‘The Ruins of Athens.’--The music to an allegorical poem with this title by Kotzebue was written in 1811 for the opening of a new theatre at Pesth, Hungary, which took place February 9, 1812. The story of the poem is as follows: Minerva, having incurred the wrath of Jove, has been fettered by him with chains ever since the Golden Age within a rock through which neither the inquiry of man nor the wisdom of the goddess could penetrate. Finally Jove relents and releases the goddess. Minerva then hastens to her beloved Athens, only to find it in ruins and her art debased. She turns sadly away and proceeds to Pesth, where she establishes her temple in the new theatre and presides over a triumphal procession in honor of the emperor, its patron, who is to restore again the Golden Age. The work was presented a second time in Beethoven’s lifetime at the opening of a new theatre in Vienna in 1822. This time it was with a new text by Carl Meisl entitled _Die Weihe des Hauses_ (‘Dedication of the House’), and it was for this occasion that Beethoven composed the overture, which is still frequently performed. The music consists of eight numbers. The overture is very light and deemed even by his friends to be unworthy of the master. The weird, fervid chorus of the Dervishes for male voices in unison and the stirring Turkish March are strongly Oriental in color and treatment. They are strong and effective numbers, as is also the triumphal march and chorus ‘Twine ye a garland.’ ‘The Glorious Moment.’--September, 1814, brought to Vienna many potentates and distinguished statesmen for the Vienna Congress, which met to adjust the claims of the European states after the allies had entered Paris. The occasion was a momentous one and was celebrated with great pomp by the Viennese authorities. Beethoven was requested to write for the greeting of the royal guests a cantata, the words of which had been written by Dr. Aloys Weissenbach of Salzburg. It was called _Der glorreiche Augenblick_ or _Der heilige Augenblick_ (‘The Glorious Moment’). The time for writing this work was short in itself and this was much curtailed by disputes between composer and poet, as Beethoven made every effort to have the atrocious text altered so as to lend itself better to a musical setting. The work was begun in September and performed at a concert given for Beethoven’s benefit on November 29th, before a remarkable audience of 6,000 persons. This concert, at which was performed also the recently-composed Seventh Symphony, was a most brilliant affair, and the audience was wildly enthusiastic, especially for ‘The Glorious Moment,’ which was hailed as symbolical of the moment when Europe was to be freed from Napoleonic domination. Incidentally, it may be recorded that the composer reaped much substantial advantage from this great occasion, in that, as a result, he was able to invest 20,000 marks in shares of the Bank of Austria. The cantata, which for obvious reasons is not one of his