hat it used to be said that the public
would rather hear Rubinstein play false notes than hear Buelow play none
but right ones.

Rubinstein composed in every department of music. Besides several
operas written for the regular theater, he originated a sort of
biblical drama, which was, in fact, an oratorio designed to be staged
and acted; in other words, a biblical opera. Of Israelitish race, the
stories of the Old Testament appealed to him with intense force, and
his "Tower of Babel," "The Maccabees," "Sulamith," "Paradise Lost,"
and, later, "Christus," were very important and interesting works.

He wrote six symphonies, one of which, the famous "Ocean Symphony," was
lengthened out from time to time by supplementary movements, so that,
at last accounts, it has seven movements, all of which are sometimes
played. He wrote a large amount of chamber music and a great many
piano pieces of every sort. As a composer for the piano he was
extremely unequal. In the vast volume of his works will be found an
immense amount of noisy, stormy, unsatisfactory music. Yet many of
these works, which as wholes are repugnant to almost every person of
good taste, contain beautiful ideas which with a different treatment
might have given rise to extremely beautiful productions. He is most
successful in his smaller creations, such as the Barcarolle, one or two
numbers of the series of portraits called Kamennoi-Ostrow, and that
famous Staccato Study. He wrote a large number of songs, some of
which, upon Russian subjects, are in queer minor scales. Many of them
are extremely beautiful.

PETER ILITSCH TSCHAIKOVSKY.

Peter Ilitsch Tschaikowsky, all things considered, was the most
important and artistically satisfactory composer of the Russian school.
He was born December 25, 1840, and died November 5, 1893, at St.
Petersburg. He studied law and entered the Government service, but,
showing a marked inclination for music, at the advice of Rubinstein he
entered the conservatory as a pupil when he was already eighteen or
nineteen years of age. Such was his success in his new field that
within a few years he was made professor of harmony in the school, a
position which he retained for eleven years. From that time he devoted
himself entirely to composition. In his earliest tendencies he was
extremely Italian, with a fondness for sweet and sensuous melodies with
simple harmonies. Later on he developed a more virile vein, and
Riemann w