great and noble work not likely soon to
be equalled. Leopardi somewhere, in speaking of the early Italian
translators of the classics and their well-earned popularity, says, who
knows but Caro will live in men's remembrance as long as Virgil? "La
belie destinee," adds Sainte-Beuve, "de ne pouvoir plus mourir, sinon
avec un immortel!" Apart from Mr. Longfellow's other titles to undying
fame, such a destiny is surely marked out for him, and throughout the
English portions of the world his name will always be associated with
that of the great Florentine.

June, 1867.

XII. PAINE'S "ST. PETER."

For music-lovers in America the great event of the season has been the
performance of Mr. Paine's oratorio, "St. Peter," at Portland, June 3.
This event is important, not only as the first appearance of an
American oratorio, but also as the first direct proof we have had of the
existence of creative musical genius in this country. For Mr. Paine's
Mass in D--a work which was brought out with great success several years
ago in Berlin--has, for some reason or other, never been performed here.
And, with the exception of Mr. Paine, we know of no American hitherto
who has shown either the genius or the culture requisite for writing
music in the grand style, although there is some of the Kapellmeister
music, written by our leading organists and choristers, which deserves
honourable mention. Concerning the rank likely to be assigned by
posterity to "St. Peter," it would be foolish now to speculate; and
it would be equally unwise to bring it into direct comparison with
masterpieces like the "Messiah," "Elijah," and "St. Paul," the greatness
of which has been so long acknowledged. Longer familiarity with the work
is needed before such comparisons, always of somewhat doubtful value,
can be profitably undertaken. But it must at least be said, as the net
result of our impressions derived both from previous study of the score
and from hearing, the performance at Portland, that Mr. Paine's oratorio
has fairly earned for itself the right to be judged by the same high
standard which we apply to these noble works of Mendelssohn and Handel.

In our limited space we can give only the briefest description of
the general structure of the work. The founding of Christianity, as
illustrated in four principal scenes of the life of St. Peter, supplies
the material for the dramatic development of the subject. The overture,
beginning with an ada