[*] Sonneck, Oscar George Theodore. Francis Hopkinson, the first American poet-composer, and James Lyon, patriot, preacher, psalmodist: two studies in early American music. [*]$5. O. G: T. Sonneck, Lib. of Congress, Wash., D. C.
“A piece of research in American history based on an examination of original sources.... Hopkinson, who was born in 1731, was a man of unusual talent; a writer, a politician, an inventor, and an enthusiastic musician....* Hopkinson himself laid claim to the title of first native composer in a letter dedicating his volume of ‘Seven songs’ to Washington.... His rival for historical precedence, James Lyon, is a substantial, if less interesting figure.... It is an extremely interesting monograph for those who are concerned with the neglected past of music in this country.”—N. Y. Times.
[*] “It is an invaluable contribution to the history of American music, and its production reveals the achievement of a formidable task.” W. J. Henderson.
| + + | Atlan. 96: 854. D. ‘05. 180w. |
[*] “Though the graces of English style are not Mr. Sonneck’s, he knows how to make his history not only minutely correct, but interesting.” Richard Aldrich.
| + + — | N. Y. Times. 10: 448. Jl. 8, ‘05. 1060w. |
Sorley, W. R. [Recent tendencies in ethics.] W: Blackwood & sons, London.
“This little book consists of three lectures on ‘Some leading features of the ethical thought of the present day,’ delivered at Cambridge (England) to a summer meeting of clergy held there in July, 1903. The chapters in the book are headed respectively: ‘Characteristics,’ ‘Ethics and evolution,’ ‘Ethics and idealism.’ In the first chapter Professor Sorley says that in ‘English ethical thought during the last century ... the controversies of the time centered almost exclusively round two questions: the question of the origin of moral ideas, and the question of the criterion of moral value.’ ... A misapplication of the biological doctrine of ‘natural selection’ is also responsible for a large measure of the present confusion of ethical thought. This brings the reader to Chapter II., in which this misapplication is dealt with at length.... Chapter III. deals with the ethics of modern idealism.”—Int. J. Ethics.
“Is avowedly addressed to those whose interest in life is practical rather than theoretical; its aim is obviously to be practically helpful to such people. It must be owned that to the present critic it seems chiefly to warn off from the realm of philosophy all students of the quality described. It is perhaps not too much to say that both in method and in implied point of view Mr. Sorley’s book is too slight and too old-fashioned to do justice either to recent philosophy or to Professor Sorley’s position in it.” May Gilliland Husband.
| + — | Int. J. Ethics. 15: 232. Ja. ‘05. 2340w. (Abstract of book.) |