strongest, is in six numbers. In 1836 it appeared with a new title, _Preis der Tonkunst_ (‘The Praise of Music’), with a new poetical text by Friedrich Rochlitz. * * * * * Among the composers of the first quarter of the nineteenth century Andreas Romberg (1767-1821) occupies a worthy place, though not one of large importance. He is the composer of five operas, ten symphonies, twenty violin concertos, etc., now forgotten, much church music, and several cantatas. The ‘Lay of the Bell’ (_Das Lied von der Glocke_) was the most widely known of all his works, and at present is nearly the only one of them to retain any public notice. ‘The Lay of the Bell.’--Schiller’s famous poem with this title forms the text to which Romberg composed the music of this cantata in 1808. During the last half of the nineteenth century it enjoyed great popularity with the smaller choruses in England, Germany, and America, and is still frequently heard. The work rehearses the various steps in the making of the bell, from lighting the furnace-fire and mixing the metals to the casting of the bell and the breaking of the mold by the master. Each step is used as the basis for the description of scenes which the bell will witness in its life among the people--scenes of youth, young manhood, and old age, of joy and love and sorrow--all the intimate experiences that make up human life. The music is written for mixed chorus, with soprano, tenor, and bass solos, and, while it lacks the harmonic warmth and variety of the cantatas written later under the glow of the romantic spirit, it is full of interest and animation, though light in style throughout. II As the founder of the German romantic movement, Weber (1786-1826) was an intense nationalist, and his stirring music, folk-song in character and wholly German in feeling, had a profound political influence in fanning the flame of national and patriotic sentiment that sprang into existence during the period of Napoleonic oppression. His inspiring settings of the patriotic poems in Körner’s _Leyer und Schwert_, for male voices, made him the idol of the students and young nationalists, and _Der Freischütz_, the first German opera, created a perfect furor of patriotic feeling. His first cantata was _Der erste Ton_, written in 1808 for declamation, chorus, and orchestra. Other choral works were the cantata _Natur und Liebe_ (‘Nature and Love’) for two sopranos, two tenors, and two basses with pianoforte accompaniment, composed in 1818, and the hymn _In seiner Ordung schafft der Herr_ (‘In constant order works the Lord’) for solos, chorus, and orchestra, written in 1812.