That J. Strauss, the younger, wrote four hundred and forty pieces of dance music has already been stated. The complete list of his operettas is as follows: _Indigo_, 1871; _The Carnival in Rome_, 1873; _The Bat_, 1874; _Cagliostro_, 1875; _Prince Methusalem_, 1877; _Blind Man's Buff_, 1878; _The Queen's Lace Handkerchief_, 1880; _The Merry War_, 1881; _A Night in Venice_, 1883; _The Gypsy Baron_, 1885; _Simplicius_, 1887. In my opinion there is in these operettas more good music than in the operettas of any other composer, but Strauss has been less fortunate in his librettists than Offenbach and Sullivan, and this has not only diminished the present popularity of his works in some countries, but will prevent them from enjoying as long a life as their truly prodigal wealth of new and charming melodies would otherwise entitle them to. Moreover, few things are so short-lived as operettas, and it is therefore probable that, to the next generation, Strauss will be chiefly known as the "Waltz King," after all, partly by the pieces which he wrote directly for the dance hall, and partly by those which are culled from his dramatic works. He is still at work, with greater ambition than ever, for his latest opus is a grand opera, _Ritter Pásmán_, which had its first performance at the Imperial Opera at Vienna on January 1, 1892. It is modelled partly on Wagner's _Meistersinger_, and the _Neue Zeitschrift für Musik_ finds in it the true type of the comic opera of the future, "combining the _esprit_ and grace of French opéra comique with German depth of sentiment, and that spontaneous melodiousness which is an Austrian specialty--that flow of fresh and natural melody which we find in Schubert and Haydn." Dr. Hanslick recommends the score as a model to students of instrumentation. [Illustration: Henry T. Finck] [Illustration: JOHANN STRAUSS (Junior) LEADING ORCHESTRA IN 1853. From lithograph published at the time.] * * * * *