EARLY EXPERIMENTS MacDowell's impulse toward significant expression was not slow in declaring itself.

The first "modern suite" (op.

10), the earliest of his listed works, which at first glance seems to be merely a group of contrasted movements of innocently traditional aspect, with the expected Praeludium, Presto, Intermezzo, Fugue, etc., contains, nevertheless, the germ of the programmatic principle; for at the head of the third movement (Andantino and Allegretto) one comes upon a motto from Virgil--"Per amica silentia lunae," and the Rhapsodic is introduced with the "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate" of Dante.

The Praeludium of the second piano suite, op.

14, is also annotated, having been suggested by lines from Byron's "Manfred." In the "Zwei Fantasiestuecke", op.