MACKENZIE.
Alexander C. Mackenzie, one of the very few successful Scotch composers, was born at Edinburgh in 1847. His father was a musician; and recognizing his son's talent, sent him to Germany at the age of ten. He began his studies with Ulrich Eduard Stein at Schwartzburg-Sonderhausen, and four years later entered the ducal orchestra as violinist. He remained there until 1862, when he went to England to study the violin with M. Sainton. In the same year he was elected king's scholar of the Royal Academy of Music. Three years later he returned to Edinburgh and established himself as a piano-teacher. The main work of his life, however, has been composition, and to this he has devoted himself with assiduity and remarkable success. Grove catalogues among his works: "Cervantes, an overture for orchestra;" a scherzo for ditto; overture to a comedy; a string quintet and many other pieces in MS.; pianoforte quartet in B, op. 11; Trois Morceaux pour Piano, op. 15; two songs, [199] op. 12; besides songs, part-songs, anthems, and pieces for the piano. This catalogue, however, does not include his two most important works,--a Scotch Rhapsody, introduced into this country by the Theodore Thomas orchestra, a composition of great merit, and the oratorio, "The Rose of Sharon," which has been received with extraordinary favor wherever it has been performed.