er has been essentially representative of melodramatic
music, with all the faults and virtues of such a style. In "Aida,"
his last work, the world remarked a striking change. The noble
orchestration, the power and beauty of the choruses, the sustained
dignity of treatment, the seriousness and pathos of the whole work,
reveal how deeply new purposes and methods have been fermenting in the
composer's development. Yet in the very prime of his powers, though
no longer young, his next work ought to settle the value of the hopes
raised by the last.

CHERUBINI AND HIS PREDECESSORS.

I.

In France, as in Italy, the regular musical drama was preceded by
mysteries, masks, and religious plays, which introduced short musical
parts, as also action, mechanical effects, and dancing. The ballet,
however, where dancing was the prominent feature, remained for a long
time the favorite amusement of the French court until the advent of Jean
Baptiste Lulli. The young Florentine, after having served in the king's
band, was promoted to be its chief, and the composer of the music of
the court ballets. Lulli, born in 1633, was bought of his parents
by Chevalier de Guise, and sent to Paris as a present to Mlle, de
Montpensier, the king's niece. His capricious mistress, after a year
or two, deposed the boy of fifteen from the position of page to that of
scullion; but Count Nogent, accidentally hearing him sing and struck by
his musical talent, influenced the princess to place him under the care
of good masters. Lulli made such rapid progress that he soon commenced
to compose music of a style superior to that before current in
divertissements of the French court.

The name of Philippe Quinault is closely associated with the musical
career of Lulli; for to the poet the musician was indebted for his best
librettos. Born at Paris in 1636, Quinault's genius for poetry displayed
itself at an early age. Before he was twenty he had written several
successful comedies. Though he produced many plays, both tragedies and
comedies, well known to readers of French poetry, his operatic poems are
those which have rendered his memory illustrious. He died on November
29,1688. It is said that during his last illness he was extremely
penitent on account of the voluptuous tendency of his works. All his
lyrical dramas are full of beauty, but "Atys," "Phaeton," "Isis," and
"Armide" have been ranked the highest. "Armide" was the last of the
poet's efforts, and