Following the plan of his previous volume of _Great Authors_, the
writer has here endeavoured to weave into more or less story form a
few of the facts and incidents in the lives of some great musicians.
It is hoped that young readers--and especially those to whom music is
a subject of study--will take a greater interest in some of the
masterpieces of composition when they have learnt something about the
composers themselves, and the circumstances under which they wrote.

The author desires to express his acknowledgments for the assistance
he has derived from the following works:

Grove's _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_; Bitter's _Life of
Sebastian Bach_ (translated by J.E. Kay-Shuttleworth); Rockstro's _Life
of George Frederick Handel_; Williams's _Handel_ in 'The Master
Musicians'; Townsend's _Haydn_ in 'The Great Musicians'; Jahn's _W.A.
Mozart_ (translated by P.D. Townsend); Schindler's _Life of Beethoven_;
Nohl's _Life of Beethoven_; von Hellborn's _Franz Schubert_ (translated
by A.D. Coleridge); Benedict's _Sketch of the Life and Works of Felix
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy_; Hensel's _The Mendelssohn Family_; Hiller's
_Mendelssohn: Letters and Recollections_; Devrient's _Recollections of
F.M. Bartholdy_ (translated by C.N. Macfarren).

CONTENTS

PAGE

BACH 3

HANDEL 37

HAYDN 89

MOZART 151

BEETHOVEN 215

SCHUBERT 269

MENDELSSOHN 315

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

GAZING AT ITS COVERS THROUGH THE LATTICE DOORS OF THE
CUPBOARD 4

BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON HE BEGAN HIS TASK 9

CHRISTOPH SEIZED THE MANUSCRIPT BOOK AND THE COPY 10

DURING THE WINTER MONTHS THE SCHOLARS WERE SENT OUT TO
SING IN THE STREETS 12

THE KING EXCLAIMED REPEATEDLY: 'ONLY ONE BACH! ONLY
ONE BACH!' 30

HANDEL'S BIRTHPLACE, HALLE, SAXONY