s received with thunders of welcome, which were again and
again reiterated, and at the close of the performance he could hardly
escape for the eager throng who wished to press his hand. Spohr died on
October 22, 1859, after a few days' illness, and in his death Germany at
least recognized the loss of one of its most accomplished and versatile
if not greatest composers.

VI.

Dr. Ludwig Spohr's fame as a composer has far overshadowed his
reputation as a violin virtuoso, but the most capable musical critics
unite in the opinion that that rare quality, which we denominate genius,
was principally shown in his wonderful power as a player, and his works
written for the violin. Spohr was a man of immense self-assertion, and
believed in the greatness of his own musical genius as a composer in the
higher domain of his art. His "Autobiography," one of the most fresh,
racy, and interesting works of the kind ever written, is full of varied
illustrations of what Chorley stigmatizes his "bovine self-conceit." His
fecund production of symphony, oratorio, and opera, as well as of the
more elaborate forms of chamber music, for a period of forty years or
more, proves how deep was his conviction of his own powers. Indeed, he
half confesses himself that he is only willing to be rated a little
less than Beethoven. Spohr was singularly meager, for the most part, in
musical ideas and freshness of melody, but he was a profound master of
the orchestra; and in that variety and richness of resources which
give to tone-creations the splendor of color, which is one of the great
charms of instrumental music, Spohr is inferior only to Wagner among
modern symphonists. Spohr's more pretentious works are a singular union
of meagerness of idea with the most polished richness of manner; but, in
imagination and thought, he is far the inferior of those whose knowledge
of treating the orchestra and contrapuntal skill could not compare with
his. There are more vigor and originality in one of Schubert's greater
symphonies than in all the multitudinous works of the same class ever
written by Spohr. In Spohr's compositions for the violin as a solo
instrument, however, he stands unrivaled, for here his true _genre_ as a
man of creative genius stamps itself unmistakably.

Before the coming of Spohr violin music had been illustrated by a
succession of virtuosos, French and Italian, who, though melodiously
charming, planned in their works and execution to exhibi