proceed the music becomes mysterious and restless until a more solid chord passage appears.  The whole is soon interrupted by the arresting figure of the introduction, now appearing softly, with foreboding seriousness.  With the resumption of the Allegro risoluto the striving commences again and is even more restless than before.  From now onwards the music becomes increasingly significant, graduating in tone power from a shadowy ppp to solid and virile loud chords.  The first and second subjects formally reappear and the end comes with a short coda, the feature of which is its powerful upward expansion, culminating in chords of great strength, the striking opening figure being again heard.

2.  The scherzo-like second movement is inferior in quality to the rest of the sonata, and apart from some ejaculations suggesting the dramatic opening of the first movement, does not appear to have any connection with the work as a whole.  Its themes are not distinguished, although there are touches of strength in many places, and the movement savours generally of Teutonic romantic influence and probably only exists at all as a concession to form.

3.  The Largo con maesta is the outstanding movement of the sonata, remaining to this day one of MacDowell’s most impressive creations.  It is full of deep feeling and gravity, contrasted with passages of tender contemplation and the impassioned poetry of despair.  The whole aspect of the movement is lofty in thought, vast in tonality and altogether indicative of power and of genius.  MacDowell was harassed by drudgery and care when he wrote it and the tragic note is sounded from its first bars.  After exhausting itself in intense expression, the opening theme makes way for a mood of quiet, although still despairing, contemplation.  This wanders on, until the music becomes impassioned and more intricate.  Rushing ascending scale passages add to the restless movement of the whole, culminating in a tumultuous and despairing utterance of the contemplative theme.  This gradually dies down and soon the impressive strains of the first theme are heard, now softly breathed and portraying a deep and broken sadness in place of the clenched fist attitude of their first appearance.  The music becomes more and more subdued, finally becoming extinct in pppp chords.  The whole of this last page is one of the most impressive and soul-stirring things in contemporary pianoforte music.

4.  The final movement, Allegro eroico, opens with a bold, heroic theme in spread chords, followed by a quieter subject.  The music goes triumphantly on with increasing brilliance, complexity and heroic ardour.  At length a great final version of the heroic theme is heard, Maestoso, and soon we come to the dramatic moment of the whole sonata.  At the very height of exaltation we are overwhelmed by a shattering descent of double octaves, precipitate.  The heroism and self-confident ardour so carefully