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134 understanding ? The pedantic Berlin of 1852 had no answer to this question. Cornelius felt himself irresistibly attracted to the seat of the modern muses. To Weimar he went on a visit of a few days, as he thought ; but the days became weeks, the weeks months, the months years. Liszt received him well, but severely criticised his compositions. Under the magic personal influence of the great Abbe, under the power of the works of Wagner and Berlioz, which were well produced on the small grand ducal stage of Weimar, the budding genius of Cornelius expanded with marvellous rapidity. It was the turning-point of his life ; his tongue was loosed ; he was himself at last — the poet, the musician — by the grace of God. All this time his outward circum- stances were still precarious enough ; but while he struggled for a modest living by literary labours for the press, by translations for Liszt and Berlioz, and by giving a few private lessons, the plans for the text of a comic opera, The Barber of Bagdad, the materials for which he found in the Arabian Nights, were completed, and on New Year's Eve of 1857 he gave the last touches to the score of the opera. Liszt was delighted with it, and forthwith began to superintend the rehearsals. On the 15th of Decem- ber 1858 The Barber saw for the first time the lights of the stage, among the hisses of an organised noisy clique. That their disgraceful demonstration was directed against Liszt was quite apparent : there was at that time in Weimar a cowardly opposition to the new school, which had not the courage to attack the powerful Abbe himself, and thought it could strike him a blow in this indirect way. Liszt threw away his baton, and resigned his position as conductor and director of the opera. Two days afterwards Cornelius received an ovation in the theatre on the occasion of a prologue, spoken on Beethoven's birthday, which he had written ; a torchlight procession took place in honour of Liszt, but it was too late, for the Abbe ceased to reside permanently in Weimar, and Cornelius went to Vienna, where he spent five years of hard work, disappointment, and even want. Here he composed many of his songs and choruses, and a second opera. The Cid, which, much inferior to Tie Barber, sur- vived only two performances several years later in Weimar. The only rays of hope and happiness in Vienna were the short visits to the city of Richard Wagner, of whom Cornelius had become an intimate friend. At last in 1864, at a time when Cornelius was reduced to absolute poverty, the friend in need came to the rescue. Wagner had prevailed upon his royal patron, Louis ii. of Bavaria, to offer Cornelius an appointment as professor of harmony at the Royal School of Music in Munich. Incredible as it may seem, the appointment was at first refused, be- cause Cornelius feared, as he said, to be absorbed like a drop of dew in the radiant sun Richard Wagner, and it required all the efforts of the latter to induce him to accept the king's liberal offer. In the spring of 1865 we find him hajipy and comfortable in Munich, absorbed, not by Wagner's light, but the love of a fair lady of Mayence, whom he led to the altar in 1867. During all this time, and for several years longer, his activity was prodigious ; his pro- fessional duties occupied most of his time, yet he managed to begin a new opera, Gunloed, composed a large number of vocal works, and wrote aesthetic essays on works of Wagner, Berlioz, etc. His writings were in great request by the German editors, and will, it is to be hoped, some day be collected, for they will form a most interesting volume. In October 1874 Cornelius, with his young family, in the best of humours, full of plans and energy, though slightly indisposed, went to Mayence, his native town, for a change of air. Here, on the 26th of October, he breathed his last. In him the artist and the man were irreproachable and equally lovable. His youthful freshness and warm enthusiasm, enhanced by a touch of delightful hvmiour, enabled him to forget the stern troubles of daily life, and to pursue with undeviating energy the ideal aims of his noble nature in their undimmed purity. Emil Clauss. Munich, Sepleiukr iSSS. MUSICAL EDUCATION. The substance of a Paper read before the Edinhtrgh Society of Ahisicia7is, April 2st, iS MUSICAL education assumes several forms. The oldest and yet the commonest is pro- bably that of master and pupil, that close and sympathetic relationship by which the secrets of the divine art are communicated from mind to mind, and in which example and precept, theory and practice, are or should be most closely blended. Of a hoary antiquity also is the School of Music,