Michael William Balfe who wrote thirty operas among which is _The Bohemian Girl_, still played and greatly admired; William Vincent Wallace, like Balfe an Irishman, who is famous for his _Maritana_; and then of course, Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900), who probably needs very little introduction to any American or any Englishman for he wrote _The Mikado_, _Pirates of Penzance_, _Iolanthe_, the only fairy opera without a mortal in it, _Pinafore_, _Patience_, _Princess Ida_, _Trial by Jury_, _Ruddigore_ and many others, including the first light opera, _Cox and Box_, which was the first time that he and W. S. Gilbert, as librettist, worked together. W. S. Gilbert was the author of the inimitable and amusing _Bab Ballads_. If you haven’t read them you have a treat in store for you! They wrote together in a fresh, mock-heroic, humorous vein, and it seems as if they were made for each other, so delightfully did they play into each other’s hands. Sullivan was the son of a clarinet player and teacher. He also began, as did so many British Islanders, as a choir boy and entered the Royal Academy of Music on a Mendelssohn Scholarship. Later he went to the Leipsic Conservatory and wrote some music to Shakespeare’s _Tempest_, which established his fame in England. Besides his operas he wrote much incidental music, some anthems and cantatas, among these _The Golden Legend_ and _The Prodigal Son_ are the best. He wanted very much to write grand opera, but he never seemed to work well in this vein and his _Ivanhoe_ did him little good. And so, we leave opera until the wand of the Wizard Wagner changes the whole path of music. CHAPTER XXIV The Poet Music Writers—Romantic School SCHUBERT—MENDELSSOHN—SCHUMANN—CHOPIN You have seen how Romantic Music began, and why Beethoven is often the first name mentioned when Romanticism is talked about, for he was the colossal guidepost pointing the way. He was as far from the classical forms of Bach, as from later writers who have “jumped over the musical traces” altogether. All were, and still are, trying to free themselves from conventions, and to express their feelings satisfactorily. It is natural to begin the Romantic school with Schubert, the first figure of great importance. But there was one John Field (1782–1837) from totally different surroundings who is still remembered for his fine piano nocturnes. Impressed with the quiet and solemnity of the night, he knew how to put it into beautiful melody. He was born in a little out-of-the-way street in Dublin, not far from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and near the birthplace of that romantic poet, Tom Moore. His father and his grandfather, both musicians, forced the infant prodigy, and at ten, he played, publicly, a concerto composed by his father.