is heightened by the intervening spoken parts of Creon, Oedipus, and Jocasta, with musical accompaniment. The fourth ode ("O may my Life be spent in Virtue") is a vigorous denunciation of the impiety of Jocasta in speaking scornfully of the oracles. The fifth ode ("If I the Prophet's Gift possess") is full of idyllic grace and sweetness, realizing in a remarkable degree the old Grecian idea of sensuous beauty. It is a speculation upon the divine origin of Oedipus, after the messenger relates the story of the King's exposure in his childhood upon Mount Cithæron, and contains a charming tenor solo. The last ode ("O Race of mortal Men") bewails the vicissitudes of fortune, and is full of the tragic significance of impending fate. The work comes to a close with the postlude:-- "Ye who dwell in Thebes our city, fix on Oedipus your eyes, Who resolved the dark enigma, noblest liver and most wise. Glorious like a sun he mounted, envied of the popular throng, Now he sinks in seas of anguish, quenched the stormy waves among. Therefore I await the final hour, to ancient wisdom known, Ere I call one mortal happy. Never shall that thought be shown, Till he end his earthly being, scathless of a sigh or groan." Six public performances of the "Oedipus" were given in 1881, and every season since that time selections from the music have been performed in New York, Boston, and other cities. As the most important and scholarly work an American composer has yet produced, it cannot be heard too often. The Nativity. The text of "The Nativity," for chorus, solo voices, and orchestra, is taken from the hymn in Milton's ode "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," and is composed in three parts. The first part includes the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh; the second, a combination of the eighth and ninth; and the third, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth verses. After a short instrumental introduction, which works up to an effective climax, the cantata begins with a chorus ("It was the Winter wild"), introduced by the soprano, developing to full harmony at the words, "Nature in Awe to Him," and closing pianissimo. After a short soprano solo ("But, He her Fears to cease") the chorus resumes ("With Turtle Wing the amorous Clouds dividing"). A succession of choral passages follows, admirably suggestive of the sentiment of the poem,--a vigorous, stirring allegro, "No War or Battle's Sound was heard the World around;" "And Kings sat still with awful Eye," broadly and forcibly written; and a tender, graceful number, "But peaceful was the Night." They are followed by another soprano solo ("And though the shady Gloom"), full of brightness and animation, which leads directly to a majestic chorus ("He saw a greater Sun appear"), which closes the first part.