RICHARD WAGNER.

Modern Music.

By Henry T. Finck.

Youth-time; early ambitions as a composer.

Weber, his fascinator and first inspirer.

“Der Freischuetz” and “Euryanthe” prototypes of his operas.

Their supernatural, mythical, and romantic elements.

What he owed to his predecessors acknowledged in his essay on “The Music of the Future” (1860).

Marriage and early vicissitudes.

“Rienzi,” “The Novice of Palermo,” and “The Flying Dutchman”.

Writes stories and essays for musical publications.

After many disappointments wins success at Dresden.

“Tannhaeuser” and “Lohengrin”.

Compromises himself in Revolution of 1849 and has to seek safety in
Switzerland.

Here he conceives and partly writes the “Nibelung Tetralogy”.

Discouragements at London and at Paris.

“Siegfried” and “Tristan and Isolde”.

Finds a patron in Ludwig II. of Bavaria.

Nibelung Festival at Bayreuth.

“Parsifal” appears; death of Wagner at Vienna (1882).

Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin.

Other eminent composers and pianists.

Liszt as a contributor to current of modern music.

Berlioz, Saint-Saens, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Strauss, and Weber.

“The Music of the Future” the music of the present.

JOHN RUSKIN.

Modern art.

By G. Mercer Adam.

Passionate and luminous exponent of Nature’s beauties.

His high if somewhat quixotic ideal of life.

Stimulating writings in ethics, education, and political economy.

Frederic Harrison on Ruskin’s stirring thoughts and melodious speech.

Birth and youth-time; Collingwood’s “Life” and his own “Praeterita”.

Defence of Turner and what it grew into.

Architectural writings, lectures, and early publications.

Interest in Pre-Raphaelitism and its disciples.

Growing fame; with admiring friends and correspondents.

On the public platform; personal appearance of the man.

Economic and socialistic vagaries.

F. Harrison on “Ruskin as Prophet” and teacher.

Inspiring lay sermons and minor writings.

Reformer and would-be regenerator of modern society.

Attitude towards industrial problems of his time.

Founds the communal “Guild of St. George”.

Philanthropies, and lecturings in “Working Men’s College”.

Death and epoch-making influence, in modern art.

HERBERT SPENCER.

The evolutionary philosophy.

By Mayo W. Hazeltine.