These two kindred legends MacDowell has welded into a coherent and satisfying whole; and in a verse with which he prefixes the sonata, he gives this index to its poetic content: "Who minds now Keltic tales of yore, Dark Druid rhymes that thrall; Deirdre's song, and wizard lore Of great Cuchullin's fall." At the time of the publication of the sonata he wrote to me as follows concerning it: "...

Here is the sonata, which it is a pleasure to me to offer you as a token of sympathy.

I enclose also some lines [of his own verse] anent Cuchullin, which, however, do not entirely fit the music, and which I hope to use in another musical form.

They may serve, however, to aid the understanding of the _stimmung_ of the sonata.

Cuchullin's story is in touch with the Deirdre-Naesi tale; and, as with my 3rd Sonata, the music is more a commentary on the subject than an actual depiction of it." [Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A PASSAGE FROM THE ORIGINAL MS.