First Published, 1898 (P.L.  Jung.  Assigned 1899 to Arthur P. Schmidt).

  1. To the Sea.

  2. From a Wandering Iceberg.

  3. A.D. 1620.

  4. Starlight.

  5. Song.

  6. From the Depths.

  7. Nautilus.

  8. In Mid-Ocean.

The Sea Pieces contain some of the finest of MacDowell’s suggestive tone poetry.  They are chiefly remarkable for their exhibiting the composer’s ability to suggest a big scene, or a dramatic or emotional content of far-reaching significance, in an incredibly small space.  The power and breadth of some of the pieces is great, while their beauty of tone, displaying the powers of the pianoforte from pppp to fff, is rich and full in its harmonic construction.  Although the chords seem to call for orchestral colouring, the effect is always clear and ringing on the pianoforte, whilst the melodies are some of the most noble and dignified of MacDowell’s short pieces.  As a contrast to the strength of some of the numbers in the set, others are of an exquisite and quiet beauty.  Altogether the Sea Pieces make up one of the most superb pianoforte albums in existence, for they are tone poems of unsurpassed beauty, strength of character, nobleness of thought and unerring atmospheric suggestion, touching the high water mark of the composer’s inspirations.  Each piece is headed by a verse of the composer’s own writing, except the first, sixth and seventh, which have single lines only.  The poems are included in the published book of his verse.

1. To the Sea (With dignity and breadth).  This is headed:—­

  Ocean, thou mighty monster,

and is a tone poem of remarkable power.  It is but thirty-one bars in length and yet it contains more solid material, breadth and perfectly concentrated splendour than many an orchestral tone poem of symphonic proportions.  The graduations of tone found in the piece are very fine and could only have been written by one who knew intimately the tonal resources of the modern pianoforte.  The chord writing spreads over a wide area of the keyboard, but is remarkable for its clarity.  It is indeed extremely difficult to call to mind any other composer who could have painted a tone picture so big in outlook and so complete in itself, in such a small space as MacDowell has done here.

2. From a Wandering Iceberg (Serenely).  This piece suggests a towering iceberg gradually approaching, passing by in all its splendour, and going on toward realms of burning light.  The tone variety ranges from as soft and smooth as possible to a virile, orchestral fff.  The melody of the piece is very beautiful and the whole thing has a curious icy clearness about it that is remarkably realistic.  The last seven bars contain music as tender and serene as anything MacDowell ever composed.