Miscellaneous Studies in the History of Music (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Miscellaneous Studies in the History of Music

Unlike my book "Suum cuique" this collection is devoted almost exclusively to historical studies. The one essay that is not mainly historical has been included for the purpose of showing why it is still impossible in America to attempt historical research work of the kind that attracted me, in any but exceedingly few of our most famous libraries. This lack of essential study material, whether antiquarian or modem, whether literature or scores, has been keenly felt even by those students of musical history who specialize in subjects of a more general local, biographical or evolutional interest. It indicates a sad state of affairs and explains why American contributions to musical history of more than "popular" and limited pedagogical value are so scanty; why, in comparison with Europe, those engaged here in scholarly research or codification of research are so few and why these few men and women have such a disheartening outlet for their life-work.

Most of the essays in this volume were prepared from material available at the Library of Congress. Indeed, it is safe to say that whatever their intrinsic historical value may be, they could have been written nowhere in America except in Washington. They owe their origin mostly to minor historical problems that confronted me in my constructive work as Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress from 1902 to 1917.

The essays are reprinted here, by permission, practically as they appeared in various magazines at the time of writing. I have not attempted to incorporate the subsequent "finds" of other historians.

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