s the one in G minor, and the
"Jupiter" in C, there is a boldness and freedom of flight which
Beethoven scarcely surpassed. He was at his best as a composer of
operas. He was one of the fathers of the artistic song, with music for
every stanza differing according to the sentiment of the words; and
while the dramatic coloration is not forgotten in his operas, they are
a constant flow of charming, inexhaustible melody, which sings most
divinely. In short, taking his works through and through, Mozart was
what, in the words of Mr. Matthew Arnold, we might call the composer
of "sweetness and light." His music glows with the radiance of
immortal beauty.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXVII.

BEETHOVEN AND HIS WORKS.

The labors of Haydn and Mozart in the rich field of instrumental music
were followed immediately by those of Ludwig van Beethoven, who was
born at the little town of Bonn, on the Rhine, about twenty miles
above Cologne, in 1770. He died at Vienna, 1827. The years between
these dates were filled with labor and inspiration, beyond those of
any other master. Beethoven's place in music is at the head. Whether
he or Bach ought to be reckoned the very greatest of all the great
geniuses who have appeared in music, is a question which might be
discussed eternally without ever being settled. Considered merely as
an artist capable of transforming musical material in an endless
variety of ways, he would perhaps be placed somewhat lower than Bach;
but considered as a tone poet gifted with the faculty of making
hearers feel as he felt, and see as he saw (with the inner eyes of
tonal sense), no master ought to be placed above him. This is the
general opinion now, of all the world. Taine, the French critic, in
his work on art, names four great souls belonging to the highest order
of genius--Dante, Shakespeare, Michael Angelo and Beethoven. The
company is a good one, and Beethoven rightfully belongs in it. His
early life was wholly different from that of the gifted Mozart. He was
the son of a dissipated tenor singer, and his mother was rather an
incapable person. When the boy was about eleven years old he began to
play the viola in the orchestra. He was already a good pianist, and it
was said of him that he was able to play nearly the whole of the "Well
Tempered Clavier" by heart, and at the age of eleven and a half he was
left in charge during Neefe's absence, as deputy organist. His
improvisations had already attracted