arewell. The incidents of the crucifixion are avoided,
as the work is intended only to illustrate the human career of Jesus. The
rest of the story is told in narrative form; an unaccompanied quartet
("Yea, though I walk") and a powerful, but gloomy chorus, describing
Christ's sufferings ("Men and Brethren"), bring us to the sepulchre. The
scene opens with the plaint of Mary Magdalene, "Where have they laid
him?" and the response of the Angel, who tells her Christ has risen,
which is followed by a six-part unaccompanied chorus ("The Lord is
risen"). A short tenor solo ("If ye be risen with Christ") leads directly
to the final chorus ("Him hath God exalted"), which is worked up in fugal
form with much spirit.

VERDI.

Giuseppe Verdi, the greatest of living Italian opera composers, was born
at Roncale, Oct. 9, 1813. Like many another musician, he sprang from
humble and rude beginnings, his parents having kept a small inn and
notion store in the little Italian village. His musical talent displayed
itself very early. In his tenth year he was appointed organist in the
place of Baistrocchi, the master with whom he had been studying at
Busseto. Through the generosity of his patron, M. Barezzi, he was sent to
Milan, where he was refused admission to the Conservatory, on the ground
that he showed "no special aptitude for music!" Nothing daunted, the
young composer, acting on the suggestions of the conductor of La Scala,
studied composition and orchestration with M. Lavigne, himself a composer
of no mean ability. In 1833 Verdi returned to Busseto, and five years
later went back to Milan, where he began his wonderfully successful
career as an operatic composer. His first opera, "Oberto Conte di S.
Bonifacio," appeared in 1839, and was followed by a series of operatic
works that have achieved world-wide success and placed their composer at
the head of all contemporary Italian writers. The most important of them
are: "Nabucco" (1842); "I Lombardi" (1843); "Ernani" (1844); "Attila"
(1846); "Macbeth" (1847); "I Masnadieri" (1847); "Luisa Miller" (1849);
"Rigoletto" (1851); "Il Trovatore" (1853); "La Traviata" (1853); "The
Sicilian Vespers" (1855); "The Masked Ball" (1857); "The Force of
Destiny" (1862); "Don Carlos" (1867); "Aida" (1871). In the last-named
opera, Verdi departs from the purely Italian school of operatic writing
and shows the unmistakable signs of Wagner's influence upon him. Now,