‘The Golden Legend’ received its first presentation at the Leeds Musical Festival in 1886. The text consists of those portions of Longfellow’s poem which concern Elsie and Prince Henry. Joseph Bennett, who acted as librettist, has arranged these into six scenes with a prologue and epilogue. The prologue describes the attempts of Lucifer and his spirits to tear down the cross from the spire of Strassburg Cathedral, Lucifer being a baritone, his spirits sopranos and altos, and the bells tenors and basses. In the opening scene of the legend Prince Henry in his chamber sings ‘I cannot sleep.’ This is followed by the temptation duet with Lucifer, which ends with an angels’ chorus. In Scene II Ursula, Elsie’s mother, sits before her cottage and sings an evening song and the villagers are heard in a beautiful choral hymn, ‘O gladsome light.’ In the following dialogue Elsie discloses her decision to offer her life for the prince and then sings the beautiful prayer, ‘My Redeemer and my Lord.’ Scene III is on the road to Salerno; Henry and Elsie sing a graceful duet, ‘Sweet is the air with budding haws’; pilgrims pass, intoning a Latin hymn, and Lucifer, among them, utters his mocking lines, ‘Here am I, too, in the pious band’; the prince’s song of greeting to the sea is heard, and also a sweet song by Elsie, ‘The night is calm and cloudless,’ effectively repeated with full chorus. Scene IV is at the Medical School at Salerno. Lucifer, disguised as Friar Angelo, leads Elsie away to her sacrifice, but she is rescued by the repentant prince. The music to this dramatic scene is most stirring. In Scene V, before Ursula’s cottage, a messenger recites the prince’s miraculous cure and Elsie’s safety; after which Ursula’s prayer of thanksgiving is heard, ‘Virgin, who lovest the poor and lowly.’ The last scene is at the Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine, on the evening of the wedding day. After a joyous duet by Prince Henry and his bride (now the Lady Alicia), there follows a choral epilogue, rising at the end to a great fugal climax. Joseph Barnby’s (1838-1896) part-songs and church-music and his long experience as conductor of important choral societies gave him a large influence with an important section of English lovers of choral music. His choral pieces include the melodious psalm, ‘The Lord is King,’ written for the Leeds Festival of 1883, and the cantata ‘Rebekah,’ which he characterizes as a ‘sacred idyll.’ ‘Rebekah’ was written in 1870 and is undoubtedly his finest work. It deals with the wooing of Rebekah by Isaac as related in the Scriptures and done into verse by Arthur Matthison. The first and last choruses disclose some effective modern fugue-writing that is melodious and expressive as well as contrapuntally interesting. The last chorus, especially, builds up to a massive and vocally brilliant climax. Probably the best-known number is Isaac’s solo, the favorite tenor aria, ‘The soft southern breeze plays around me.’