the seventh symphony, for the most part a sketch, but so full of clues that it would not be difficult to complete it according to the original intention. It looks as if the composer had some other work upon his mind at the same time, perhaps the Alfonso and Estrella presently to be mentioned, and could not for the moment wait to fill out all parts of the score, but made very complete indications so as to be sure of recovering his former thoughts on returning to it. Among this year's songs are some that rank very high, as the two Suleikas and the "Geheimes" to Goethe's words, the "Lob der Thränen" and "Sey mir gegrüsst." All these are outdone, however, by the "Frühlingsglaube," written in 1822, to Uhland's words, a song which for artistic perfection is absolutely unsurpassed. The rapid development of Schubert's maturity in 1822 is exhibited in the two movements of his eighth symphony in B-minor, now commonly called the Unfinished Symphony. It was written for the Musikverein at Gratz, which had lately elected him an honorary member. Why it was presented to the society while still half-finished does not clearly appear. The first two movements were completed and the scherzo partly sketched. It is now more often played and better known than any of his other symphonies except the great tenth, in C major, presently to be mentioned. There is greater conciseness of expression, and in the opinion of some critics, even more grandeur and beauty in the Unfinished Symphony than in the Tenth. Here for the first time in an orchestral work Schubert appears as a completely independent master. In his earlier symphonies, as in Beethoven's first and second, one always feels the dominant influence of Haydn and Mozart. In his sixth symphony, composed in 1817, we begin to see the influence of Beethoven, for whom he was already coming to feel the love and adoration that never ceased to occupy his mind even upon his death-bed. In the Unfinished Symphony he takes a new departure, as Beethoven did in his third or Eroica; but this new departure, while it profits by Beethoven, is peculiarly Schubertian; the composer's individuality is as completely expressed in it as in his songs. We have already had occasion to mention operas or operettas in the lists of our composer's works from year to year. His insatiable yearning to express himself in music was excited whenever he happened to come across an available dramatic poem, good or bad, and sometimes he was fain to content himself with a wretched libretto. Hitherto his music for the stage had been of much less importance than his other compositions, though it hardly need be said that it abounded in beautiful and interesting conceptions. But the increase of maturity just noticed in his orchestral music was also shown in the production of his first grand opera, "Alfonso and Estrella," in 1822, followed by his second and last such work, "Fierabras," in 1823.