CORNELIUS, CARL AUGUST PETER German musician and poet, born at Mainz, son of an actor at Wiesbaden, grandson of the engraver Ignaz Cornelius, and nephew of Cornelius the painter, was himself intended to be an actor, but turned his attention to music. In 1852 he came in touch with Liszt, and at Weimar he heard Berlioz' delightful Benvenuto Cellini, a work which ultimately exercised great influence over him. For the time, however, he devoted himself, on Liszt's advice, to Church compositions, the influence of the Church on him at that time being so great that he applied, but vainly, for a place in a Jesuit college. At the same time his mind was bent on the pro duction of a long contemplated comic opera, but the composition of this was delayed by the work of translating the prefaces to Liszt's symphonic poems and the texts of works by Berlioz and Rubinstein. Eventually, however, he wrote the Barbier von Bag dad, supplying the "book" as well as the music himself, and on Dec. 15, 1858, the opera was produced at Weimar under Liszt. It was however completely misunderstood by the public of that day, and hissed off the stage, whereupon Liszt indignantly re signed his post. Shortly afterwards Cornelius went to Vienna and Munich, and still later came very much under Wagner's influence. Subsequently his opera Le Cid was completed and produced at Weimar. For the last nine years of his life (1865-74) Cornelius was occupied with his opera Gunlod and other compositions, be sides writing ably and abundantly on Wagner's music-dramas. In 1867 he became teacher of rhetoric and harmony at the Musikschule, Munich, and married Berthe Jung. He died on the 26th of October, 1874. Not the least of Cornelius's many claims to fame was his remarkable versatility. Many of his original poems, as well as his translations from the French, rank high. Among his songs, special mention may be made of the lovely "Weihnachtslieder," and of the "Vatergruf t," an unaccompanied vocal work for baritone solo and choir.