preludizing

Updated: May 15, 2025

The last of these songs, "Put by the Lute," is possibly Smith's best work. It is superb from beginning to end. It opens with a most unhackneyed series of preludizing arpeggios, whence it breaks into a swinging lyric, strengthened into passion by a vigorous contramelody in the bass. Throughout, the harmonies are most original, effective, and surprising.

Rupert Hughes - Contemporary American Composers: Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present: Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and: Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an: Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and: Compositions