Norwegian arms in escutcheon (the gift of the New York Philharmonic Society) to be run out from the window overlooking the fjord. Immediately the band played with infinite sweetness an original composition of the master. This was followed by a superb Norwegian air to which Björnson had written the words; and this was succeeded by the proud National Hymn. At the close, dipping its flag, the head of the fleet silently moved away. The successive vessels, slowly following, dipped their flags in turn, and passed on around the island to resume their course.'

Alas that this fleet should have been the herald of the convoy of steamers that a few weeks later gave such mournful and impressive dignity to the sorrow of Norway, when the mortal remains of Ole Bull were borne by sea to their last resting-place in Bergen, where he was born!

In his magnificent speech to the assembled thousands after the interment, Björnstjerne Björnson rightly said :—

'Ole Bull was loved-this we see to-day; he was honoured; but it is more to be loved than to be honoured.' And again: 'He always felt himself our representative; and if he felt there was need, let it be at home or abroad, that Ole

Olsen Viol, Norse Norman from Norway (a nickname he gave himself), should appear, he never failed us.'

'Now long that instrument has ceased to sound,

Now long that gracious form in earth has lain,
Tended by Nature only, and unwound

Are all those mingled threads of love and pain;
So let us weep and bend

Our heads, and wait the end,

Knowing that God creates not thus in vain.'

BUXTEHUDE

1637-1707

NE of the most fascinating pleasures of the researcher and student of musical annals is that of unravelling the threads of history, finding here and there a clue whereby the record of many a forgotten master may be disentombed from the dusty shelves of the disused library, or disinterred from its cherished grave among the treasures of the bibliophile.

Who to-day, of the general musical world, is filled with enthusiasm at the name of Buxtehude? How many of the myriads of organlovers even know the name of the great master of that noble instrument? And yet his name is inseparably interwoven with that of his worldfamous pupil, Bach. Still following the magical thread of history, we come to Jan Pieter Sweelinck, born at Amsterdam about October 1562, who was in his turn pupil of Jakob Buyck, pastor of the old Dutch church in which his father presided as organist, and whose place

he filled when the elder Sweelinck was laid to rest in the quiet old God's-acre adjoining. It is recorded that for a generation he formed the pride and glory of Amsterdam, where he founded a school of organists, which began with Scheidemann, who was the master of Reinecke, the famous organist of Lübeck, and at whose feet the boy Bach first drank of the knowledge perfected by Buxtehude. What more interesting study of the glorious art of organ music than to contemplate the progress of an art wherein its exponents were bound by an unbroken chain of descent, beginning with Sweelinck and culminating in Bach? At once a composer of high attainments and a virtuoso of great skill-for he was a famous player of the clavicymbal and lute-Sweelinck improved the organ by many inventions, most important of which was the pedal. So great was his fame, that Van Dyck sought him in order to paint a portrait of his distinguished contemporary. The painting represents the old musician in ruffle and skull-cap; the brow broad and high, the eyes dreamy and introspective, the nose aquiline; while the pointed beard and moustache conceal the lower part of the face, but do not detract from the picturesque aspect of the noble head.

Sweelinck was considered a most extra

ordinary musician in his time, and at his death one of the most distinguished poets of the day, Vondel, wrote his epitaph in verse, in which he apostrophised the dead virtuoso as the ' Phoenix of Music.' The last work of Sweelinck was a requiem written for the obsequies of the Emperor Leopold.

When a youth of sixteen, Buxtehude sought the old master-who even in his declining years retained the fire of his art—and enrolled himself as a pupil of the veteran organist. To this fortunate step Buxtehude owed much of the success of his career, for the secrets of the master were ungrudgingly revealed to the pupil -an example not lost on the young student, who, unlike Reinecke, loved to bestow his knowledge and methods on those worthy of receiving them. It is well known that Reinecke jealously guarded his methods, and only studied in secret, with closed doors and sometimes muffled pedals. The instance of his harshness to young Bach, when the boy trudged miles to listen to his practising, no doubt restrained him in after years from placing himself under the tutorship of the crotchety musician, and induced him to seek Buxtehude instead-for the fame of both was at that time equally well known.

Dietrich Buxtehude was born in Helsingör,