Of the three songs, opus 31, we must note _Die Löwenbraut_ (‘The Lion’s Bride’) as a fine example of the larger ballad form. This form Schubert frequently attempted without ever achieving better than mediocrity. And Schumann himself failed miserably at it in his later years. But in the present instance he gave us a model. The declamatory voice part agrees accurately with the prosody of the text without ever quite losing a melodic value. The accompaniment of the first section consists only of occasional supporting chords. It is recitative, but, unlike the _recitativo secco_ of Italian opera, it is recitative raised to the status of music. The singer should be careful never to lose the musical beauty of the voice part and at the same time not try to force it into a formal melody. The middle section illustrates admirably a device which Schumann used better than any other of his time. This is the development of a long passage of vocal music from a single phrase. The vocal part in this middle section is scarcely more than the repetition, in many forms and keys, of one short and very lovely phrase. This device is peculiarly suited to the ballad, which, being in constant forward motion, is liable to lose coherence if the music does not offer some basis of unification. Schumann used the same device later in his ballad, _Blondels Lied_ (‘Blondel’s Song’), and here with even more poetic fitness; for the phrase on which the piece is built up is that accompanying the constantly recurring refrain of the text and as it develops seems to infuse the whole work with this single burning message. One more of Schumann’s ballads should be mentioned in this place--the universally known _Die beiden Grenadiere_ (‘The Two Grenadiers’). Technically the song offers little of interest beyond the composer’s clever and appropriate abbreviation of the _Marseillaise_ at the end. The overwhelming gusto of the ballad is too obvious to demand more than passing mention. III