Here Chadwick is asserting his own musical style more than previously, as in the concert overture "Adonais". It includes multiple sections, muted strings, and harps to generate an ethereal quality, unconventional rhythms, and occasional chromaticism. The critic William Foster Apthorp stated,"It is the most modern in spirit of anything I know from his pen... He has outgrown the classic idea... The very character of the thematic material in Adonais is modern, in sharp contrast to the classic reserve shown in the Melpomene overture; the expression is more outspoken, more purely emotional and dramatic."