James E. Homans, editor

“ At the same time, he makes much of his music out of wholly independent but appropriate melodic ideas, which melodies are oftener orchestral than vocal. He conceives his orchestra, not as a minute mirror of every reflection of the text, but as a stream that shall flow with the drama, taking course, speed, contour, substance, and color from it. ”

“ Converse is a significant figure in the history of American music. While on the one hand he has not allied himself with those who would base an American school on the musical bequests of certain native elements which are alien to our essentially European culture, he has kept aloof from the tradition of the old world sufficiently to render his work distinctive in color as well as original in substance. He believes, in his own words, “that we shall be able to build up a school of musical composition second to none and of which Americans can well be proud.” ”

“ He moves in the atmosphere in which they move. Then he translates all these things into his music and straightway his listeners grasp and feel them. To do this is the first concern of opera as we understand it nowadays. Earlier, perhaps, than we had reason to expect, there is an American composer with an unmistakable aptitude for it. ”