and characteristic as
it is possible to conceive."

The sixth number is a recitative for tenor followed by a duet for alto
and tenor ("How blessed then are they who still on God are calling"). The
work closes with a repetition of the chorale, set to the last verse of
the hymn, sung without accompaniment. The cantata is colossal in its
proportions, and is characterized throughout by the stirring spirit and
bold vigorous feeling of the Reformation days whose memories it
celebrated.

[8] This assumption, repeated by others, grows out of the similarity of
sentiment in the third stanza to that of Luther's famous reply when
he was urged not to attend the Diet of Worms.

[9] There is yet a fourth rearrangement, which we may assign to 1730. The
assertion is no doubt well founded that in this year the celebration
of the Reformation Festival was considered of special importance, and
kept accordingly; and it is evident that the cantata "Ein' feste
Burg" must have been intended for some such extraordinary
solemnity.--_Spitta_, vol. ii. p. 470.

The Reformation Festival had no doubt a very distinct poetical
sentiment of its own; and when any special occasion took the
precedence, as in 1730 and 1739, the years of Jubilee, it would be
misleading to seek for any close connection between the sermon and
the cantata. Thus the cantata, "Ein' feste Burg," may very well have
been connected with the sermon in 1730; still, it is possible that it
was not written till 1739.--_Ibid._, vol. iii. p. 283.

[10] Salomo Franck, a poet of more than ordinary ability, was born at
Weimar, March 6, 1759. He published several volumes of sacred lyrics.

BALFE.

Michael William Balfe was born at Dublin, Ireland, May 15, 1808. Of all
the English opera-composers, his career was the most versatile, as his
success, for a time at least, was the most remarkable. At seven years of
age he scored a polacca of his own for a band. In his eighth year he
appeared as a violinist, and in his tenth was composing ballads. At
sixteen he was playing in the Drury Lane orchestra, and about this time
began taking lessons in composition. In 1825, aided by the generosity of
a patron, he went to Italy, where for three years he studied singing and
counterpoint. In his twentieth year he met Rossini, who offered him an
engagement as first barytone at the Italian opera in Pa