From the above statement of the approximate duration of the general periods of musical progress it will be noted that the nineteenth century is divisible into three periods, the first of which merely carried to completion the classical methods of the preceding century. But, while instrumental music responded promptly and vigorously and with far-reaching results to the novel ideals of romanticism, choral music was far more conservative. It exhibited the utmost reserve toward the new influences, and for several decades after these had brought enrichment and expansion to instrumental forms, it admitted them only with a certain timidity, so that on the whole the effective invasion of choral music by romanticism was delayed a full half-century after it had taken possession of instrumental fields. This retardation of choral progress is due largely to the natural limitations of the human voice, which is confronted with obvious difficulties when attempting to adopt for its own peculiar purposes the instrumental standpoint of unrestrained liberty in the use of melodic intervals and harmonic progressions. Choral forms have generally proved to be far less elastic than instrumental forms, and have had to contend with the tendency toward inertia inherited from their early association with ecclesiastical traditions--traditions from which the development of instrumental music has been notably free. Hence, a much longer period was required in choral music than in instrumental music for readjustment to the new viewpoint which nineteenth-century romanticism injected into the whole fabric of art-methods, and the choral literature of the century falls into only two periods. The great majority of the choral works--particularly the smaller choral works--of the first two thirds of the century at least are characterized by general conformity with the classical methods of Handel, Haydn, and Mozart; where romantic influences are admitted they express themselves in terms of greater harmonic warmth and richness, freer melodic outlines, and a more marked avoidance of the older special contrapuntal devices in favor of more direct mood-painting and detailed characterization of the text, but the classical forms and methods are quite uniformly retained. I Beethoven’s (1770-1827) contribution to the literature of choral music was relatively small and the most significant part of it was made in the larger forms, as might be expected of a composer possessed of such mighty intellectual endowments. Of the smaller works, two only are selected for detailed comment. The others include ‘Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage’ (to Goethe’s poem) for mixed chorus and orchestra, written in 1815, and ‘King Stephen, Hungary’s First Benefactor,’ a prologue in one act with overture and choruses, the music for which was composed in 1811 to the text by Kotzebue for the same occasion as ‘The Ruins of Athens.’