George Fox (Nov. 6); "Serenade in E Flat " (op. 7), for four wood wind instruments and four horns by Richard Strauss (Nov. 6), first time in England; "Variations on the Old English Air Three Blind Mice'" (op. 48), by Joseph Holbrooke (Nov. 8); and "Duet in G for Two Flutes " by Beethoven (Nov. 8), first time in England. A new vocalist of exceptional promise, who appeared on October 16, was Miss Florence Schmidt, an Australian soprano. Her voice, which is of beautiful quality, is well produced, and her singing possesses much charm. Dr. Hans Richter gave short summer and autumn series of orchestral concerts. No actual novelties were produced, but at the concert on October 22, Liszt's rarely heard symphonic poem "The Battle of the Huns," suggested by Kaulbach's famous picture, was performed. A notable feature of the first series, and indeed of the musical year, was the first appearance, at the concert on June 18, of Johann Kubelik, a young violinist who played Wilhelmj's arrangement of Paganini's "Concerto in D" (op. 6). All judges of violin playing agree in their praise of his marvellous execution, faultless intonation, and full, rich tone. 66 The second part of the forty-fourth series of Saturday Concerts at the Crystal Palace opened on February 24, when the first performance in England was given of Berlioz's "Ruy Blas " overture; Mme. Carreño played the solo in Rubinstein's "Fourth Pianoforte Concerto in D Minor" (op. 70). The following novelties were also produced: A symphonic poem, "The Raven," by Joseph Holbrooke; an Adagio" by Goldmark, played by César Thomson, and a Passacaglia" of his own (March 3); a symphonic poem in C minor, "Walt Whitman," by Wm. H. Bell (second movement omitted) (March 10); “Concert-Overture in E Flat" (op. 35), by Herr Julius Klengel (March 17); "Pianoforte Concerto in D Minor" (op. 23), by E. A. MacDowell, played by Mme. Carreño (April 7). At Mr. Manns's Benefit Concert on April 28, the second movement, "Humoreske," from Mr. W. H. Bell's "Walt Whitman" symphony (omitted on March 10), was performed for the first time. In the autumn the Crystal Palace Saturday Concerts were conducted on an entirely new plan. On October 13, 20, and November 3, the Queen's Hall Band, under Henry J. Wood, journeyed to Sydenham and gave performances to large audiences. The concerts on October 27 and November 10 were conducted by August Manns, and that on November 17 by Dr. Richter. The concert on November 10 included the prelude to Elgar's sacred cantata "The Dream of Gerontius," produced at the Birmingham Festival. At the orchestral concert given by M. Ysaye on May 17, the great violinist performed three concertos, viz., Bach's in E., Beethoven's and Mendelssohn's. On November 14 and 19 M. Ysaye gave two concerts at which he appeared as the conductor of the Queen's Hall Band with great success, and introduced some new works of the French school. Sgr. Busoni gave very fine renderings of Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto and Rubinstein's "Concerto in E Flat." The novelties referred to were: the Overture to "Sancho," by Jaques Dalcroze; César Franck's "Chasseur Maudit"; Vincent d'Indy's Prelude to " Fervaal" and "Symphonic Variations 'Istar'"; and M. Duparo's symphonic poem "Lénore." Orchestral concerts were given also by Mr. John Dunn who played Beethoven's "Violin Concerto," and Tschaikowsky's "Concerto in D" (op. 35), Mr. Hamish MacCunn conducting (Feb. 20); and by Mr. Henry Such on November 16. Mention may also be made of the production on March 21, by the Westminster Orchestral Society of a new orchestral suite, "Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales," by Mr. Harry Farjeon (son of the novelist and grandson of Jefferson). In the department of chamber music several combinations did good work. At the Saturday Popular Concert on January 13, Herr Mühlfeld reappeared when a "Sonata in G for Pianoforte and Clarinet," by Herr Gustav Jenner was produced. On March 5, Hugo Becker played Tschaikowsky's "Variations sur un theme rococo for violoncello" (op. 33), this being the first performance of the complete work in England. On March 19 was given the fifteen hundredth Popular Concert, M. Ysaye appearing as leading violinist. On the resumption of these concerts in November, the quartet was led by Herr Halir, and Lady Hallé reappeared in the same month. Several novelties were produced at Mr. G. A. Clinton's excellent concerts, including Wm. Y. Hurlstone's "Suite in G Minor for Clarinet and Pianoforte" (April 2); Mr. R. H. Walthew's "Mosaic in Ten Pieces" for clarinet and pianoforte; and a MS. “Grand Suite in B Flat" (op. 14) by Herr Richard Strauss, for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, four horns, two bassoons and contra bassoon. Pianoforte recitals were given by Mme. Carreño, Herren Rosenthal, Dohnányi, Reisenauer and Kupferschmid, Sgr. Busoni, Leonard Borwick and Frederick Dawson. Following his success at the Richter Concert, Johann Kubelik gave six violin recitals at which he confirmed the favourable impression already made, but played only one violin concerto--Mendelssohn's. M. Ysaye combined with Sgr. Busoni in giving a violin and pianoforte recital when superb renderings were given of the works chosen. Among the vocal recitals mention may be made of those given by Marie Brema, Blanche Marchesi, Plunket Greene and Dr. Theodore Lierhammer. The royal opera season at Covent Garden began May 14, but the only novelty produced (July 12) was Puccini's "La Tosca," founded on Sardou's play. In spite of the blood-curdling character of the story, the work, owing to the beauty of the music and the splendid rendering of the chief part by Fräulein Ternina, achieved a decided success. The opera was repeated on July 16. Performances were given of the "Nibelungen Ring" Cycle (twice); "Lohengrin," "Tannhäuser," "Die Meistersinger," "Les Huguenots," "Faust," "Romeo and Juliet,” "Carmen," "La Bohème," "Don Giovanni," "Il Barbiere," "Rigoletto," "Aïda," "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Pagliacci." "A The reformed Royal Carl Rosa Company gave first performances in London, at suburban theatres, of Sgr. Spinelli's three-act opera, Basso Porto" (Nov. 14), and Gounod's "Cinq-Mars" (Nov. 17), and the first performance in England of Goldmark's "Cricket on the Hearth" (Nov. 23). The Royal College of Music gave a revival of Weber's "Euryanthe' (Nov. 30) at Daly's Theatre; the Royal Academy produced a new one-act comic opera, "The Registry Office," by Harry Farjeon (June 29); and the Guildhall School produced a two-act romantic opera by H. Waldo Warner, entitled "The Royal Vagrants." As regards light opera mention need only be made of the successful revivals at the Savoy Theatre of "The Pirates of Penzance" and "Patience," and the continued run of “San Toy" at Daly's Theatre. At Her Majesty's Theatre in January Mr. Beerbohm Tree revived Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream," with Mendelssohn's music, performed in its entirety. At the subsequent production of Stephen Phillips' play, "Herod," the incidental music performed was specially composed by Coleridge-Taylor. Cambridge University conferred honorary degrees on F. H. Cowen and Edward Elgar, while Dublin University conferred the same honour on W. H. Cummings. An excellent musical exhibition was arranged at the Crystal Palace, in connection with which lectures were given by well-known musicians. In addition to the names given at the beginning of this article the obituary list of the year includes Dr. E. G. Monk, formerly organist of York Minster (Jan. 3); Battison Haynes, composer, etc. (Feb. 4); Major Charles Russell Day, author of "Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan" (Feb. 18); Carl Bechstein, founder and chief of the great pianoforte manufacturing house in Berlin (March 6); Hermann Levi, eminent Wagnerian conductor (May 13); Heinrich Vogl, German tenor (April 21); Dr. C. Swinnerton Heap, chorus-master of the Birmingham Festival, and holder of the Mendelssohn Scholarship in succession to Sir Arthur Sullivan (June 11); Marie Krebs, once a favourite pianist at the Popular Concerts (June 26); John Hopkins, organist of Rochester Cathedral (Aug. 27); Friedrich Nietzsche, the distinguished philosophical writer, well known in connection with controversies in regard to Wagner's theories of operatic reform (Aug. 25); Wm. Beatty-Kingston, author of "Music and Manners" (Oct. 4); Henry Russell, popular song-writer, author of "Cheer, boys, cheer!" (Dec. 8); Jules P. Rivière, well-known conductor (Dec. 26); and Dr. Wm. Pole, F.R.S., writer on musical subjects (Dec. 30). OBITUARY OF EMINENT PERSONS DECEASED IN 1900. JANUARY. At Dr. Martineau. - James Martineau, one of the most prominent men of the century as a theologian and a teacher, was the son of Thomas Martineau of Norwich, a camlet maker and wine merchant, of a Huguenot family which settled in Norwich after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. James Martineau, who was a younger brother of Harriet Martineau, was born on April 21, 1805, and was educated first at the Norwich Grammar School (1815-9) under Dr. Valpy, whence he was transferred to Dr. Lant Carpenter's school at Bristol (1819-21), where his mind received its first impulse. this time it was intended that he should become a civil engineer, but his love of speculative study and his desire to enter the Unitarian ministry weighed with his father, who consented to his giving up his apprenticeship and entering the Manchester New College at York (1823-5), where he devoted himself to the study of theology and philosophy. At the conclusion of his course he was for a short time an assistant master in Dr. Lant Carpenter's school; but he felt that his work lay elsewhere, and in 1823 was appointed junior minister of the Presbyterian Meeting House in Dublin, where he remained four years. soon made his mark as a preacher, and might have had a brilliant career in Ireland had he not felt conscientious objections to taking a share of the Crown endowment known as the Regium Donum. Shortly after leaving Dublin he married Helen, daughter of Rev. E. Higginson of Derby, and for some time devoted himself to study; but in 1832 he accepted an offer from Liver He pool, and was appointed second minister of Paradise Street Chapel, and some time afterwards made his reputation as a brilliant controversialist and as the champion of the more liberal and more spiritual phase of Unitarianism, of which Channing had been the earliest exponent. By 1840 his position was so fully recognised that he was unanimously appointed Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at Manchester New College, and during the forty-five years of his occupancy of the Chair, by the elevation of his life and teaching, he left an indelible mark on the thought of his day. In 1848-9 he was absent for fifteen months in Germany, where his philosophical views underwent a considerable change which was especially due to the lectures of Professor Treudelenburg, a distinguished Aristotelian. He returned to Liverpool, where his chapel had been rebuilt, and remained there for ten years longer, when he was called to London to assist his friend John James Taylor in the ministry of Little Portland Street Chapel, becoming sole minister two years later, and remained there until 1872, when from failing strength he finally retired from the work of the ministry, although from time to time he occupied the pulpits of friends. During all this time he had been contributing articles to reviews, sometimes critical, sometimes controversial, but marked by comprehensiveness, suggestiveness and sweetness; and never lowered by personal or malicious feeling. In 1866 he was put forward by his friends as a candidate for the Chair of Logic at University College, London; but Mr. Grote, who swayed a majority of the governing body, was strongly opposed to the election of a clergyman, and Mr. Croom Robertson was preferred to Dr. Martineau. Honours, however, had been heaped upon him from all sides; the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Harvard College, Cambridge, U.S.A., in 1872; of D.D. by the University of Leyden in 1875, and by the University of Edinburgh in 1884; of D.C.L. by the University of Oxford in 1888, and of Litt.D. by the University of Dublin in 1892. He was a frequent contributor to the Westminster, National, and other reviews, as well as to various periodicals. His later works, "Types of Ethical Theory," "The Seat of Authority in Religion" and "Endeavours after the Christian Life," together with the volumes of sermons which he published, show his mind in its maturity and the change wrought by him in the mechanical teaching of the Unitarian Church. He counted among his friends the most distinguished men in Church and State as well as in the world of letters and science, and the simplicity and sweetness of his nature were such that he attached to himself those whose views were most opposed to his own as strongly as those of whom he was the acknowledged leader. The later years of his life, which he devoted to study, were passed partly in London and partly at his cottage near Aviemore in the Scotch Highlands. He retained his intellectual powers unimpaired to the last, and no little of his vigour. He passed away at his house in Gordon Square on January 11 after a very short illness. John Ruskin, the son of "an entirely honest merchant" was born in Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, London, in February, 1819, but removed with his family to Herne Hill in 1823, at that time quite in the country, although within four miles of his father's house of business in Billiter Street. Whilst still a boy he accompanied his father when travelling for orders, and in this way formed an early acquaintance with Wales and the north of England. Of his early life he left an ample autobiographical record, from which the details of his early training can be gathered. "On the whole the one essential part of all my education" was the Bible teaching he received from his mother, by whom he was taken through the Book every year. For some years his education was carried on under a private tutor, but in 1834 he was sent to Peckham School, then under Rev. Thomas Dale, who was subsequently known as a leading evangelical preacher. His earliest taste was for mineralogy, but Greek and English composition were subjects which afterwards occupied his attention. His mother's desire was that her only son should be admitted to holy orders, and with this view she fostered the idea of a university course; but he had inherited more of his father's love of art than of his mother's religious ambition, and the Turner drawings which the former collected seem to have determined the bias of the son's mind. In 1836 he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner, and in 1839 won the Newdigate Prize for English verse on the subject "Salsette and Elephanta." Soon afterwards his health gave way and he was unable to present himself to the examiners; but in accordance with the then-existing regulations he was admitted M.A. in 1842. During his Oxford period he had, both from choice and by the doctor's orders, spent much of his time abroad, where he had pursued his love of art by lessons in painting from Prout and others, and had found ample material for sustaining his individual views. In 1843 the limited world which then was interested in art and art criticism was startled by the appearance of the first volume of Modern Painters " by a Graduate of Oxford; a book of remarkable eloquence, of close reasoning and delicate appreciativeness, in which the author claimed "to come forward to declare and demonstrate wherever they exist the essence and the authority of the beautiful and the true." Two editions of the first volume of "Modern Painters" had been exhausted before the second volume was published in 1846, and two further volumes appeared in 1856, and the fifth and concluding volume was delayed until 1860, by which time the principles laid down by the author had in a great measure been accepted in theory, although the artists who could put them in practice were only beginning to obtain recognition. Meanwhile he had brought his critical faculties to bear upon a sister art, and in his "Seven Lamps of Architecture" (1849) and in "The Stones of Venice" (1851-3), his minute observation, careful analysis and a real enthusiasm for what was true and beautiful enabled him to speak with the voice of authority, and he was recognised as a leader of an G |