The Growth of Music, Vol. 3
A Study in Musical History for Schools (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Growth of Music, Vol. 3: A Study in Musical History for Schools<br><br>In offering the third volume, which for the present at any rate may be considered as the completion of this series, there is not much to be added to what was said under this heading at the beginning of the preceding volumes. As far as possible, I have kept to the method adopted in Parts I and II of The Growth of Music, but two variations have been imposed by the nature of the material. This volume is less chronological than the first, less technical than the second. The reasons will be obvious. The great composers of the nineteenth century consist practically of two generations: those born in or about the first decade of the century, and those born in and about the fourth and fifth. But here we get a cross division, for while some members of the first generation, such as Mendelssohn and Chopin, completed their work and died about the middle of the century, others, such as Berlioz and Wagner, only began to exert their greatest influence in the latter half of the century, and so appear as the artistic contemporaries of the younger generation. This complicates the task of the chronicler to some extent, but does not much affect that of the student. For the fact is that the majority of the leading musical spirits of the last century were only incidentally affected by their contemporaries. Antipathies were more apparent than affinities, and it is often only when their courses have been traced independently that we can discover the underlying affinity, such as that which undoubtedly exists between the melody of Brahms and Wagner. The plan, therefore, has been to follow out the development of a particular form of art through the century, and that has entailed returning upon the tracks in point of time more than once.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.