The _Stabat Mater_, written in 1876 and performed by the London Musical Society on March 10, 1883, on the other hand expresses much more the strongly individual style of the composer and in consequence has found a much stronger hold and bids fair to continue long in public favor. It begins with a breadth and force which distinguish it from all other settings of this poem. It is conceived from a modern romantic viewpoint and is full of effective tone-painting. The portrayal of the sorrowing Mary at the foot of the cross is touchingly but majestically drawn, and the opening quartet and chorus, _Stabat mater dolorosa_, has a certain dramatic force. The composer then turns away from the dark tones--the lament and sorrow--and lets the music fittingly express the loveliness of the mother of the Saviour. The _Eia, mater_ suggests a funeral march, with the principal motive in the bass; and the _Fac me vere tecum flere_, for tenor solo and chorus preceded by a forceful orchestral introduction, is one of the most dramatic portions of the work. The last number, _Quando corpus morietur_, is quite similar to the opening number, and the Amen, artistically wrought in double counterpoint, brings the whole to an effective close. Verdi’s ‘Manzoni Requiem.’--On May 22nd, 1874, the City of Milan held a memorial service at St. Mark’s Cathedral, commemorating the first anniversary of the death of the great poet Alessandro Manzoni, and commissioned Italy’s greatest composer, Verdi, to write a Requiem for the occasion. The work was written mostly during the summer of 1873 while the composer was in France, Verdi utilizing for its last number the _Libera me_ which he had five years previously written for the projected Requiem for Rossini, in collaboration with twelve other Italian composers, a project which was finally abandoned. A gentle, devout and thoroughly ecclesiastical spirit pervades the work, which is, however, conceived in the Italian style, therefore in lighter vein than is the case with most of the great Requiems of history; yet its orchestration and use of musical material show clearly the modern trend instituted by Wagner. Although it had a number of hearings in Europe and in America, it is, unfortunately, seldom given now. It is conceived in the mood in which most of the great Italian composers in this form have viewed death. There is the simple, childlike faith peculiar to the Italian people, mingled with a combination of sadness and peace--yet it is strong, expressive, and at times intensely dramatic, and always constructed with the master’s unerring intuition for fine musical effects. While the unsympathetic German, Hans von Bülow, condemned it as ‘an opera in ecclesiastical costume,’ the world generally acknowledges that it is sincere, lovely, though dramatically strong and effective, music. The Italian wealth of melody is everywhere present. It opens with a quiet Introit in elegiac mood (_Requiem æternam_),