The Student's Musical History (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Student's Musical History<br><br>An article which appeared in The Overture was the occasion of my being requested to write this book. In that article I had pointed out how ignorance of musical history sometimes has a considerable influence upon various practical matters; and, since musicians almost universally suppose that with which they are familiar to be correct and classical, it is well that they should learn in their student-days how notation, style of performance, and resources at command, have varied considerably even during the last two centuries. To perform the works of the great masters correctly, it is not sufficient to produce the correct notes. Again, in the Bach-Handel period, notation was in some respects so different from the present staff notation that it has led to mistakes in certain modern editions.<br><br>In writing this book, especially in the later chapters, I have laid stress on the fact that good work has been done only by those composers who have boldly attempted to be original, who have used untried resources or invented new forms; even when this does not at first sight appear to be the case, it can almost always be proved, and at the present time it requires emphasizing. In my opinion, a really inventive composer never had such an opportunity as just now, if he will only advance in the right direction; for this reason the last chapter - the most important in the book - is devoted to an exposition of the possibilities of the near future.<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.