Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901) is a prolific composer who has contributed most liberally to choral literature. In this field and that of organ he is at his best. _Christophorus_, sometimes called an oratorio, was written in 1880 and is based on the mediæval legend of the giant who, notwithstanding his mighty strength, sought a master to serve who was most powerful on earth and who knew no fear. But he found that the mightiest earthly monarch feared Satan and that Satan shrank in terror before the Cross, so he gladly became the servant of the Lord of the Cross. The composer mingles sacred and secular elements in a masterly manner; portions of the work, particularly the closing numbers of the first part, belong to the richest and most beautiful choral writing of the last half of the nineteenth century. ‘The Star of Bethlehem,’ a Christmas cantata, possesses sustained beauty and is conceived in a lofty vein. _Das Thal des Espingo_, a choral ballad for male voices and orchestra (poem by Paul Heyse), is one of the finest examples of its kind. ‘Clarice of Eberstein,’ ‘Toggenburg,’ ‘Montfort,’ _Die Rosen von Hildesheim_ for male chorus and wind instruments, and _Wittekind_ are among the finest of his secular compositions. Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) is the one representative Bohemian composer who has given serious attention to the larger choral forms. His greatest compositions in this field, however, were written, not for performance in his native land, but for the great English festivals--the _Stabat Mater_, composed in 1876 and performed March 10th, 1883, by the London Musical Society, the ‘Spectre’s Bride,’ written for the Birmingham Festival of 1885, ‘St. Ludmila’ (oratorio) for the Leeds Festival of 1886, and the Requiem Mass for the Birmingham Festival of 1891. England did valiant service in calling the world’s attention to Dvořák’s unique genius. ‘The Spectre’s Bride.’--This well-known cantata is founded upon an old legend, current among all Slavic nations, about a maiden, who, deserted by her lover and awaiting his return, was enticed away at midnight by a spectre, only to be led over hill and dale, amid grewsome horrors, to the graveyard. There she took refuge in a tiny house where she was beset by spectres, and the moonlight revealed, lying on a plank, a revivified corpse, which rose up and glared at her. Her fervent prayers to the Virgin finally ended the hideous spell. A cock crew, dawn came, and the girl wended her way home in the peaceful morning. When the work was performed at Birmingham it was received with great enthusiasm and, despite its horrible story, it is a masterpiece of dramatic narrative and descriptive realism.