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- Music
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How to Listen to Music
This book is "not written for professional musicians, but for untaught lovers of the art". It gives broad instruction on composers, styles, instruments, venues - and when to believe the critics. -
Music Notation and Terminology
A definitive text dealing with the theory and practice of Western music in the 20th Century. -
For Every Music Lover
A series of essays for music lovers, covering many topics. From music appreciation, to violin and symphony, music education, to piano and, in fact, the very origins of music, there is sure to be something for everyone. -
Piano and Song
This book talks about teaching, learning and performing on the piano in a delightful style, alternating between conversation and instruction. As he was the father of Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann's teacher, need I say more? -
Chopin: the Man and His Music
A biography of the Polish composer and virtuoso pianist Frédéric Chopin and a critical analysis of his work by American music writer and critic James Huneker. -
Popular History of the Art of Music
Preface by W.S.B. Mathews: I have here endeavored to provide a readable account of the entire history of the art of music, within the compass of a single small volume, and to treat the luxuriant and many-sided later development with the particularity proportionate to its importance, and the greater interest appertaining to it from its proximity to the times of the reader.
The range of the work can be most easily estimated from the Table of Contents (pages 5-10). It will be seen that I have attempted to cover the same extent of history, in treating of which the standard musical histories of Naumann, Ambros, Fétis and others have employed from three times to ten times as much space. In the nature of the case there will be differences of opinion among competent judges concerning my success in this difficult undertaking. Upon this point I can only plead absolute sincerity of purpose, and a certain familiarity with the ground to be covered, due to having treated it in my lectures in the Chicago Musical College for five years, to the extent of about thirty-five lectures yearly. I have made free use of all the standard histories—those of Fétis, Ambros, Naumann, Brendel, Gevaert, Hawkins, Burney, the writings of Dr. Hugo Riemann, Dr. Ritter, Prof. Fillmore, and the dictionaries of Grove and Mendel, as well as many monographs in all the leading modern languages. -
Shakespeare and Music
Shakespeare's plays are full of music: love songs, comic ditties, serious ballads, and songs for witches and spirits. Over the centuries musicians and composers have also created musical adaptations based on Shakespeare's plays. Composer Christopher Wilson's Shakespeare and Music (1922) documents the musical history of each play across various genres, including opera and incidental music. -
Mozart's Youth
This short account of the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is part of the “Life Stories for Young People” series. It is written in an engaging dialogue format beginning with the young Mozart’s first notes on the piano keyboard at age three to his admission to membership in the Accademia Filarmonica at Bologna, Italy, ten years later. This child prodigy astounded the musical world of Europe to become one of the most cherished of all classical composers. -
How to Appreciate Music
Originally published in 1906, this book is essentially a how to guide on music appreciation. Includes sections on the pianoforte, orchestral, and vocal music. Good for anyone who wishes for a greater appreciation of the wonders of music. -
Pianoforte Sonata
John S. Shedlock covers the history of what might now be called the keyboard sonata, from Kuhnau's Sonata in B flat from 1695, believed at the time to be the earliest keyboard sonata, up the present day. Along the way, works by Emanuel Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt and others are looked at, along with many musical extracts. -
Case of Wagner / Nietzsche Contra Wagner / Selected Aphorisms
A collection of three of Nietzsche's writings concerning the music of Wagner. In particular, he relates Wagner's music as degenerate, unrefined and unintelligent and relates it to a gradually degenerating German culture and society. The translator provides a detailed introduction. -
Art of Music - Volume 02: Classicism and Romanticism
Volume 2 in the "The Art of Music" series, published by the National Society of Music. This first volume covers the Classical and Romantic periods, encompassing: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, opera in Italy and France, Romanticism, song literature, pianoforte and chamber music, orchestral literature, romantic opera, choral song, Wagner and Wagnerism, Brahms, Franck, Verdi and other contemporaries. -
Perfect Wagnerite
The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring (originally published London, 1898) is a philosophical commentary on Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, by the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw. Shaw offered it to those enthusiastic admirers of Wagner who "were unable to follow his ideas, and do not in the least understand the dilemma of Wotan." He interprets the Ring in Marxian terms as an allegory of the collapse of capitalism from its internal contradictions. Musicologically, his interpretation is noteworthy for its perception of the change in aesthetic direction beginning with the final scene of Siegfried, in which he claimed that the cycle turns from Musikdrama back towards opera. -
Life of Ludwig Van Beethoven, Vol. 1
The first of three volumes of the first scholarly biography of Ludwig van Beethoven. Covers the years 1770-1802. -
Seven Lively Arts
“... But, beside those great men, there is a certain number of artists who have a distinct faculty of their own by which they convey to us a peculiar quality of pleasure which we cannot get elsewhere; and these, too, have their place in general culture, and must be interpreted to it by those who have felt their charm strongly, and are often the objects of a special diligence and a consideration wholly affectionate, just because there is not about them the stress of a great name and authority.” -
Piano Tuning: A Simple and Accurate Method for Amateurs
This is a primer for anyone wishing to learn how to tune and maintain their own piano or to become a piano tuner. Written in 1907, it was targeted at a definite need for additional piano maintenance professionals in those days when pianos were almost ubiquitous. In addition, there are several chapters dealing with the theory and application of temperaments which will be of interest to any serious student of music. Please note that Concert Pitch as used in the book equates to A-454, considerably higher than today's standard of A-440. -
Life of Mozart Volume 1
An in depth look into the life of one of the greatest ever composers and musicians. Mozart was truly a gifted individual and this is an interesting look at both his family life and his musical career. Summary by Michele Eaton -
Joseph Haydn; Servant And Master
Haydn, barring a few hardships in his youth, lived an extraordinarily fortunate life and had abundant reason for the optimism which marked every step of his progress.... Haydn was a master by the grace of Heaven and a servant only by the artificial conventions of a temporary social order... About the vast number of symphonies, the magnificent string quartets, the clavier works, the songs there can here be no question. -
Modern Scottish Minstrel
Subtitled "Songs of Scotland of the Past Half-Century, with Memoirs of the Poets, and Sketches and Specimens in English Verse of the Most Celebrated Modern Gaelic Bards." -
Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians
Elbert Hubbard describes the homes of authors, poets, social reformers and other prestigious people, reflecting on how their surroundings may have influenced them. These short essays are part biography and part pontification of Hubbard's opinion of the subject and their oeuvre.
In this volume he reflects on the lives of great musicians. Included are Richard Wagner, Paganini, Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann, Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelsohn, Franz Liszt, Ludwig van Beethoven, George Handel, Giuseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Johannes Brahms. -
Art of Music - Volume 01: The Pre-Classic Periods
Volume 1 in the "The Art of Music" series, published by the National Society of Music. This first volume covers the "Pre-Classic periods", from early human primitive music, through to the music of the Ancient Greeks and other ancient cultures, plainsong, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and up until the music of J.S. Bach. Included are musical examples, which are performed in the audio as they appear in the text.
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Physiology of the Opera
Trust Scrici for a tell all, no holds barred exposé of the modern opera . . . well, modern as of . . . er . . . say, 1852. -
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s earthly career was so poignantly short yet so filled with incalculable achievement that the author of this booklet finds himself confronted with an impossible task. He has, consequently, preferred to outline as best he could in the space at his disposal a few successive details of a life that was amazingly crowded with incident, early triumphs, and subsequent crushing tragedies, rather than to consider (let alone evaluate) the staggering creative abundances the master bequeathed mankind. -
Stories of Symphonic Music
'A guide to the meaning of important symphonies, overtures and tone-poems from Beethoven to the present day'. Gilman became notorious for scathing reviews of compositions later to become classics. Here he analyzes the stories behind some famous and not so famous works. -
Stories From The Operas
"Owing to the appreciation which has been accorded to my three series of "Stories from the Operas," it has been decided to re-issue the collection in one volume, and to include in this additional stories of new and popular operas recently produced in England.
The plan of the work, as before, is to present all the incidents of each libretto in the clear, readable form of a short story; and it is hoped that the combined volume will continue to prove of interest, not only to opera-goers but to all lovers of dramatic tales. The three volumes have been entirely reset and re-collated in a manner which it is hoped will make them easier for reference." -
George Frideric Handel
Handel’s long career resembles a gigantic tapestry, so bewilderingly crowded with detail, so filled with turmoil and vicissitude, with vast achievements, extremes of good and ill fortune, and unending comings and goings that any attempt to force even a small part of it into the frame of a tiny, unpretentious booklet of the present sort is as hopeless as it is presumptuous.... Handel was time and again a composer of exquisitely delicate colorations, and sensuous style, not to say a largely unsuspected master of many subtle intricacies of rhythm. The present pamphlet, wholly without originality or novelty of approach, may, perchance, induce the casual reader to renew his interest in Handel’s prodigious treasury, so much of it neglected, not to say actually undiscovered by multitudes of music lovers. -
Schubert And His Works
This is a short introduction to Franz Schubert’s life and works. “…to give the casual radio listener a slight idea of Schubert’s inundating fecundity and inspiration. Like Bach, like Haydn, like Mozart, Schubert’s capacity for creative labor staggers the imagination… Volumes would not exhaust the wonder of his myriad creations. If this tiny book serves to heighten even a little the reader’s interest in such songs, symphonies, piano or chamber works of Schubert as come to his attention over the air it will have achieved the most that can be asked of it.” This book was published by The Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. -
Descriptive Analyses of Piano Works
A look at the poetic motivations behind certain piano works. An understanding of these pieces on purely poetic grounds, with little insight into the technical or objective side of the music. How to understand the pieces in terms of an assumed poetical meaning for performer and listener. -
Biographical Notice Of Nicolo Paganini With An Analysis Of His Compositions And A Sketch Of The History Of The Violin
Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini (1782 – 1840) was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. François-Joseph Fétis (1784 – 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. -
Richard Strauss
There was not much truly spectacular about the course of [Strauss's] life, which was most happily free from the material troubles which bedeviled the existence of so many great masters... If “Salome” and “Elektra”, “Ein Heldenleben” and “Till Eulenspiegel” were in their day scandalously “sensational” did not the whirligig of time reveal them as incontestable products of genius, irrespective of inequalities and flaws? However Richard Strauss compares in the last analysis with this or that master he contributed to the language of music idioms, procedures and technical accomplishments typical of the confused years and conflicting ideals out of which they were born. His works are most decidedly of an age, whether or not they are for all time! From Author's Foreword. -
Ludwig Van Beethoven
The late Pitts Sanborn wrote this booklet under the title Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies... I have left Mr. Sanborn’s pages on the symphonies virtually intact and have only expanded the work a little by incorporating here and there matter about other major works of Beethoven’s, especially some of the concertos, overtures, piano and vocal works, besides certain of the greater specimens of his chamber music.,,, I have followed it in order to supply a rather fuller picture of the composer’s creative achievements. -
Robert Schumann, Tone Poet Prophet And Critic
[This is] the sketchiest outline of Robert Schumann’s short life but amazingly rich achievement. Together with Haydn and Schubert he was, perhaps, the most completely lovable of the great masters. It is hard, moreover, to think of a composer more strategically placed in his epoch or more perfectly timed in his coming. Tone poet, fantast, critic, visionary, prophet—he was all of these! And he passed through every phase, it seemed, of romantic experience. The great and even the semi-great of a fabulous period of music were his intimates—personages like Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Moscheles, Ferdinand David, Hiller, Joachim, Brahms. He won the woman he loved after a bitter struggle against a tyrannical father-in-law. He created much of the world’s greatest piano music, many of its loveliest songs, four great symphonies, superb chamber compositions and a good deal else. -
Mendelssohn And Certain Masterworks
In the compass of the present pamphlet it is impossible to give more than a cursory survey of Mendelssohn’s happy but extraordinarily crowded life. He was only slightly less prolific a composer than such masters as Bach, Mozart or Schubert, even if he did not reach the altitude of their supreme heights. But irrespective of the quality of much of his output, the sheer mass of it is astounding, the more so when we consider the extent of his travels and the unceasing continuity of his professional and social activities, which immensely exceeded anything of the kind in the career of Schubert or Bach.