Mozart is interesting to us in many periods; but we like best to think of him as the tiny prodigy, who was caressed and admired by all the world and who wrote the most delightful, childish letters home inquiring if “Master Canary still sang in G-sharp” and sending “A thousand kisses to Miss Bimberl” (the dog). We like, too, the story of his first composition, as related by an eye-witness: “Mozart’s father, returning from church one day with a friend, found his son aged five, busy writing. “‘What are you doing there, my little boy?’ he asked. “‘I am composing a concerto for the harpsichord, and have almost got to the end of the first part.’ “‘Let me see your fine scrawl.’ “‘No; I have not finished it yet.’ “The father, however, took the paper and showed his friend the sheet full of notes, which could hardly be deciphered for the blots of ink. “The two friends at first laughed heartily at this scribbling; but after a little time when the father had looked at it with more attention, his eyes were fastened on the paper, and at length, overflowed with tears of joy and wonder. “‘Look, my friend,’ he said, ‘look. Everything is composed according to rule. It is a pity that the piece cannot be made any use of; but it is too difficult. Nobody would be able to play it.’ “‘It is a concerto,’ replied his little son, ‘and must be studied until it can be played properly. This is the way it should be played.’” This was the beginning of Mozart’s composition. He wrote no less than six hundred and thirty-six works! And to his name we will add this tribute: “I have always been one of the greatest admirers of Mozart and I shall remain so until my last breath,—Beethoven.” When Mozart heard the boy Beethoven play during his first visit to Vienna in 1787 he said to his friends: “Pay attention to him he will make a noise in the world some day, or other.” It seems strange to find an English musician writing the following just appreciation of Beethoven in 1818, while the great genius was still living: “Beethoven’s genius seems to anticipate a future age. In one comprehensive view, he surveys all that science has hitherto produced, but regards it only as the basis of that superstructure which harmony is capable of raising. He measures the talents and resources of every preceding artist, and, as it were, collects into a focus their scattered rays. He discovers that Haydn and Mozart alone have followed nature, yet he explores the hidden treasures of harmony with a vigor superior to either. In sacred music he is pre-eminently great. The dark tone of his mind is in unison with that solemn style which the service of the church requires; and the gigantic harmony which he wields enables him to excite by sounds, a terror hitherto unknown.”