through picturesque rubbish often repay the true musician for what he
has undergone.

So far this composer 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