of perfect mechanism and delicate shading may be produced from the simplest materials. If the minuets alone of the two symphonies be compared, it will be acknowledged that an artist who within such confined limits can produce impressions of delicate wit and humour on the one hand, and of gloomy discontent and agitation on the other, has a full mastery of the forms and capabilities of instrumental music. The symphonies of that time do not, as a rule, attempt to express passion or tragic emotion. They were, with few exceptions, intended to promote social enjoyment; consequently their essential characteristics are animation and brilliancy, or else calm serenity. The composer concentrated his efforts on the form and mechanism of his composition; to express deep feeling or the secrets of his own heart would have been alike impossible to him as an artist and contrary to the spirit of the time. A sharp line of division was drawn in theory and practice between human and artistic emotions, and any display of subjective emotion was discouraged. In the year 1774 "Werther" appeared; the strivings and conflicts of the time which produced it had their influence on music; but music had to pass through a longer and more arduous struggle before attaining to a like freedom of inspiration and expression. The evident striving of the youthful Mozart to express himself and his innermost feelings in his music affords a significant indication of his development as an artist. Life had not taught him the lessons of passion and disappointment, and his nature was too sound and healthy to attempt to anticipate or represent emotions which had not touched him; he shows himself to us as he is. The symphony was not then, as it is now, the grandest and most comprehensive form of orchestral music. The first place was given to the so-called serenata, a name originating in the circumstances of its composition, and scarcely applied to a fixed or well-defined form. The serenata was distinguished from the symphony in its narrow sense by greater variety and wealth of ideas and treatment. Several instruments are often grouped together in different combinations, {THE SERENADE.} (301) and solo instruments are variously employed; also the number of separate movements often reaches as many as eight. For the arrangement and manipulation of the movements the perfected forms of the symphony are employed, but with numerous modifications. Serenades were introduced and sometimes also concluded by a march (39, K.). This was concise in form and simple in treatment, very often without even a trio; it was generally lively and cheerful. The detached marches by Mozart which are preserved were doubtless intended for introductions to serenades; they were often transferred from one to another, and so were written separately.