CHUMANN was a fervent admirer of Byron and in 1848. when he was thirty-eight, he put his whole heart into the composition of an Overture and fifteen pieces of incidental music for the stage presentation of the poet's drama, Manfred.
' Never,' he averred. ' have I expended such love and strength on any previous composition. - consiaer it, he wrote to Liszt, ' one of the finest children of my brain.'
The Overture does not seek to follow the incidents of the drama. It is a piece of mood painting, depicting the sombre, passionate character of Count Manfred, a man of bold and powerful impulses, who sold himself to the devil, lived aloof from men, and died very-much tormented by remorse.