1. _Legend_ (_Not fast. With much dignity and character_). This opens with a romantic horn-call of the plains that is significant of the whole _Suite_:--
It is heard again at the end of the last movement. Indescribable is the effect of the paused note, the silence, and then the far away answer. The call is elaborated with rich effect, but the atmosphere of vastness and loneliness is preserved. The suggestiveness of this introduction is wonderfully vivid, for in a moment we are transported from the civilisation of to-day to the wildness and romance of the old days on the plains of the great West. The introduction finished, the movement proper begins (_Twice as fast. With decision._) with a long tremolo on the note B. At the fifth bar a harvest song of the Iroquois Indians appears:--
Vivid in effect is the following striving figure:--
The Indian theme is now elaborated at some length with much richness, and is wild in effect. After this a tender MacDowell-like second subject appears:--
This contemplative atmosphere is soon broken as the influence of the native theme is felt, and the striving figure is also heard. The music grows more and more wild and intricate, working up to a tearing intensity and then dying away until only a few deep murmurs remain. The striving figure is heard twice, and then follows a small bridge to a repetition of the tender second subject, now heard pianissimo under a swaying, chord accompaniment. After a time it grows in intensity and imperceptibly merges into the romantic call of the introduction, the influence of which, however, is at once felt. The music now mounts to a tremendous pose of strength, double _fortissimo_, the final bars striking the same attitude in a deeper and more stolid form. There is little in music of such iron-like force as the conclusion of this _Legend_. The thundering tremolos and chords are not intricate or beautiful, their very splendour lying in their stark, magnificent elemental power.
2. _Love-Song_ (_Not fast. Tenderly_). This opens with the tune of a love song of the Iowa Indians:--
This little after thought brings a touch of romance:--
A new and equally tender theme follows:--
Although not of great importance, this little episode is notable for its poetic suggestion of the Red Indian atmosphere:--