Georges Kastner refers to the curfew as one of the oldest bell-ringings known, instituted originally by the Church to indicate the time of prayer and of an end to the daily tasks. Later adopted by the town authorities, it announced to some that they should go home; to others that they should not go out of doors, unless with a lighted lantern; to all that they should cover any fire for the night.

The curfew scene in Meyerbeer's "Huguenots," act iii., No. 19, is familiar to all.

IV. Minuetto e Musetta: Con moto, B minor, 3-8. Musetta: Aliquanto meno mosso, B major.

"Musette" in French is a diminutive of the Old French "muse," meaning "song." It was the name given to an instrument of the bagpipe family, consisting of two pipes or reeds and a drone; it was supplied with wind from a leathern reservoir. It was the name given to a small oboe without keys.

The term is also applied to an air of moderato tempo and simple character, such as might come from the instrument itself. This air has generally a pedal bass, which answers to the drone. Pastoral dances, also called musettes, were arranged to these airs, and they were popular in the time of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. Excellent examples of musettes are to be found in operas by Dalayrac, Destouches, and in the English suites by Bach.

The musette, the dance, originated, it is said, in the mountains of Clermont-Ferrand, and it took its name from the instrument which was played for it. The dance was a sort of bourrée of Auvergne, and it is still danced in Paris by coal-men and water-carriers on Sundays in wine-shops. One of these dance and wine shops, in the Place Maubert, displayed the sign Bal-Musette until 1891, when the building was torn down to make way for the extension of a street. The musette is danced in Paris with the utmost decorum; the dancers take pleasure in footing it to the music of their own country, and they often sing the old refrain:

Pour bien dançâ
Vivent les Auvergnats.

They stamp vigorously and rigidly in time. The ancient musette was

in two time with an organ-point at the end of each reprise, which was marked by a stamp of the foot. For the description of an earlier "Bal de la Musette" of the same general character see Delvau's "Les Cythères Parisiennes," pp. 48, 49 (Paris, 1864). A fresco showed a huge fellow seated sub tegmine fagi in his shirt sleeves, capped with a red fez and playing the musette. Delvau thus apostrophized the rude but decorous dancers: "O descendants of Vercingétorix! You make noise, but not scandal. I do not love you, but I hold you in high esteem." We are far from the garlanded shepherdesses dancing, the musette to the shepherd's pipe, far from the court dames playing the part of shepherdesses, far from Watteau's pictures.

In French slang "musette" means the voice; also the bag of oats which is attached to a horse's head; the bag in which the beasts often find only wind, as in the bag of the bagpipe. "Couper la musette" is the same as "to shut one up." "Jouer de la musette" is "to drink," probably because wine was once kept in skins, and those who drank from them were apparently playing the bagpipe.

V. Serenatina: Allegretto tranquillo, G major, 3-4. A melody for solo viola d'amore (or viola or violin) is accompanied by a guitar-like figure.

VI. Burlesca: Con molto brio, D major, 2-4. The movement opens with a short and riotous theme. In a contrasting section a second theme appears in syncopated rhythm. The chief theme is further developed and brings the end, after the second theme has again been used, this theme in D major.

Burla, Burlesca, Burleske, is a term given to "a musical joke or playful composition." J. G. Walther, in 1732, described an "ouverture burlesque": a farcical and jocular overture in which ridiculous melodies, founded on parallel octaves and fifths, were put side by side with serious matters. There is a burlesca in Bach's Partita, 3, in A minor, and Schumann wrote a Burla, op. 124, No. 12. The term has been given by more recent composers to pianoforte pieces. Richard Strauss's Burleske in D minor for pianoforte and orchestra was performed in Boston at a concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, April 18, 1903 (Mr. Gebhard, pianist).

AIR FROM "LOUISE," ACT III., SCENE I. . . . GUSTAVE CHARPENTIER

(Born at Dieuze, France, June 25, 1860; now living in Paris.)

Louise, having left her home, is living with Julien on the Butte de Montmartre. At the beginning of the third act, Julien, sitting in the little garden of their house with book in hand, is plunged in happy meditation. Louise, leaning on the railing of the steps, looks at him lovingly.

Depuis le jour ou je me suis donnée, toute fleurie semble ma destinée. Je crois rêver sous un ciel de féerie, l'âme encore grisée de ton premier baiser! Quelle belle vie! Mon rêve n'était pas un rêve! Ah! je suis heureuse! L'amour étend

sur moi ses ailes! Au jardin de mon cœur chante une joie nouvelle! Tout vibre, tout se réjouit de mon triomphe! Autour de moi tout est sourire, lumière et joie! et je tremble delicieusement au souvenir charmant du premier jour d'amour! Quelle belle vie! ah! je suis heureuse! trop heureuse . . . et je tremble delicieusement au souvenir charmant du premier jour d'amour!

Since the day that I first gave myself unto you, my destiny seems all in bloom. I seem to be dreaming under a fairy sky, with soul still intoxicated by your first embrace! What a beautiful life! My dream was not a dream! Ah! I am happy! Love stretches over me his wings. A new joy sings in the garden of my heart! Everything is astir, everything rejoices with my triumph. Around me all is laughter; light and joy, and I tremble deliciously at the charming remembrance of the first day of love. What a beautiful life and what happiness! I am too happy... and I tremble deliciously at the charming recollection of the first day of love.

"Louise," a musical romance in four acts and five scenes, libretto and music by Charpentier, was first produced at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, February 2, 1900. The chief singers were M. Maréchal, Julien; M. Fugère, the Father; Mlle. Rioton, Louise; Mme. DeschampJehin, the Mother; Mlle. Tiphaine, Irma.

**

Marthe Louise Estelle Élisa Rioton, the first Louise in Charpentier's opera, was born at Beaumont-les-Valence, France, February 18, 1878. She studied singing at the Conservatory of Music, Paris. In 1899 she took a first prize for singing, competing as the pupil of Duvernoy; also a first prize for opéra-comique, competing as a pupil of Lhérie. She made her first appearance in the opera house as Louise. In 1901 she married and left the stage.

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"Louise" was produced in Boston by Mr. Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House Company at the Boston Theatre, April 5, 1909. The chief singers were Miss Mary Garden, Mme. Doria, Miss Zeppelli, Charles Dalmorès, Charles Gilibert. Cleofonte Campanini conducted.

For the first time in the records of the Opéra-Comique, Paris, an opera, "Louise," was performed one hundred times within a year, nor had the sum of the total receipts, 666,250 francs, from this opera within the year been equalled.

A COMEDY OVERTURE FOR ORCHESTRA, OP. 120.

. MAX REGER

(Born at Brand, Bavaria, March 19, 1873; living at Leipsic.)

Eine Lustspiel Ouverture, dedicated to Ernst von Schuch, the distinguished general music director of the royal opera at Dresden, has just been published, and it will be performed at these concerts for the first time.

The overture is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two trumpets, four horns, kettledrums, triangle, and the usual strings.

It begins vivace, D major, 2-4, with the chief theme fortissimo. The chief second theme, molto grazioso, is announced by the first violins and the violoncellos. Other themes and fragments of themes are treated with the elaboration that is charactistic of Reger. The spirit of comedy is preserved throughout.

Reger is still a much-discussed man. Some regard him as the greatest living composer, for there are passionate Regerites; others admit his facility, and find no other quality in his voluminous works.

His mother began to give him piano lessons when he was about five years old. His father, Joseph Reger (1847-1905), was a schoolteacher, and the family moved to Weiden in 1874, a year after Max was born. At Weiden, Max studied the pianoforte with A. Lindner and harmony and the organ with his father. In August, 1888, he visited Bayreuth, and there heard an orchestra for the first time, in performances of "Parsifal" and "The Mastersingers of Nuremberg." He then began to compose, and he wrote songs, preludes, and fugues for the pianoforte, a pianoforte quartet, a string quartet, and an overture, "Héroïde funèbre." No one of these works has been published. He had attended the Royal Preparatory School at Weiden, and in August, 1889, he passed his examination at the Royal Training College for Teachers at Amberg, but Dr. Hugo Riemann (1824-96) persuaded him to become a professional musician, and in 1890 Reger entered the Conservatory of Music at Sondershausen, where he studied theory,