Although the present article is far from professing to present a complete account of all that Germany has accomplished in music, it may serve to show the many-sided character of musical culture in that land. Not one of the many branches of musical activity has failed to feel the influence of Germany, and in only a few branches does she hold any other than the leading position. In our own day her musical zeal remains unabated. The number of musical compositions and books published year by year in Germany is enormous, and the proportion of her young men who enter on the career of teacher or performer seems to be increasing rather than diminishing. While it is true that there are very few great composers now living in Germany, and that they are rivalled by the living composers of other nationalities, and even though in the latest music of over-cultivated Germany there is a want of freshness, naturalness and _naïveté_ that belong only to musical youth, yet there is no reason for supposing that any other nation will, in the near future, usurp Germany’s well-merited title of “laureate amongst all musical nations.” [Illustration: John K. Paine] [Illustration: Leo R. Lewis] [Illustration: JEAN BAPTISTE LULLY _Reproduction from the rare folio print engraved by Roullet, after Mignard._ ] [Illustration: [Fleuron]] JEAN BAPTISTE LULLY Lully is justly considered the founder of opera in France, although he was not the first to compose operas in the French language. Several of his biographers assure us that he was of noble birth, supporting their statements by the letters of naturalization granted him by Louis XIV., in December, 1661, in which the composer is called the son of Laurent Lully, a man of quality, and Catherine del Sarte. It is, however, more probable that he was the offspring of an obscure country miller who dwelt near Florence, as stated by Guichard in a celebrated memoir which he drew up at the time of his lawsuit for dissolution of partnership with Lully, who had co-operated with him in the management of the Opéra. By chance it came to pass that the Chevalier de Guise, when travelling in Italy, discovered young Baptiste Lully in Florence, his native place. The nobleman was impressed by the precocious intelligence that sparkled so brightly in the boy’s eyes. He who was destined to become the founder of lyric tragedy in France was singing popular songs, accompanying himself upon the guitar, from instinct rather than training, for he had never been taught to play that instrument, and possessed, as yet, only the most primitive ideas regarding music. He was then about twelve years of age. At that time, people were not very musical in France, Italy being much more advanced in that respect. In the era of Le Grande Monarque, “Le Roi Soleil,” there were neither orchestras nor singers in the true sense of the words, and opera was, so to speak, quite unknown.