individual newspaper can be bought-our own terms may be known from private enquiry at the printing-office-but we have no doubt a few thalers, tenderly tendered out of hearing of the editor-entre nous, the editor sometimes goes "snacks" with the critic-would have made the writer place Lohengrin beside Fidelio--would that have satisfied Herr Wagner-and have rated Tannhäuser higher than Don Giovanni! Never was money more foolishly kept in pocket. Of course this false economy, this pecuniary reservation, this totality of dependence on self-merit, satisfactorily explains why Herr Richard Wagner, as composer and conductor, was "attacked" and "abused"-according to his own showing. He has to blame himself. Even conscience might have induced him to buy over the press, and have taught him that, in this instance, "corruption was no bribery." As thus:-The opinion and judgment of English critics being as nil, and Herr Richard Wagner having it in his power, by the expenditure of a few "beggarly deniers," to lead the said critics to the true belief and understanding -at least to the propoundment thereof, by which the world must be necessarily enlightened-it was clearly his bounden duty, as a moral man and an art-purist-as the Athenaeum would say not to speak of self-interest, which, of course, the man of "The Future" would totally abnegate and reject -to direct all his energies to seduce over to his own views every individual member of the London press. What a loss the world has sustained in not having Lohengrin and Tannhäuser praised; and this might have been secured for-say, a couple of pounds a-head. But Herr Richard Wagner carried his folly and stupidity to the very pinnacle, when even-according to his own showing-the critics "still left a door open for him;" and still the obstinate man of "The Future" refused "to come down with the dust." Such an act only proves how even clear-sighted genius may sometimes be overshadowed, and how the profoundest intellect may sometimes jump over the shallowest conclusions.

The next time Herr Wagner comes to London, we recommend him strongly to bring with him a little more money, or a little better music. In the event of his changing his mind, and becoming an honest convert to the good old bribery system, he may be induced to speculate on the virtue of a few thalers. Should the critics refuse the money, as there's no knowing what these obstinate and malignant dogs may do, especially if they fancy they have been cheated out of their lawful due-we advise him to try a small dose of real good music. It may, peradventure, have its weight and influence. It was by such simple means Mendelssohn bribed and corrupted universal England. Let Herr Richard Wagner endeavour to follow, if he cannot virtually imitate, so shining an example. After all, the great poet-dramatistmusician of "The Future" was not misinformed, or did not conceive amiss. The members of the English press are not inaccessible to bribery. Herr Richard Wagner may even now buy them. We only fear he has got neither the money nor the music.

substance of the most of them. Yet these words are so pointed that the unwitting public is inclined to believe in a miracle. That a new Messiah of harmony has appeared, on the tail of a comet, is becoming, to speak in metaphor, a general belief. All this is due to the critics, to the Institution of amateur bourgeois which exults in the name of the Sacred Harmonic Society, and to a posse of Italian singing-masters and accompanists, who form the queue of the coulisses at Covent Garden Theatre, and may be seen in swarms at the "benefits" of Sig. and Mad. Puzzi, the fêtes champêtres of Mad. Anichini, and the monster concerts of Mr. Benedict. For your brethren, the critics, Mr. Editor, I am sorry; but the policy of the others is easily seen through. Of the Italian "cabalettists" I need say nothing. The Sacred Harmonic is in a fix for novelty; and, as the managing committee are notorious for knowing very little about music, it is not surprising that, in the absence of a Mendelssohn, they should be ready and willing to prostrate themselves before a Costa. It is all one to them, so that the speculation holds out the chance of a fair per centage. They angled, it is true, for Mr. Leslie, but Immanuel swam in too deep waters for them, and would not bite. They tried M. Griesbach, and made him pay for the failure due to their own want of penetration. They gave imperfect performances of Israel in Egypt and St. Paul, and were astonished that these were "no go." But now, at last, they have stumbled on a remedy. Mr. Mason, of Birmingham, has presented them with a nostrum, a panacea; and Eli is to set them on their feet again—Eli, with its "sound science and choice finish," to use the affected phraseology of your contemporary, that great musical authority at the Athenæum Club, the Athenæum. "Eli! Eli! Eli!" will be the cry for some time hence, until the bubble shall have burst, and the emptiness be made apparent.

The uncompromising votaries of Mr. Costa-who, in their blind idolatry, remind me, more than of anything else, of the besotted pilgrims that cast themselves under the wheels of Juggernaut are blowing the Eli mania into fever-heat throughout the provinces. The scheme is to plant it in all the musical festivals, as a triennial feature. Eli, Elijah, The Messiah-Elijah, Eli, The Messiah-The Messiah, Elijah, Eli-will then be the order of the day, and the Inverness Courier, and its bon-mot, at a discount.* For my part I thought the articles in the London papers-the Herald, Post, and Chronicle-the Daily News, Spectator, John Bull, and Illustrated London News (four in one, a literary Cerberus, with a head too many)-sufficiently preposterous; but the Brummagem sheets beat them hollow. I have an article before me-in Aris's Gazette-which has been variously attributed to Mr. Hogarth, Mr. J. A. Baker, Mr. Alphonso Matthey, and Mr. Stimpson, organist of the Town Hall, here-an article that, for extravagant idolatry, fairly sends into shade all the dedications ever addressed by needy poets, philosophers, and historians, to their wealthy and distinguished patrons. The design of the writer who had already apostrophised Eli and Mr. Costa in two glowing and magniloquent columns, during festival week-is (to use his own term):

"to review the oratorio as a whole-its design, its scope, its construction, its effect-and so far as lies in our power, to determine the reflect imperishable glory upon the names of the great masters." place it is likely to assume amongst those sublime compositions which

What place that may be it is neither my "design" nor

* Eli is Elijah without the jah (spirit).

my scope" to discuss at present. Let Mr. Stimpson, however, be heard still further:

"Mr. Costa has now for many years occupied the position in the English musical world for which his character and acquirements have especially fitted him. No one has a closer familiarity with the technicalities of musical construction-no one better understands the means of giving effect to even the most difficult composition; while as a conductor he is unapproached by living man in his power over the whole range of music, from the simple aria to the oratorio. A high-minded, accomplished gentleman, imbued with the truest feeling of an artistpoet, it was no wonder that he should enrol himself among the candidates for the honours of the Epic, and aim at standing side by side with those sons of genius who adorn in music the places filled in literature by Shakspere, Milton, and Göthe."

Neither Shakspere nor Goethe ever wrote an "epic;" but that is not to the purpose at present. We are to understand, from the above most bathetic piece of prose, that Mr. Costa, being a high-minded gentleman, was resolved to have a shy at "the epic," and to stand side by side with Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (are these the three?—I am open to correction), and, by inference, that-Eli being "the epic"there he stands already. Bravo Mr. Stimpson! You stick at nothing to enforce your argument. I esteem and hail you as an excellent and zealous disciple, and one well acquainted with the soft (soap) swell of flattery. It is clear you did not commence the overture to Eli, nor send Samuel to sleep, for nothing. But, not to arrest the strain of adulation, let further truths be revealed. Mr. Stimpson now pulls out all the stops; the big pedal pipes begin to boom; and the song of praise, which magnifies Eli to the skies, is loud and sonorous as the Hallelujah"-only somewhat turgid and inflated::

"The great charm of Eli consists in the fact that it is not merely Art expressed in a new form, but that it is something new in Art. There is no slavish adherence to a school or a style; it is characterised by originality not only of matter but of manner; and, so to speak, illustrates and enforces the eclectic principle of construction-namely, that of taking what is good from all available sources, adding to these constituents the power resident in original thought, and working them up into a grand composition differing widely from each predecessor, yet retaining the generic qualities on which the merit of each is based. Founded on Händelian strength, it combines much of the picturesque sublimity of Beethoven with the delicious harmony of Mozart and the graceful beauty of Mendelssohn. That the work does all this without falling into the error of direct imitation, arises from the earnest study Costa has bestowed on the principles animating the great composers, as also from the particular school in which he imbibed the first principles of his art. He has thus learned how to use the vast material at his command-how to unite the functions of the architect and builder, and to crown his edifice with the grace only to be applied by the hand of the artist."

Had I the eloquence of Thersites, or the wisdom of Midas, I should hardly be able to expound this unequalled apostrophe; and shall therefore leave it to the further consideration of those intimately conversant (which I cannot pretend to be-not knowing even what it means) with "the eclectic principle of construction," described by Mr. Stimpson Baker with such "picturesque sublimity."

But, to speak earnestly, what I have quoted, being simply bombast, that can do no harm to any earthly thing unless it be the oratorio of Eli-would hardly have challenged examination. No one out of Warwickshire and the surrounding counties ever sees, much less reads, the Gazette of worthy Mr. Aris; and the occasion was not an opportune one to endeavour to widen its circulation. What follows, however, is as sad" as the matter I have quoted is "silly" (Athenæum "ante"). It is neither more nor less than an impeachment of the integrity of every amateur and every

Critic who did not rise from the performance of Eli with the Conviction that he had listened to a faultless and magnificent chef-d'œuvre. At least, under correction, I can attach no other meaning to the passage describing what Mr. Hogarth Matthey presumes to have ensued on the facts being made public that Mr. Costa was engaged in the composition of a sacred oratorio. Judge for yourself, Mr. Editor:

"The bare announcement of his intention proved the nucleus of a storm; critics small and great, professional and amateur, denounced the effort, and prophesied failure-more than one secretly hoping that the prophesy might prove true. Some declared that Opera would overpower Oratorio-others, that an Italian could never emulate or rival a German-others, that the Composer would be lost in the Conductoras though a good reader must necessarily be a bad writer, as though he who above others understands harmony, could not express the harmony pervading his own soul! Thus it must ever be-the aspirant to the chaplet of Excellence shall meet the scowl of Ignorance, and his song of triumph be marred by the discord of Mediocrity-none the less hateful because of a consistent theme and an accordant phrase. But the story of Balaam has its modern counterpart-and more than one who came to curse remained to bless; the clear full voice of the Master overpowered the shrill cries of envy and objection; and, in our noble Hall, Costa obtained the best reward in the spontaneous applause of an assembly of generous Englishmen. All honour, therefore, to the Composer who dared to meet his enemies face to face, and honour to those who had confidence in the abilities of the Master, and feared not to incur the risk of placing his work before the tribunal of general and special criticism."

The italics are mine. Not content, you see, with reiterating the extravagant encomiums of his former article* (Aris's Gazette-Monday, Sept. 3), Mr. Stimpson goes further, and even insinuates that those who did not chime in with his own notions of Mr. Costa's unheard-of qualities, were influenced in advance by motives anything but creditable to them as lovers of music, and wholly discreditable to them as gentlemen and men of integrity. So that the honour is assailed of every reporter for the press, who in the conscientious discharge of his duty found it necessary to consider the oratorio of Eli from the point of view of criticism. Every unfavourable opinion, no matter

* In which occurs the following example of grandiloquent puff:"On Wednesday morning the great event of the Festival took place, and by the production of Eli raised Costa to the highest position possible in the musical world. The oratorio is the grandest of all compositions, and requires genius of the highest order to produce a work which shall live when its author has long ceased to be; and it is no slight praise to say the name of Costa, even if he were no more, will by this work become a household word in the mouths of generations

to come.

It has been said Eli is "operatic,"-that a licence in the use of various instruments not hitherto recognised in the oratorio school has been taken which ought to be condemned. To these objections we would reply by enquiring whether Händel in his Judas Maccabæus, and in the oratorio Samson, which was performed at our last Festival, did not employ, and with great success, every known instrument? Whether by a strong individuality of character, by which, without words, every the songs and choruses of the Philistines and Hebrews are not marked musician would distinguish them? Has not Mendelssohn, in his Elijah, strongly marked, even in his accompaniments, the distinction between the worshippers of Baal and the God of the Hebrews? It is, then, simply absurd to say, because Costa has made use of an instrument of percussion to imitate the tabor of the Philistines-an instrument well known to the ancient Egyptians, and therefore no stranger in the land of Israel-he is "operatic;" if he has done more than Mendelssohn and more than Händel, we maintain he has used-and how effectively every one in the Hall on Wednesday can say-every modern and appropriate appliance, and has produced effects which none but a narrow and prejudiced mind cannot appreciate. The simple fact is this, Eli is a great and a grand work of Art, and if it is not at once a favourite with hension; and Costa may rest satisfied that, as was the case with many musicians and amateurs, it is because it is too lofty for their compreof the latter compositions of the giant mind of Beethoven, as years roll on his fame will only become more and more established.”

in what terms expressed, must, primâ facie, have proceeded either from malevolence or ignorance! Now, with deference, these are hard terms to use, even by insinuation, much less so directly in the sense of the argumentum ad hominem as by the anonymous writer-Mr. Stimpson, Mr. Hogarth,* or whoever he may be-in Aris's Birmingham Gazette. About the question of incompetence I have nothing to urge; that rests between the critics of the press and their employers; and, moreover, the writer in Aris himself is by no means exempt from the retort, "tu quoque," since his style of criticism betrays all the marks of staggering amateurship. The insinuation of dishonesty and malice prepense, however, is very serious, and, but for it, I should, in all probability, have refrained from addressing you. My first impression after reading the article was one of surprise at the indiscretion (to use no stronger term) of the writer. What-I demanded-can have induced this ardent and fierce worshipper to advocate the cause of his idol in a manner so precisely calculated to injure it? Surprise, however, on second thoughts, gave way to a feeling of indignation at the insult levelled, with such utter wantonness, against those who, not believing Eli a masterpiece, or anything like a masterpiece, had the honesty and the courage to give expression to their opinon. If Eli is to be thus defended it must stand greatly in need of apology. Of all men living, Mr. Costa has least cause to complain of the press in this country. The press, indeed, has rendered him more, far more, than justice. At any rate, I think so; and I know many of the same mind. I hope and believe he has too much good sense to applaud this mode of trumpeting his fame.

The grand coup, however, has yet to be struck. Birmingham is not London; and on a new "triumph" in the Strand everything depends. The Sacred Harmonic Society cannot afford to neglect such an opportunity of bringing fresh grist to their mill, and will act accordingly. Eli is destined, at all risks, to go hand in hand with the Messiah, Elijah, and the Creation. What Händel's Israel and Mendelssohn's Paul have been hitherto unable to achieve, viz. :—a permanent standing among the popularly attractive oratorios, Eli is to accomplish forthwith. The consummation must be brought about, or no end of worthy people will be grievously disappointed. I, for one, have nothing to object, providing always that the committee act for the real benefit of the society in whose name and for whose advantage they are presumed to govern, which, however, in the present case, although Eli" not merely expresses art in a new form, but is something new in art," is possibly open to question. AN ENGLISH MUSICIAN.

Birmingham, Clarendon Hotel, Sept. 15.

*We can answer for Mr. Hogarth. He did not write the article.D. R.

MEYERBEER has left Spa for Paris, where he is expected to remain until the end of the present month.

SIGNOR SIVORI has returned from Baden-Baden to Pariswhether to play or not remains to be seen.

M. JULLIEN, after his recent very successful tour in the provinces, has retired to his estate in Belgium. He returns to London in October, in time to prepare for the winter concerts at the Royal Italian Opera.

SIGNOR BRICCIALDI, the flautist, has produced an opera at the Carcano, Milan, called Eleonorà di Toledo. The composer himself had undertaken the direction of the theatre, which closed after the second performance.

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE,

PRINCIPAL AND DEPUTY.

To the Editor of the Musical World. SIR,—It is not long since you stated that the humblest professional man's grievance would ever find a ready exposure in the columns of the Musical World, and as you held up to reprobation the injustice of a principal receiving money for the duties he did not perform, and paying his deputy a starvation amount, we hope that, in a case of enforced per centage, like our own, you will, humble though we be, extend to us the favour of a space in the World, and assist us by some of those remarks with which you so ably castigate petty tyranny and the wrong-doer.

Several of us have been for the last sixteen or eighteen weeks engaged as a stage band at the Princess's Theatre for the Shaksperian revival of Henry VIII., and, as the theatre closed last night, so our labours came to a termination. About a week previous to this event, however, it had been kindly intimated to us, "that the leader, Mr. Isaacson, would like, from the stage-band, a little present of some kind in the shape of a silver snuff-box or a ring, as a kind of memento of the success of Henry VIII." This might be all very well if we had been allowed to choose either the amount of subscription, or the shape those subscriptions should assume. But no; we were told a night's pay was to be devoted to this object, and, as the subscription list did not fill very rapidly after our performance was over, we were detained for our money at a public-house from nine until nearly twelve o'clock, and threatened, if we did not subscribe to this testimonial, we need not apply again for an engagement. very high position in the musical world, but we are men having wives, Now, sir, what we complain of is this: we are not men occupying a families, and such contingencies to provide for; and we have also a strong suspicion that Mr. Charles Kean would not tolerate Mr. Isaacson or Mr. Anybody else exacting a per centage from men in our position. This proceeding was rendered still more repulsive by Mr. Isaacson himself coming into the room where we were assembled, and (not experiencing such a result as he expected from the deprivation of our families of the amount of one night's salary) commencing an abuse of the defaulters that would have done credit to any indweller of St. Giles; and all, forsooth, because he was not sufficiently "conciliated by presents," either at the expense of our wives and families on the one hand, or that of Mr. Charles Kean on the other.

Hoping you will consider our case of sufficient importance to act as a warning to any poor members of the profession who may have to apply for an engagement in the stage band under such directors as look entirely to their own creature comforts, and never cast a thought on the wants and requirements of their less fortunate brethren, Sept. 15. I remain, yours, P.S.-I enclose my card.

WEBER'S DERNIÈRE PENSÉE.

PICCOLO.

To the Editor of the Musical World. SIR,-Apropos of the letter by Reissiger, which you reprint from the Niederrheinische Musik-Zeitung, referring to the (so-called) "Weber's Dernière Pensée," in which he avows it to be his, and not Weber's, adding, “I never attached any value to the trifle;" I would beg to ask some of your readers, better versed in musical chronology than I am, in what year the Beatrice di Tenda of Bellini was written-as the subject of the waltz in question (about the authorship of which there has been such a fuss made for years past) bears a very striking resem blance to a melody in that opera. It would be satisfactory to know who is really to have the honour of the "Dernière Pensée" in the matter. Herr Reissiger says he wrote his waltz in 1822, or perhaps in 1821.-I am, sir, yours very truly,

New Cross, Sept. 15th.

JOSEPH R. W. HARDING. [Beatrice di Tenda was first produced at Venice in 1835-6, consequently many years after Reissiger's waltz.-ED. M. W.]

THE BEALE TOURS have terminated. Mad. Bosio has gone to Paris, and Sig. Tamberlik to Brussels-"They two," as well as Cerrito, Mdlle. Marai, Lablache, Tagliafico, &c., are bound for St. Petersburgh, via Warsaw, not Cronstadt. We hope they may have a jovial season.

BEETHOVEN AND HIS THREE STYLES.

BY M. W. DE LENZ.

(From the French of Hector Berlioz)

HERE is a book full of interest for the musician. It is written under the influence of an admiring passion, which its subject explains and justifies; but the author, nevertheless, preserves his liberty of thought-very rare among critics-which permits him to control his admiration, to blame at times, and to recognize the spots upon the sun.

M. de Lenz is a Russian, as is also M. Oulibicheff, the author of the biography of Mozart. Let us remark, en passant, that among the serious works of musical criticism published within the last six years, two have come to us from Russia.

I shall have much to praise in the work of M. de Lenz; therefore I would first of all consider the reproaches which he seems to have incurred in the preparation of his book. The first bears upon the manifold German quotations which bristle in the text. Why not translate the fragments into French, since all the rest is in the French language? M. de Lenz, as a Russian, must necessarily speak a great number of languages, known and unknown; he probably said to himself, "Who does not speak German ?" as the banker who remarked, "Who has not a million ?" Alas, we Frenchmen do not speak German; we have much difficulty, and rarely succeed, in mastering our own language. Therefore, it is very unpleasant to us to peruse with a feverish interest the pages of a book, and to fall at every moment into such pitfalls as this: "Beethoven, addressing Rellstab, said, "Opera, wie Don Juan und Figaro, Konnte ich nicht Componirem. Dagegen habe ich etnen Widerwillen." Very good! But, after all, what did Beethoven say? I should like to know. This is very annoying. And this quotation is even ill-selected, since the author, for once, gives himself the trouble to translate it, which he by no means does, for a thousand other words, phrases, narratives, and documents, of which it is, doubtless, important for the reader to know the meaning. I like quite as well the words of Shakspere, in Henry IV., where, instead of a reply of a Welch woman to her husband, an Englishman, these words are substituted in a parenthesis: "(Glendower speaks to her in Welch, and she answers him in the same.)"

My second reproach has reference to an opinion promulgated by the author with regard to Mendelssohn; an opinion already advanced by other critics, the motives of which I beg the permission of M. de Lenz to argue with him.

He says, "We cannot speak of modern music without mentioning Mendelssohn Bartholdy. We share in the respect which a mind of his stamp demands; but we believe that the Hebrew element, with which the mind of Mendelssohn is imbued, will prevent his music from becoming the acquisition of the whole world, without distinction of time or place.'

Is there not a little of prejudice in this manner of appreciating this great composer? and would M. de Lenz have written these lines had he been ignorant of the descent of Paul and Elijah from the celebrated Israelite, Moses Mendelssohn? I hardly

think it.

"The harmony of the synagogue," says he again, "is a type easily to be traced in the music of Mendelssohn." Now, it is difficult to conceive how the psalmody of the synagogue could have acted upon the music of Felix Mendelssohn; for he never professed the Jewish religion. We all know, on the contrary, that he was a Lutheran, and a fervid and convinced Lutheran. Moreover, what music is there which can ever become "the acquisition of the whole world, without distinction of time or place?" None, assuredly. The works of the great German masters, such as Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven-who all belonged to the Catholic religion, that is to say, the universal religion-admirable, beautiful, living, sound, and powerful, as they are, will never, any sooner than those of others, attain to

this end.

Setting aside the question of Judaism, which seems to be broached unfittingly, the musical stamp of Felix Mendelssohn, the nature of his mind, the filial love for Händel and Bach, the education he had received from Zelter, his rather exclusive sym

pathies for German life and the German home, his exquisite sentimentality, his tendency to shut himself up within the circle of ideas of a given city and public, are all apprehended by M. de Lenz with much penetration and shrewdness. From the comparison which, in the same chapter, he establishes between Weber, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven, he also draws conclusions which seem to me to be just and to the point. He ventures also to make very sensible remarks upon the fugue and the fugued style, and their real importance; on the use made of them by the great masters; and on the ridiculous use made of them by those musicians of whom this style is the constant preoccupation. He quotes, to support his theory, the remarks of a consummate contrapuntist, who had passed his life in the fugue, and who might have found more than one good reason for discovering therein the sole means of salvation in music, but who loved truth better. He says, "It is a too honourable exception of the exclusive ideas of art, that we should do the reader" (who understands German) "the service to reproduce these remarks for him. We read in an article by M. Fuchs of St. Petersburg; 'Die Fuge, ails ein für sich abgeschlossenes Music-stück,' etc., etc." (He speaks Welch.) Well, look ye! I would give much to know at once what M. Fuchs has written about this, and I am doomed to disappointment.

After having established very ingenious comparisons between Beethoven and the great German masters, his predecessor and contemporaries, M. de Lenz gives himself up to the study of the character of his hero, to the analysis of his works, and, finally, to the appreciation of the distinctive qualities of the three styles in which Beethoven wrote.

This task was difficult; and I cannot but praise the manner in which the author has accomplished it. It is impossible to enter more fully into the spirit of Beethoven's marvellous musical poems; to more completely embrace the whole and the details; to follow with more vigour the impetuous eagle flights; to see more clearly when he soars aloft, or sinks earthward; and to express all with more frankness. In my opinion, M. de Lenz has, in this respect, a double advantage over M. Oulibicheff. He renders full justice to Mozart. M. Oulibicheff is far from doing the same to Beethoven. M. de Lenz acknowledges, without hesitation, that divers pieces of Beethoven's composition-such as the overture to the Ruins of Athens, and certain portions of his piano sonatas-are feeble and little worthy of him; that other compositions, little known, in fact, are absolutely devoid of ideas, and that two or three are monstrous logogriphs. On the contrary, M. Oulibicheff admires all in Mozart. And heaven knows if the glory of the author of Don Juan would have suffered by the destruction of many of the compositions of his youth, which it was an act of impiety to have published! M. Oulibicheff would clear all away from around Mozart; he seems to suffer with impatience any talk about other masters. M. de Lenz is filled with a true enthusiasm for all fine manifestations of the art; and his passion for Beethoven, though it be not a blind one, is, perhaps, more profound and more living than that of his rival for Mozart.

His indefatigable researches during a period of twenty years, throughout all Europe, have caused him to acquire many curious notions, not generally known, of Beethoven and his works. Several of the anecdotes which he relates have this importance: that they tend to explain the musical anomalies scattered throughout the productions of the great composer, to account for which all attempts have hitherto been fruitless.

Beethoven, we know, professed a robust admiration for those grim-visaged masters, mentioned by M. de Lenz, who made, in music, an exclusive use of that "purely rational element of human thought, which it is impossible to substitute for grace." Do we know the tendency and extent of his admiration? I doubt it. It recalls slightly to my sense the taste of those rich gastronomists, who, tired of their Lucullian banquets, were pleased, at times, to break their fast with a red-herring and a buck-wheat cake.

M. de Lenz relates that Beethoven, walking one day with his friend Schindler, said to him, "I have just found two themes for an overture. The one may be treated in my own style; the