‘The Dance of Death’ is written for solos, chorus, orchestra and organ, and is called a ‘mystery.’ Conceived as a great oratorio, it stands for a distinct breaking away from older oratorio tradition and is set to a text which strings together scenes from human life in effective contrast. Its music is essentially modern in spirit, full of tonal color and beauty, and logical despite excessive rhythmic elaboration. Yet it does not keep to the level of inspiration established by its best moments, and many sections voice a distinctly popular appeal through a thin veil of musical modernism. In the case of this work the titular use of the word _Mysterium_ is ‘merely a beauty-plaster borrowed from the French mode,’[87] and the introduction of humorous and other elements, which are not in keeping with the serious and exalted style of the oratorio proper, tends to give it, in spite of greater length and elaboration, the character of a cantata. In this form, or rather in that of a programmatic choral ballad with orchestra, Wilhelm Berger’s _Totentanz_, after Goethe’s poem, is conceived. It is remarkably effective musically, and was one of the numbers performed at the _Tonkünstlerfest_ at Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1914. Karl Adolf Lorenz’s oratorio _Das Licht_ (1907), a fine example of restrained modernism and beautifully wrought choral writing, and Friedrich E. Koch’s _Von den Jahreszeiten_ (‘Of the Seasons’), essentially music written for effect, though attractive in much of its detail, should also be instanced here. Some mention, too, should be made of various prominent composers who, while their attention has principally been held by other forms of composition, have nevertheless contributed incidentally to modern German choral literature. Ludwig Thuille, the late gifted composer of _Lobetanz_, wrote a number of fine choruses for both male and female voices; Oscar Fried has composed an _Erntelied_ (text by Metsche), opus 15, for male chorus and orchestra, a work of intense, elemental power. Engelbert Humperdinck, also, has written the choral ballads _Das Glück von Edenhall_ (‘The Luck of Edenhall’) and ‘The Pilgrimage to Keevlar,’ the last a work of much simple beauty and charm. Gustav Mahler is represented by his extended choral work, _Das klagende Lied_ ‘The Sorrowing Song’; and Arnold Mendelssohn has created distinctive works, both sacred and secular--the ‘Evening Cantata’ eight-part mixed chorus, solo and orchestra, ‘Our Lord’s Sufferings’ (1900) and, in the same year, ‘Resurrection.’ His secular choral works include a delightful _Neckreigen_ (‘Teasing Round’) for mixed chorus and orchestra; ‘Spring’s Consecration,’ a hymn for solos, mixed chorus and orchestra; and ‘The Tailor in Hell,’ a drastically humorous ballad for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra.