ALEXANDER BATTA, born on July 9, 1816, at Maestricht, received from his father, a singing master, his first instruction in music, and at first practised violin playing. After some time his father was appointed “professeur de solfège” at the Brussels Conservatoire, and in consequence the family Batta took up their abode in the Belgian capital. There the talented boy heard the Cello master, Platel, play, and the desire of emulating him was awakened. He succeeded in inducing his father to let him share Platel’s instruction at the Conservatoire. By persevering industry he succeeded in gaining the first prize with Demunck at the competition of his class in 1834. In 1835 he went to Paris, where he found a good reception. This decided him to make it his home. At this time the tenor, Rubini, was flourishing in Paris. All vied in doing him homage, and Batta became such an unbounded admirer of him, that he copied his manner of rendering. It is known that instrumentalists can learn a great deal from good singers. Rubini, however, with all the advantages of his manner of singing, had the failing of making excessive contrasts of _forte_ and _piano_ without the use of intermediate gradations, in order to produce startling effects upon the public. Batta appropriated this merely for the sake of attaining an easy effect, and therefore became for a time the recognized darling of the Parisian public, and especially of the ladies, whom he knew how to captivate by his sweetly coquettish style of playing. He naturally possessed also valuable artistic qualities, but an apparently virtuoso tendency ever after clung to him. Batta published a respectable list of Drawing-room pieces and transcriptions, as well as a Concerto and a couple of Concert Etudes for his instrument. These productions were for a time made use of by violoncellists: now they have ceased to excite any interest. J. B. VAN VOLXEM, born on November 30, 1817, at Ucclelès-Bruxelles, became, in 1833, a student of the Brussels Conservatoire as a pupil of Platel. At the competition he gained the second prize for Cello playing and composition. Later on he was Chorus Director in the Brussels Royal Theatre. Since then he has by preference devoted himself to chorus singing, and has deserved considerable merit for its diffusion in Belgium. Three other Belgian violoncellists must be added to those artists already mentioned, namely: Chevillard, Warot, and Vieuxtemps, of whom the first-named is distinguished as by far the most important and most famous.