THE MUSICAL LIBRARY;
TO APPEAR IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE FOURPENCE; AND MONTHLY PARTS, PRICE TWO SHILLINGS.
THE principle which has been so extensively applied in Literature and the Graphic Art, of producing works at the lowest possible point of cheapness without any abandonment of the qualities by which the popular knowledge and taste may be advanced, has yet a wide field for its employment in the department of MUSIC. This most delightful of the arts was never so generally cultivated in this country as at the present moment. The Pianoforte, especially, contributes to the recreation and enjoyment of thousands of families throughout the United Kingdom, and in our colonial possessions. And yet the publications by which this taste ought to be kept up and improved are sold at a price which, in many cases, amounts to a prohibition. An article in universal demand is charged at the same rate, if not much higher, than was paid for it when it was sought for only by the luxurious few. The consequence has been that the musical taste of the country has not grown in an exact proportion with the musical appetite. It has been directed, in a great measure, by an interested tutelage; while the real guides, the great classical masters of the art, have been rendered in a remarkable degree inaccessible.
The design of the Musical Library is to afford the same advantage to amateurs in music that the lovers of literature are deriving from the cheap publications for the advancement of real knowledge, that are now distributed through every part of the empire, and are within the reach of persons of every condition. It is proposed to publish a Collection of Music, both vocal and for the piano-forte, by the best masters, ancient and modern: the ancient in a state adapted to the improved condition of our musical instruments; and the modern the best, and only the best, that the continent of Europe and our own country can supply. We shall revive and put into an inviting form the compositions of the older classical masters, now only known to a few connoisseurs, keeping in mind the saying of a famous French modiste,—‘nothing so new as that which is forgotten;’ and thus endeavour to spread widely a taste for what is excellent in the various departments of the art, and available to the purposes of private society. At the same time it will be our further object to naturalise the confessedly good productions of the newest foreign composers, especially of the German masters, by the adaptation of English words to their best vocal compositions; and also by publishing movements, or extracts complete in themselves, from such of their instrumental works as are of a length not suited either to such a publication as ours is intended to be, or to the habits of the people of this country. It is also our design, occasionally, to engage composers of the first eminence to supply us with new compositions; and we shall never neglect an opportunity of giving currency to such productions of real genius as may be offered to us by those who have no means of securing extensive circulation to them, and who might be deterred from publishing them on their own account, from the difficulties they have to encounter, and the number of chances against them of ever obtaining a fair hearing.
In the prosecution of these objects, which we may not unjustly consider likely to advance our national enjoyments, we propose to issue a NUMBER once every week, of eight music-folio Pages, to contain generally one Vocal and one Piano-forte piece at least in each, but depending on the length of the composition. The Price of each Number will be Fourpence.
A PART, containing four or five Numbers of Music, according to the number of Saturdays, will be published monthly. To these numbers will be added a Monthly Supplement of letter-press, comprising musical news, foreign and domestic; notices of new music; critical accounts of the more important public musical performances; with memoirs of the lives, and remarks upon the works, of eminent composers, and especially of the authors whose productions are published in the “Musical Library.” The price of each Monthly Part, consisting of forty-eight folio pages, will be Two Shillings.
LONDON:—CHARLES KNIGHT, 22, LUDGATE STREET, AND 13, PALL-MALL EAST.