ing of the
wedding day, and amid the sound of bells heard in the distance the Prince
relates to Elsie the story of Charlemagne and Fastrada, at the close of
which the happy pair join in an exultant duet. The cantata ends with a
choral epilogue, worked up to a fine fugal climax in which Elsie's "deed
divine" is compared to the mountain brook flowing down from "the cool
hills" to bless "the broad and arid plain."

WAGNER.

Richard Wagner, who has been sometimes ironically called the musician of
the future, and whose music has been relegated to posterity by a
considerable number of his contemporaries, was born at Leipsic, May 22,
1813. After his preliminary studies in Dresden and Leipsic, he took his
first lessons in music from Cantor Weinlig. In 1836 he was appointed
musical director in the theatre at Magdeburg, and later occupied the same
position at Koenigsberg. Thence he went to Riga, where he began his opera
"Rienzi." He then went to Paris by sea, was nearly shipwrecked on his way
thither, and landed without money or friends. After two years of hard
struggling he returned to Germany. His shipwreck and forlorn condition
suggested the theme of "The Flying Dutchman," and while on his way to
Dresden he passed near the castle of Wartburg, in the valley of
Thuringia, whose legends inspired his well-known opera of "Tannhaeuser."
He next removed to Zurich, and about this time appeared "Lohengrin," his
most popular opera. "Tristan and Isolde" was produced in 1856, and his
comic opera, "Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg," three years later. In 1864
he received the patronage of King Louis of Bavaria, which enabled him to
complete and perform his great work, "Der Ring der Nibelungen." He laid
the foundation of the new theatre at Baireuth in 1872, and in 1875 the
work was produced, and created a profound sensation all over the musical
world. "Parsifal," his last opera, was first performed in 1882. His works
have aroused great opposition, especially among conservative musicians,
for the reason that he has set at defiance the conventional operatic
forms, and in carrying out his theory of making the musical and dramatic
elements of equal importance, and employing the former as the language of
the latter in natural ways, has made musical declamation take the place
of set melody, and swept away the customary arias, duets, quartets, and
concerted numbers of the Italian school, to suit the dramatic