must not make us forget the terrific finale to ’Don Giovanni,’ nor can the most glowing picture from ‘Euryanthe’ erase memories of Rinaldo and the Crusaders in ‘Armide.’  The romantic movement, however, as interpreted by Weber, aimed definitely at certain things, which had not previously come within the scope of music, though for many years they had been the common property of art and literature.  The romantic movement was primarily a revolt against the tyranny of man and his emotions.  It claimed a wider stage and an ampler air.  Nature was not henceforth to be merely the background against which man played his part.  The beauty of landscape, the glory of the setting sun, the splendour of the sea, the mystery of the forest—­all these the romantic movement taught men to regard not merely as the accessories of a scene in which man was the predominant figure, but as subjects in themselves worthy of artistic treatment.  The genius of Weber (1786-1826) was a curious compound of two differing types.  In essence it was thoroughly German—­sane in inspiration, and drawing its strength from the homely old Volkslieder, so dear to every true German heart.  Yet over this solid foundation there soared an imagination surely more delicate and ethereal than has ever been allotted to mortal musician before or since, by the aid of which Weber was enabled to treat all subjects beneath heaven with equal success.  He is equally at home in the eerie horrors of the Wolf’s Glen, in the moonlit revels of Oberon, and in the knightly pomp and circumstance of the Provencal court.

Weber’s early years were a continual struggle against defeat and disappointment.  His musical education was somewhat superficial, and his first works, ‘Sylvana’ and ‘Peter Schmoll,’ gave little promise of his later glory.  ‘Abu Hassan,’ a one-act comic opera, which was produced in 1811, at Munich, was his first real success.  Slight as the story is, it is by no means unamusing, and the music, which is a piece of the daintiest filagree-work imaginable, has helped to keep the little work alive to the present day.  Such plot as there is describes the shifts of Hassan and Fatima, his wife, to avoid paying their creditors, who are unduly pressing in their demands.  Finally they both pretend to be dead, and by this means excite the regret of their master and mistress, the Sultan and Sultana, a regret which takes the practical form of releasing them from their embarrassments.

In ‘Der Freischuetz’ Weber was at last in his true element.  The plot of the opera is founded upon an old forest legend of a demon who persuades huntsmen to sell their souls in exchange for magic bullets which never miss their mark.  Caspar, who is a ranger in the service of Prince Ottokar of Bohemia, had sold himself to the demon Samiel.  The day is approaching when his soul will become forfeit to the powers of evil, unless he can bring a fresh victim in his place.  He looks around him for a possible substitute, and his choice falls upon Max,