ul
Overture to "Oberon" which was only completed a few days before the
first performance of the opera.

"Oberon" was given at Covent Garden on April 12. The house was packed
from pit to dome, and the success was tremendous. Next morning the
composer was in a highly nervous and exhausted state, but felt he must
keep his promise to Kemble and conduct the first twelve performances
of "Oberon." He was to have a benefit concert, and hoped through this
to have a goodly sum to take back to his little family. Sad to relate,
on the evening chosen, May 26, a heavy rain fell and the hall was
nearly empty. After the concert he was so weak he had to be assisted
from the room. The physician ordered postponement of the journey home,
but he cried continually, "I must go to my own--I must! Let me see
them once more and then God's will be done."

The next morning, when they came to call him, all was still in his
chamber; he had passed away peacefully in sleep.

Weber was buried in London. His last wish--to return home,--was
finally fulfilled. Eighteen years after, his remains were brought to
Dresden, and the composer was at last at home.

IX

FRANZ SCHUBERT

In the old Lichtenthal quarter of the city of Vienna, in the vicinity
of the fortifications, there still stands an old house. It is
evidently a public house, for there hangs the sign--"At the Red Crab."
Beside this there is a marble tablet fastened above the doorway, which
says that Franz Schubert was born in this house. At the right of his
name is placed a lyre crowned with a star, and at the left a laurel
wreath within which is placed the date, January 31, 1797.

This then was the birthplace of the "most poetical composer who ever
lived," as Liszt said of him; the man who created over six hundred
songs, eight symphonies, operas, masses, chamber works and much
beautiful piano music, and yet only lived to be thirty-one. It is
almost unbelievable. Let us get a nearer view of this remarkable
musician.

His father kept a school here; there were five children, four boys and
a girl to provide for, and as there was nothing to depend on but
the school-master's pay, it is easy to see the family was in poor
circumstances, though the wife managed most carefully to make ends
meet. They were a very devoted family altogether. Little Franz early
showed a decided fondness for music, and tried to pick out bits
of tunes of his own by ear on an old dilapidated piano the family
poss