The "beauty of form" but embodies the thought,
    Imprisons one ray of that wisdom supernal
      Which Genius to sense-blinded mortals has brought.

    Then give us the artist whose selfless devotion
      To Art and her service is earnest and true,
    To read us the mystical meaning of music;
      Musicians are many, but artists are few.




  Sources of Information Concerning Musical Compositions


During my professional career I have received scores of letters from
musical persons all over the country, asking for the name of the book or
books from which I derive the information, anecdote, and poetic
suggestion, concerning the compositions used in my Lecture Recitals,
particularly the points bearing upon the descriptive and emotional
significance of such compositions. All realize the importance and value
of this phase of interpretative work, and many are anxious to introduce
it in their teaching or public performances; but all alike, myself not
excepted, find the sources of such information scanty and difficult of
access.

First, let me say frankly that there is no such book, or collection of
books. My own meager stock of available material in this line has been
laboriously collected, without definite method, and at first without
distinct purpose, during many years of extensive miscellaneous reading
in English, French, and German; supplemented by a rather wide
acquaintance among musicians and composers, and the life-long habit of
seizing and magnifying the poetic or dramatic bearing and import of
every scene, situation, and anecdote. If asked to enumerate the sources
from which points of value concerning musical works can be derived, I
should answer that they are three, not all equally promising, but from
each of which I myself have obtained help, and all of which I should try
before deserting the field. These are:

First, and perhaps the most important, reading. Second, a large
acquaintance among musicians, and frequent conversations with them on
musical subjects. Third, an intuitive perception, partly inborn and
partly acquired, of the analogies between musical ideas, on the one
hand, and the experiences of life and the emotions of the human soul, on
the other. I will now elaborate each of these a little, to make my
meaning more clear.

While there is no book in which information concerning the meaning of
musical compositions is collected and classified for convenient
reference, such information is scattered thinly and unevenly throughout
all literatures,--a grain here, a nugget there, like gold through the
secret veins of the earth,--and can be had only by much digging and
careful sifting. Now and again you come upon a single volume, like a
rich though limited pocket of precious ore, and rejoice with exceeding
gladness at the discovery of a treasure. But unfortunately, there is
usually nothing in the appearance or nature of such a book to indicate
to the seeker before perusal that this treasure is within, or to
distinguish it from scores of barren volumes. And the very item of which
he may be in search is very likely not here to be found; so he must turn
again to the quest, which is much like seeking a needle in a hay-mow, or
a pearl somewhere at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

Musical histories, biographies, and essays--what is usually termed
distinctly musical literature--by no means exhibit the only productive
soil, though they are certainly the most fruitful, and should be first
turned to, because nearest at hand. Poetry, fiction, travels, personal
reminiscences, in short every department of literature, from the
philosophy of Schopenhauer to the novels of George Sand, must be made to
contribute what it can to the stock of general and comprehensive
knowledge, which is our ambition. I instance these two authors, because,
while neither of them wrote a single work which would be found embraced
in a catalogue of musical literature, the metaphysical speculations of
Schopenhauer are known to have had great influence upon Wagner's
personality, and through that, of course, upon his music; while in some
of the characteristics of George Sand will be found the key to certain
of Chopin's moods, and their musical expression. But even where no such
relation between author and composer can be traced, I deem one could
rarely read a good literary work, chosen at random, without chancing
upon some item of interest or information, which would prove directly or
indirectly of value to the professional musician in his life-work. And
this is entirely apart from the general broadening, developing, and
maturing influence of good reading upon the mind and imagination, which
may be added to the more direct benefit sought, forming a background of
esthetic suggestion and perception, against which the beauties of
tone-pictures stand forth with enhanced power and heightened color.

I know of no better plan to suggest to those striving for an intelligent
comprehension of the composer's meaning in his great works than much and
careful reading of the best books in all departments, and the more
varied and comprehensive their scope the better. In the search for
enlightenment concerning any one particular composition, I should advise
the student to begin with works, if such exist, from the pen of the
composer himself, followed by biographies and all essays, criticisms,
and dissertations upon his compositions which are in print. If these
fail to give information, he should proceed to read as much as possible
regarding the composer's country and contemporaries, and concerning any
and all subjects in which he has become aware, by the study of his life,
that the master was interested. The chances are that he will come upon
something of aid or value before finishing this task. Still very often
the quest will and must be in vain, because about many musical works
there exists absolutely no information in print.

I can perhaps better indicate the course to be pursued by giving some
illustrations in my own experience. The following will serve: During a
trip in New York State I was asked whether Grieg's "Peer Gynt" suite was
founded upon any legend or story, and if so, what. Though familiar with
the composition in question, I had never played it myself, nor given it
any particular attention, and in point of fact was as ignorant on the
subject as my interrogator, and obliged to confess as much. This was
before the composition had become familiar in this country and before
the drama on which it is founded had been translated into English.
Being, however, convinced, from the names attached to different parts of
the suite, of the probability of its foundation upon some literary or
historic subject, I determined to investigate. I first read several
biographical sketches of Grieg, but found no special mention of the
"Peer Gynt" suite; then everything I could secure on the subject of
