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A Popular History of the Art of Music from the Earliest Times Until the Present

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Excerpt from A Popular History of the Art of Music, From the Earliest Times Until the Present: With Accounts of the Chief Musical Instruments and Scales; The Principles and Artistic Value of Their Music
I have divided the entire history into books, placing at the beginning of each book a general chapter defining the central idea and salient features of the step in development therein recounted. The student who will attentively peruse these chapters in succession will have in them a fairly complete account of the entire progress.

492 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1891

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William Smythe Babcock Mathews

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5 stars
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4 stars
9 (20%)
3 stars
12 (27%)
2 stars
7 (15%)
1 star
4 (9%)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for Alex.
237 reviews3 followers
June 30, 2020
The topics of the book are expansive, from musical history of Egypt to that of classical Greek on ward, getting progressively detailed in Western music, with coverage on schools, techniques, and musicians, etc., even down to specific technical structures and mechanisms of instruments. The comments on musicians include analyses of their lineage, innovations, strong points, and weak points. In addition, there are also some surveys on Asian counties such as those in the middle-east, India, China and Japan.

As very good bonuses, this audio book has certain soundtracks of musical samples, among them some played in original instruments. The reader is apparently a very good scholar, reading all Latin, Italian, French and German passages fluently in their native pronunciations, which is a pleasure to listen to. He even verifies information of the text and notes some possible errors.

Due to the age of this book, modern music beyond the romantic school is not covered; but this may be good enough for some people whose interests or tastes just stop at that point and not include the modern music.
Profile Image for Ed Barton.
1,303 reviews
December 23, 2021
125 Year Old History

The book aims to cover a lot of ground - and does a nice job of a survey if 19th century music. The periods up to the Renaissance and outside Europe are lightly touched, if at all. A history buff or music buff might find it interesting. I thought it was fine.
Profile Image for Melissa Renee.
54 reviews
May 22, 2014
Lots of cool information but, regarding the kindle version specifically, it seems like there are supposed to be photos and links that aren't working or just aren't there at all in some places.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews