cross (‘With holy thoughts seek holy things’). His solo leads into the choral March of Pilgrims (‘Forward! O weary feet’), stirring, confident, and exalted. Jerusalem appears in the distance; the Hermit calls the hosts to final combat, the Crusaders’ Song again resounds triumphantly and the work closes with a brilliant choral climax (‘To war! God wills it, up, arouse thee!’). ‘The Erl-King’s Daughter.’--Gade composed the music for this cantata in 1852, the text being founded on Danish legends quite different from the one made famous by Goethe’s familiar poem. The knight, Sir Oluf, has been bewitched by the Erl-King’s daughters as he slept in the twilight on a mound in the forest. Notwithstanding the warning of his mother, he fares forth on the eve of his wedding-day to seek again the alluring maidens. They invite him with enticing songs to join their moonlight revels and offer him a silken robe for his bride and a silver cuirass for himself. He refuses to dance with the fairest of them, she lays her hand upon his brow and predicts his death. He jumps on his steed and madly rushes home, where his mother tremblingly awaits him. In the morning light she sees him riding desperately through the fields without plume or shield; he draws rein at the castle door, briefly greets his terrified mother, and falls dead from his steed. A short epilogue draws a moral that youths who ride through the woods at night should turn aside from the Erl-King’s mound, for ‘danger will ever him betide who heeds the Erl-maidens’ singing!’ There are three solo voices--the Erl-King’s daughter (soprano), Sir Oluf (baritone), and Oluf’s mother (alto). The music throughout is very melodious, graceful, and pleasing. The most interesting numbers are the chorus of Erl-maidens, the enticing song of the Erl-King’s daughter, the morning hymn (‘The sun now mounts the eastern sky’) which opens the third part, and the dramatic finale, a concerted number of much vigor and animation. ‘Christmas Eve’ is a short meditation on the Nativity (poem by August von Platen), set in cantata-form for alto solo, eight-part chorus, and orchestra in 1851. A strongly devotional style is maintained throughout. In the opening number a seraph (alto) bids the hosts of angels to carry earthward the glad tidings of Christ’s coming. The second number is a double chorus of seraphim (‘Behold, a star appeareth’) and shepherds (‘Angelic hosts surround us’), the two uniting in rich and varied combinations. The seraph, in a solo of rare beauty (‘O! with pure devotion’), summons the world to worship the Child, and the chorus softly sings its ‘praise to the newly-born.’ The double chorus is handled antiphonally with great skill and effectiveness. The final number (‘But now a cheerful morning o’er-spreads the weary earth’) is a flowing, hymn-like melody for alto solo, repeated in elaborated form for full eight-part chorus, but sinking quietly to a reposeful close.