after a highly original and striking harmonic progression, cannot fail to injure the effect. The Sanctus is a short fugued movement, the Benedictus an unusually melodious soprano solo with an original accompaniment; the Agnus goes deepest, and is serious in feeling as well as wonderfully sweet. Works like the Masses in F and D major prove what Mozart was capable of in church music if his genius could have had free scope. But the "rapid advance of ecclesiastical reformation in Salzburg under the wise and immortal prince, Archbishop Hieronymus von Colloredo,"[29] had its effect on the treatment of the mass. The limitation of its duration and the abolition of solo singing proper and of fugues might appear to be the result of ecclesiastical rigour. But Hieronymus was far more inclined to favour secular taste in church music; and he was fond besides of displaying a royal magnificence and splendour. This external influence is apparent in the conception and treatment of the later masses composed after 1775, more particularly in one belonging to 1776 (262 K.), with a Kyrie in counterpoint and two elaborate fugues. Especially earnest and beautiful, both as to technical workmanship and expression, are the movements on which the musical treatment was becoming more and more concentrated, the Qui tollis (of which the accompaniment recalls the fugue, Quam olim Abrahæ in the Requiem), the Et incarnatus est, and Agnus Dei. Even the Benedictus (where the chorus answers the "Benedictus" of the solos by "Osanna") and the Dona are sustained in style. How fundamentally this mass differs from that in F major is clearly shown by the ground-tones of the Gloria and the Credo, which are animated and brilliant, but without any intensity or depth of meaning. The same tendency is still more marked in the remaining masses (220, 257, 258, 259, K.).[30] Increasing maturity is manifest in the {CHURCH MUSIC.} (264) firm and skilful handling of all available means, and the subjects display uncommon fertility of invention. But real creative inspiration is crushed by the obligation to compose after a set fashion. We do not need to look further than such church music to become aware that the Archbishop loved to bring the pomp and glitter of his royal station into the services of the church. Such a task obliges the artist to use his art more and more consciously as a means to an end. The inevitable result is inequality and exaggeration, his genius and his work being often at variance; the charm of mere grace leads to the danger of softness and effeminacy, and fluent animation becomes meaningless superficiality. The effort to be light and pleasing is manifest in these masses by their superfluity of detail. We find an over-abundance of beautiful melodies and harmonies, combined with great freedom in the treatment both of voices and orchestra, and in the working-out of the subjects.