A good song appeared now and then, but seldom of serious import. Who can wonder at the delight with which England wel comed the songs of Mendelssohn? It was in his school of Leip zig that Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875), the first serious composer of songs in England for nearly a century, received his training. output and range are small, but the quality of his work is deli cate and individual. "To Chloe in Sickness," "Dawn, Gentle Flower," "Gentle Zephyr," struck a note that was new in English song. But he gave to his country a new ideal. Sullivan (1842– 1900), more original, more richly endowed than Bennett, was also trained at Leipzig. Though his reputation has suffered from songs which satisfied the public rather than his own ideals, there are many which have real value and will live when the others are forgotten, e.g., his settings of Shakespeare's lyrics ("0 Mistress mine," "Orpheus with his Lute," "Where the Bee sucks"), of Tennyson's cycle At the window (in which the influence of Schu bert is clear), "Tears, idle tears" and "Swallow, Swallow, flying South," and of George Herbert's "Sweet day, so cool," in all of which the touch of genius is unmistakable.
It is obvious from songs like these and from the occasional appearance of others, such as Hatton's "To Anthea," Salaman's "I arise from dreams of thee," Clay's "Songs of Araby" and "The Sands of Dee," that new ideals were in the air. In their further realization the increasing familiarity of the musical public with the masterpieces of German song may be reckoned as an important factor.
ties of Parry's songs something in the majority of them is lacking, which may perhaps be described as that intimate lyric note in which heart and voice and instrument sing together. The melodic freshness of his early days grew less in the increasing awkwardness of his piano technique, and, perhaps, in the determination at all costs to have his word-declamation right. In this he was entirely successful, setting an example which has been of great value to English song.
Stanford composed about 15o songs. If the settings of the poems from George Eliot's Spanish Gypsy, Op. 1, are placed be side the songs of the "Elfin Pedlar," probably the last he com posed, it is seen at once that the harmony which adorns the melo dies of the former is singularly rich, and that in the latter it is reduced to the barest minimum—and yet it suffices. This gives us the trend of Stanford's work in song—increasing mastery of his resources of technique through the severe principle of econ omy, not two notes where one will serve. If the expressive colour of "The radiant Dark," is fine, the astonishing simplicity of "Spring" is perhaps the greater achievement. Between these poles in the long list of Stanford's songs every variety of colour and complexity will be found, but no unduly lavish display. In the work of no composer are the means more perfectly suited to the ends. Arresting songs could be cited in many styles, especially those in An Irish Idyll (Moira O'Neill). There in six pieces of rarest beauty he has portrayed against a background of Irish wind, sky, mountain burn and loch, all that is most lovable and most deep in the Irish character, its wistfulness and its pathos, its sun shine and gloom, its seriousness and humour, with a poetical and imaginative power of a kind which is unique. In these will be seen the sureness and the delicacy of his touch not only on the spirit of each song but on the exact words with which it is conveyed. Poetry and music are fused without sacrifice on either side; the unity is complete. In further illustration may be cited the "Corsi can Dirge," the remarkable ballads, "La Belle Dame sans merci" and "The Pilgrimage to Kevlaar," also "Three Cavalier songs" (Browning), "A soft Day," "The Pibroch," "The Chapel on the Hill," "Easter Snow," "The Monkey's Carol," "Grandeur," "Daddy-long-legs." No less masterly are his arrangements of Irish folk-songs of which there are four volumes.