The final scene is very elaborate in its construction, and brings the work to a sonorous and stately close. It opens with a very dramatic recitative by Columbus ("The Night is dark, but many a Sign seen through this Day proclaims the Goal at Hand"), at the close of which there is a short orchestral prelude, which serves to introduce a trio ("Here at your Bidding") for Columbus and two officers (first tenor and first bass). At the cry of a seaman, "Land ho!" the chorus responds with animation. Columbus bids his crew join him "in prayer and grateful praise." The answer comes in a splendidly-written "Hallelujah," which is fairly majestic in its progression, reaching its close in full broad harmony, with the accompanying strains of trumpets. The Light of Asia. Mr. Buck's latest cantata, "The Light of Asia," well-nigh reaches the dimensions of an opera or oratorio. It was written in 1886 and first published in England. Its name reveals its source, and the composer has made compensation for the privilege of using Mr. Edwin Arnold's beautiful poem, by a graceful dedication of the work to him. The libretto was prepared by the composer himself, who has shown great skill in making his selections in such manner as not to disturb the continuity of the story. The purely philosophical portions are omitted, and only those are retained which have a human interest. In this manner he has avoided the obstacle which the lack of human sympathy in the poem, beautiful as it is, would otherwise have placed in his way. The text, as will be remembered, has no definite metre, much of it being in blank verse, and does not readily lend itself to musical expression; but it will be conceded that the composer has also overcome this difficulty in a very remarkable manner. The cantata is divided into four parts,--Prologue, the Renunciation and Temptation, the Return, and Epilogue and Finale. The first part has nine numbers. A brief prelude leads to the opening chorus:-- "Below the highest sphere four regents sit, Who rule the world; and under them are zones Nearer, but high, where saintliest spirits dead, Wait thrice ten thousand years, then live again."