X FRANZ SCHUBERT

X FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY

XI ROBERT SCHUMANN

XII FREDERIC CHOPIN

XIII HECTOR BERLIOZ

XIV FRANZ LISZT

XV GIUSEPPE VERDI

XVI RICHARD WAGNER

XVII CESAR FRANCK

XVIII JOHANNES BRAHMS

XIX EDWARD GRIEG

XX PETER ILYITCH TSCHAIKOWSKY

XXI EDWARD MACDOWELL

XXII CLAUDE ACHILLE DEBUSSY

XXIII ARTURO TOSCANINI

XXIV LEOPOLD STOKOWSKY

XXV SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY

[Illustration: LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN]

[Illustration: JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH]

[Illustration: JOHANNES BRAHMS]

[Illustration: PETER ILYITCH TSCHAIKOWSKY]

STORY-LIVES OF

MASTER MUSICIANS

I

PALESTRINA

To learn something of the life and labors of Palestrina, one of the
earliest as well as one of the greatest musicians, we must go back in
the world's history nearly four hundred years. And even then we may
not be able to discover all the events of his life as some of the
records have been lost. But we have the main facts, and know that
Palestrina's name will be revered for all time as the man who strove
to make sacred music the expression of lofty and spiritual meaning.

Upon a hoary spur of the Apennines stands the crumbling town of
Palestrina. It is very old now; it was old when Rome was young. Four
hundred years ago Palestrina was dominated by the great castle of its
lords, the proud Colonnas. Naturally the town was much more important
in those days than it is to-day.

At that time there lived in Palestrina a peasant pair, Sante Pierluigi
and his wife Maria, who seem to have been an honest couple, and not
grindingly poor, since the will of Sante's mother has lately been
found, in which she bequeathed a house in Palestrina to her two sons.
Besides this she left behind a fine store of bed linen, mattresses and
cooking utensils. Maria Gismondi also had a little property.

To this pair was born, probably in 1526, a boy whom they named
Giovanni Pierluigi, which means John Peter Louis. This boy, from a
tiniest child, loved beauty of sight and sound. And this is not at
all surprising, for a child surrounded from infancy by the natural
loveliness and glory of old Palestrina, would unconsciously breathe in
a sense of beauty and grandeur.

It was soon discovered the boy had a voice, and his mother is said
to have sold some land she owned to provide for her son's musical
training.

From the rocky heights on which the