NOTE
The chapters of this volume, except three, appeared originally as articles in the New York Sun in the course of the two years during which I have had the honor to serve that paper. The first half of the chapter on "Strauss and the Song Writers" and the chapter entitled "The Classic of the Unprogressive" were first printed in the New York Times, of which it was my privilege to be musical editor for some years. The first of the four articles on Richard Strauss was previously published in the Atlantic Monthly. My thanks are due to the proprietors and editors of the journals named for permission to incorporate the essays in this book.
W. J. H.
THE STORY OF MUSIC.
By W. J. HENDERSON.
12mo, Ornamental Cloth Cover, $1.00.
"Mr. Henderson tells in a clear, comprehensive, and logical way the story of the growth of modern music. The work is pre-fixed by a newly-prepared chronological table, which will be found invaluable by musical students, and which contains many dates and notes of important events that are not further mentioned in the text.... Few contemporary writers on music have a more agreeable style, and few, even among the renowned and profound Germans, a firmer grasp of the subject. The book, moreover, will be valuable to the student for its references, which form a guide to the best literature of music in all languages. The story of the development of religious music, a subject that is too often made forbidding and uninteresting to the general reader, is here related so simply as to interest and instruct any reader, whether or not he has a thorough knowledge of harmonics and an intimate acquaintance with the estimable dominant and the deplorable consecutive fifths. The chapter on instruments and instrumental forms is valuable for exactly the same reasons."—New York Times.
"It is a pleasure to open a new book and discover on its first page that the clearness and simple beauty of its typography has a harmony in the clearness, directness, and restful finish of the writer's style.... Mr. Henderson has accomplished, with rare judgment and skill, the task of telling the story of the growth of the art of music without encumbering his pages with excess of biographical material. He has aimed at a connected recital, and, for its sake, has treated of creative epochs and epoch-making works, rather than groups of composers segregated by the accidents of time and space.... Admirable for its succinctness, clearness, and gracefulness of statement."—New York Tribune.
"The work is both statistical and narrative, and its special design is to give a detailed and comprehensive history of the various steps in the development of music as an art. There is a very valuable chronological table, which presents important dates that could not otherwise be well introduced into the book. The choice style in which this book is written lends its added charms to a work most important on the literary as well as on the artistic side of music."—Boston Traveller.
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PRELUDES AND STUDIES
MUSICAL THEMES OF THE DAY.
By W. J. HENDERSON,
Author of "The Story of Music."
12mo, Cloth, Extra, Gilt Top, $1.00.
"The questions which he handles are all living. Even the purely histories lectures which he has grouped together under the general head of "The Evolution of Piano Music," are informed with freshness and contemporaneous interest by the manner which he has chosen for their treatment.... The concluding chapter of the book is an essay designed to win appreciation for Schumann, ... and is the gem of the book both in thought and expression."—New York Tribune.
"Leaving Wagner, of whom the book treats in a most interesting way, the evolution of piano music is taken up and treated in such a way as to convince one that the writer is a master of his subject. Mr. Henderson dwells on the performances of some living players, their methods, manner, etc., and closes his work with a number on Schumann and the programme symphony."—Detroit Sunday News.
"The book is written by one who knows his subject thoroughly and is made interesting to the general public as well as to those who are learned in music.—Boston Post.
"All lovers and students of music will find much to appreciate.... Mr. Henderson writes charmingly of his various subjects—sympathetically critically, and keenly. He shows a sincere love for his themes, and study of them; yet he is never pedantic, a virtue to be appreciated in a writer of essays upon any department of art."—Boston Times.
"Mr. Henderson's clear style is well known to readers of the musical criticism of the New York Times, and his catholicity of sentiment, and freedom from prejudice, ... though this volume will be especially valuable to the student of music, it will be helpful to the amateur, and can be read with satisfaction by one ignorant of music, which, altogether, is surely high praise."—Providence Sunday Journal.
"It is a volume of extremely suggestive musical studies.... They are all full of appreciative comment, and show considerable dear insight into the origin and nature of musical works. The author has a style which is adapted to exposition. The book is an attractive one for the lover of music."—Public Opinion.
"Mr. Henderson studies carefully and intelligently the evolution of piano music and Schumann's relation to the development of the programme symphony. This is a suggestive, original, and well-equipped group of essays upon themes which interest musicians."—Literary World.
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WAGNER
AS I KNEW HIM.
By FERDINAND PRAEGER.
Crown 8vo, 858 Pages, Cloth, Gilt Top, $1.50.
"The late Ferdinand Praeger will live in the history of musical biography as the author of the best book that has been written on Wagner the man.... In this agreeable volume we get what may be conceived to be the true Wagner, as seen by the eye of a friend who was too fair to be a partisan. Certainly we know of no portrait of the great musician so graphic and so enjoyable. The book is as attractive as a good novel. What more can one say to recommend it to the general reader? For 'Wagner as I Knew Him' is by no means fitted only for the musical amateur. There is nothing professional or technical about it. It is a volume which can be understood and appreciated even by those who know little or nothing of music."—Globe.
"The two chapters on Wagner's life in London are of especial interest as showing the true character of the man; for, while in London, Wagner spent much of his time with Praeger, who became a sort of Boswell and host for the time, and minutely noted all his peculiarities.... It is no depreciation of Praeger's efforts to say that the most valuable pages in his book are those which contain the numerous letters to him by Wagner, here printed for the first time."—Nation, N. Y.
"A lively and thoroughly readable book, rich with personal reminiscence and self-confessions of the modern Master of Music."—Christian Union, N.Y.
"A lively delineation of the master as he appeared in daily life, in friendly intercourse and correspondence, in domestic life, as composer and conductor, as student and master, as revolutionist and exile; it depicts him in his down settings and in his uprisings, in his external appearance and in his inward thoughts and feelings. It is full of interest from beginning to end, and of entertainment as well. Of the latter quality, indeed, there are some most amusing examples."—Étude, Philadelphia.
"Really it is a biography, though it is not exactly in that form or aimed at so ambitious a purpose, but it covers the whole of Wagner's active life. We cannot speak too highly of it.... It is a remarkably faithful story, presenting the composer's character and experiences in vivid colors, and not failing to give the weak as well as the strong side."—Herald, Boston.
"A really valuable addition to the number of books about music and musicians."—Critic, N. Y.
"It is easy to see that Mr. Praeger knew his subject well and was fully competent to write about it."—Chicago Tribune.
"The story of Wagner's life and labors is retold in this volume with that added charm which comes from the pen of a writer personally engaged in the action described. The account of Wagner's visit to London, when he was Dr. Praeger's guest, is full of interest and brings the man before the reader more picturesquely than any other part of the book.... On the whole this volume is a valuable addition to the already large library of Wagner literature."—N. Y. Times.
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CHRISTIAN THAL.
The Story of a Musical Life.
By M. E. FRANCIS (Mrs. FRANCIS BLUNDELL),
AUTHOR OF "THE DUENNA OF A GENIUS," "MANOR FARM," ETC.
Crown 8vo, $1.50
" ... This year has seen several attempts to produce a real 'musical novel.' That of Mrs. Francis is one of the best, it is a pretty story and one which will give no little inspiration among students in the reading.... In 'Christian Thal' the characters are such as we all know and can well understand.... It is, although a musical novel, very human."—Musical Life, New York.
" ... We have seldom read anything more charming than are parts, at least, of this picture of artistic, semi-Bohemian life in Germany; she has caught the very spirit of it, she makes one feel it all—the frank good-comradeship, the bubbling enthusiasm for art, the childlike disregard for conventionalities. And the characters are delightfully drawn, too, with delicate yet incisive touches...."—Commercial Advertiser, New York.
" ... The temperament that goes with great artistic genius is well displayed in the hero. As a story we are glad to say that the interest steadily heightens to the end, and that the book contains pathos, sentiment, humor, and the other characteristics demanded by a readable work in fiction...."—The Étude.
" ... It is nevertheless one of the most readable of Mrs. Francis Blundell's (M. E. Francis') novels. It centers in musical circles, in the love affair of a young musical genius, 'Christian Thal' of foreign origin, and a young English girl whom he meets at a German health resort.... This is a very good companion for one's resting hours."—Chicago Record-Herald.
"An interesting novel in which love, music, and human weakness, and the waywardness of woman are strangely and cleverly blended. Each chapter is headlined with a bar of music and the entire story is keyed to respond to the musical theme. Dramatic and absorbing."—Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph.
" ... There is a fascination about the tale which will hold the reader."—Picayune, New Orleans.
" ... The book is as much saturated with the art musical as was that delightful book 'Trilby' with the art pictorial Even the chapter headings are excerpts from some well-remembered and well-beloved master. It is a symphony in words with love for its theme, beautifully ornamented with the harmony of emotion and has a finale radiant with peace, goodness, and wedded love."—Army and Navy Register.
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