belongs nevertheless to the South German school of organists, so closely allied to the Italian. Upon Bach no deeply penetrating influence was ever exercised by this school, whereas Handel's strong affinity for it cannot possibly be denied. He has himself referred to Johann Krüger's piano music as furnishing him a superior model, and he held in honor all his life that artist's "Anmuthige Clavier-Uebung," published in 1699. Handel now developed with wonderful rapidity into a performer of surpassing excellence, his favorite instrument being the organ, as adapting itself better than the clavier to his love for the grand and majestic. He was fond of improvising and especially great in that direction, his inspiration being perhaps more direct than that of Bach, who, in deed, was also powerful in extemporization, but whose profound imagination was called into play less easily. It is worthy of note in regard to Handel, that though he played the organ constantly up to extreme old age, no veritable organ-compositions by him are extant. Those which now pass for such were in part originally intended for the clavier, or, when really for the organ, as in the case of his numerous organ concertos, the instrument thus designated was nothing more than a finer sort of clavier. The first journey of any consequence undertaken by Handel was directed to the electoral court in Berlin and, as the visit was made in the company of his father, it could not have been later than 1696, the death of Handel senior having occurred on the 11th of February, 1697. At that time, thanks to the refined cultivation of the electress Sophie Charlotte, the Berlin Court was justly regarded as a fostering home of the arts and sciences. In music, the Italians took the lead. Here Handel first met Giovanni Bononcini and Atilio Ariosti, later his rivals in England. The impression produced at Court by the youth's playing, his maturity of mind and the skill he displayed in the execution of difficult tasks, was so strong, that elector Frederick offered to defray the expenses of his musical education in Italy. Fortunately for the boy, his father refused this offer, the acceptance of which would have had the effect of attaching Handel permanently to the imperial court, where, from the beginning of the reign of Friedrich Wilhelm I. (1713) all arts declined. Meantime the idea of a legal education had not been entirely given up, and the son was dutiful enough to respect this cherished project of his father, even after the latter's death, although he could scarcely have felt the slightest inward doubt as to his true vocation in life. After completing his course at the gymnasium, he studied at the university in Halle during the years 1702 and 1703. At the same time he filled the position of organist at the Calvanistic Cathedral in the Moritzburg, and in that capacity received a salary of about fifty dollars a year. [Illustration: PUBLIC SQUARE IN HALLE, CONTAINING HANDEL'S MONUMENT.]