Thus much of the work in detail. It remains to look at this mass as a whole. The first thought that will strike the listener is its utter dissimilarity to any other of Verdi's works, except "Aida." Like that opera, it is in his latest style,--an attempt to show the world that he can write something besides melodies. Hence we find more decided contrapuntal effects, the canon and fugue forms, and even the plain, serious style of the early devotional music of the Church in the days of Gregory and Palestrina. The second thought is that this mass, although it has had Papal approval, is not so much a mass as it is a dramatic threnody in memory of a loved friend. As compared with the masses of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and the other early mass-writers, it has not their conventional form, their regular sequence of setting, their coherence of spirit and sentiment. There are wide divergences in it from the old beaten track. But it may be said, on the other hand, that while the traditions are violated, Verdi does not so far lose sight of the devotional character of his work as to descend to the light, tripping, and sometimes fantastic measures of Rossini in the "Stabat Mater." Von Buelow very nearly hit the truth in saying that "The Manzoni Requiem" is an opera in ecclesiastical costume. The dramatic element is its strong feature, and the inexhaustible resources of the composer's invention strike the hearer as one of the chief characteristics. The first six parts seem to have included nearly all that can be done, and you wonder if the last part, the "Libera me," will not fall tamely; when to your surprise it proves to be the grand culmination of the work, and presents, with its solo and chorus and imposing fugue, an ensemble of effect, a richness of instrumentation, a severe and almost classical form of composition, and a dramatic intensity and passion that sweep the whole range of power, from a fortissimo tutte forza, down to the faintest whisper of a pianissimo. It bursts upon you like the thunder, and dies away in the still small voice that whispers the requiem of everlasting rest. SACRED MUSIC IN AMERICA. The following sketch of the rise and progress of sacred music in America may prove of interest to the reader as a supplement to the history of the Oratorio and of the numerous illustrations of that class of compositions contained in the body of the book. Ritter, Gould, Hood, and other church-music historians have been freely consulted to make the sketch as complete as possible.