music to Jules Barbier's tragedy, "Jeanne d'Arc," which may have inspired his determination to write an oratorio on the same subject. The Redemption. "The Redemption, a Sacred Trilogy," is the title which Gounod gave to this work, and on its opening page he wrote: "The work of my life." In a note appended to his description of its contents he says:-- "It was during the autumn of the year 1867 that I first thought of composing a musical work on the Redemption. I wrote the words at Rome, where I passed two months of the winter 1867-68 with my friend Hebert, the celebrated painter, at that time director of the Academy of France. Of the music I then composed only two fragments: first, 'The March to Calvary' in its entirety; second, the opening of the first division of the third part, 'The Pentecost.' Twelve years afterwards I finished the work, which had so long been interrupted, with a view to its being performed at the festival at Birmingham in 1882." It was brought out, as he contemplated, in August of that year, and the production was a memorable one. It was first heard in this country in the winter of 1883-84 under Mr. Theodore Thomas's direction, and was one of the prominent works in his series of festivals in the latter year. Gounod himself has prefaced the music with an admirably concise description of the text and its various subjects. Of its general contents he says: "This work is a lyrical setting forth of the three great facts on which depends the existence of the Christian Church. These facts are,--first, the passion and the death of the Saviour; second, his glorious life on earth from his resurrection to his ascension; third, the spread of Christianity in the world through the mission of the Apostles. These three parts of the present trilogy are preceded by a prologue on the creation, the fall of our first parents, and the promise of a redeemer." The divisions of the work are as follows:-- Prologue.--The Creation. Part I.--Calvary. Part II.--From the Resurrection to the Ascension. Part III.--The Pentecost.