Music defined — general idea of musical progress — conditions of fine art — qualities of satisfactory art-forms — periods in musical history — difference between ancient and modern music.
[BOOK FIRST — MUSIC OF THE ANCIENT WORLD.]
| [CHAPTER I] — MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS | [27]-39 |
Sources of information — antiquity of their development — instruments — uses of music — their ideas about music and education — "Song of the Harper" — kindergarten.
| [CHAPTER II] — MUSIC AMONG THE HEBREWS AND ASSYRIANS | [40]-47 |
Music among the Hebrews — Jubal — kinnor — ugabh — musicians in the temple service — psaltery — flute — larger harp — Miriam — liturgy of the temple — musical ideal in Hebrew mind — music among the Assyrians — types of instruments.
| [CHAPTER III] — MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT GREEKS | [48]-69 |
Importance of this development — extent of the time — date of Homeric poems — epoch of Æschylus — extracts from Homer — Hesiod — patriotic applications of music — choral song — festivals — lyric drama — début of Æschylus, Sophocles and Euripides — nature of the classic drama — orchestic — Socrates — Aristoxenus — problems of Aristotle — Greek theory of music — Pythagoras and ratios of simple consonances — devotional use of music — Greek scales — Claudius Ptolemy — Didymus — the lyre and cithara — magadis — flute — æsthetic importance — Plato on the noble harmonies — loyalty to the true — Greek musical alphabet — notation — Ode from Pindar.
| [CHAPTER IV] — MUSIC IN INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN | [70]-77 |