Beethoven’s compositions, 138 in number, comprise all the forms of vocal and instrumental music, from the sonata to the symphony--from the simple song to the opera and oratorio. In each of these forms he displayed the depth of his feeling, the power of his genius; in some of them he reached a greatness never approached by his predecessors or followers. His pianoforte sonatas have brought the technical resources of that instrument to a perfection previously unknown, but they at the same time embody an infinite variety and depth of emotion. His nine symphonies show a continuous climax of development, ascending from the simplest forms of Haydn and Mozart to the colossal dimensions of the choral symphony, which almost seems to pass the possibilities of artistic expansion, and the subject of which is humanity itself with its sufferings and ideals. His dramatic works, the opera _Fidelio_, and the overtures to _Egmont_ and _Coriolanus_--display depth of pathos and force of dramatic characterisation. Even his smallest songs and pianoforte pieces reflect a heart full of love, and a mind bent on thought of eternal things (_Ency. Brit._, 9th edition). Six years after the death of Mozart, but while Haydn and Beethoven were still living, the former a man of sixty-five and the latter twenty-seven (the year when first the shadow that was to eclipse his life fell over him), there was born in Vienna a little lad called Franz Peter Schubert, son of a master at Leopoldstadt. His beautiful voice and perfect ear soon procured him a place among the choristers in the Imperial chapel. No one seems to have taught him composition, but his genius was of the kind that will out, and as other lads with the fervour of the writer in their blood spoil ink and paper from an absurdly early age, so young Franz spent all his spare time composing. When he was eighteen he composed in one year two symphonies, five operas, and one hundred and thirty-seven songs, besides many other things of less importance! He was at this time helping to teach in the same school as his father and all this was done in his unoccupied moments. Wishing to devote himself still more to the art which absorbed him, he applied for a position as teacher in a Government music school, but was told he was “imperfectly qualified!”