blossoms.  He was buried from the Madeleine, October thirtieth.  The B flat minor Funeral March, orchestrated by Reber, was given, and during the service Lefebure Wely played on the organ the E and B minor Preludes.  His grave in Pere Lachaise is sought out by many travelers who admire his great art.  It is difficult to find the tomb in that crowded White City, but no doubt all music lovers seek to bring away at least a leaf—­as did the writer—­from the earthly resting place of the most ideal pianist and composer who ever lived.

Chopin was preeminently a composer for the piano.  With the exception of the Trio, Op. 8 and a book of Polish songs, everything he wrote was for his favorite instrument.  There are seventy-one opus numbers in the list, but often whole sets of pieces are contained in one opus number, as is the case with the Etudes, of which there are twelve in Op. 10, and the same in Op. 25.  These Etudes take up every phase of piano technic; each one has a definite aim, yet each is a beautiful finished work as music.  They have been edited and re-edited by the greatest masters.

The twenty-four Preludes were composed before the trip to Majorca, though they were perfected and polished while there.  Written early in his career, they have a youthful vigor not often found in later works.  “Much in miniature are these Preludes of the Polish poet,” says Huneker.

There are four Impromptus and four Ballades, also four Scherzos.  In them the composer is free, fascinating, often bold and daring.  The great Fantaisie, Op. 49, is an epic poem, much as the Barcarolle is a poem of love.  The two Sonatas, not to mention an early effort in this form, are among the modern classics, which are bound to appear on the programs of every great pianist of the present, and doubtless of the future.  The two Concertos are cherished by virtuosi and audience alike, and never fail to make an instant and lasting appeal.

And think of the eleven Polonaises, those courtly dances, the most characteristic and national of his works; the fourteen Valses, beloved of every young piano student the world over; the eighteen Nocturnes, of starry night music; the entrancing Mazurkas, fifty-two in number.  One marvels, in merely glancing over the list, that the composer, who lived such a super-sensitive hectic life, whose days were so occupied with lesson giving, ever had the time to create such a mass of music, or the energy to write it.

When one considers the amount of it, the beauty, originality and glory of it, one must acknowledge Frederic Chopin as one of the greatest piano geniuses of all time.

XIII

HECTOR BERLIOZ

In the south of France, near Grenoble, is found a romantic spot, La Cote Saint-Andre.  It lies on a hillside overlooking a wide green and golden plain, and its dreamy majesty is accentuated by the line of mountains that bounds it on the southeast.  These in turn are crowned by the distant glory of snowy peaks and Alpine glaciers.  Here one of the most distinguished men of the modern movement in French musical art, Hector Berlioz, first saw the light, on December 11, 1803.