Book Description

Excerpt from The Literature of National Music The present essay is republished from The Musical Times (London: Novello, Ewer and Co.), where it appeared in the monthly numbers from July, 1879, to March, 1879. Some additions have been made in order to render it convenient as a book of reference. I shall not apologise for its republication, since it is not likely to interest any but intelligent inquirers. These, I doubt not, are convinced that, just as painters, sculptors, and architects find it useful and highly interesting to pursue the investigations of their respective arts among nations in different stages of civilisation, musicians also should take a wider view of their art than they are too apt to do. The greatest obstacle to information which the student of National Music is likely to encounter, is the difficulty in gaining access to many of the publications bearing on the subject. Every European country ought to possess in its National Library not only all the collections old its own national songs and tunes, but also those of other countries. Most of these publications are out of print, and there is no probability, except in some rare instances, of their being republished. They become daily more scarce, and soon it will be impossible to collect them together, even for a National Library. Perhaps this little book may be of sonic assistance to the librarian as well as to the musician. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com 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.