Music Books

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. Recitation with dramatic energy by men whose business it was to travel from one great house to another and delight the people by the way, was usual among us from the first. The scop invented and the glee-man recited heroic legends and other tales to our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. These were followed by the minstrels and other tellers of tales written for the people. They... more...

COME LASSES AND LADS Come Lasses and Lads, get leave of your Dads, And away to the May-pole hey: For every heHas got him a she,with a minstrel standing by. ForWillyhas gotten hisJill,And Johnnyhas got hisJone,To jigg it, jigg it, jigg it, jigg it,Jigg it up and down. "Strike up," saysWatt; "Agreed," saysKate,"And I prithee, Fiddler, play;""Content," saysHodge, and so... more...

CHAPTER I The attempts to instil the elements of music into Charles Dickens when he was a small boy do not appear to have been attended with success. Mr. Kitton tells us that he learnt the piano during his school days, but his master gave him up in despair. Mr. Bowden, an old schoolfellow of the novelist's when he was at Wellington House Academy, in Hampstead Road, says that music used to be... more...

CHAPTER I. WHAT THE FACE TELLS. "And the light dwelleth with him."—Daniel II: 22. Once a master said to a child: "If thou wilt study diligently, learn, and do good unto others, thy face shall be filled with light." So the child studied busily, learned, and sought how she could do good unto others. And every little while she ran to the glass to see if the light was coming. But at each... more...

APOLOGIA IT may reasonably be asked by what authority a mere landsman publishes a book on a nautical subject. I may, therefore, plead in extenuation that I have all my life been closely connected with seafaring matters, especially during childhood and youth, and have literally 'grown up with' shanties. My maternal ancestors followed the sea as far back as the family history can be traced, and... more...

COWBOY YARNS The centipede runs across my head, The vinegaroon crawls in my bed, Tarantulas jump and scorpions play, The broncs are grazing far away, The rattlesnake gives his warning cry, And the coyotes sing their lullaby, While I sleep soundly beneath the sky. OUT WHERE THE WEST BEGINSOUT where the handclasp's a little stronger,Out where the smile dwells a little longer,That's where the... more...

PREFACE The following rhythmic plays compiled by Mr. John N. Richards of the Newark Department of Physical Education have been devised to meet the needs in the transition of Physical Education activities between the kindergarten and the first few years of the primary school. The physiologist tells us that the nervous organism of early childhood is injured by the strain of strict, immobile attention... more...

THE EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HELLERAU At Hellerau two things make an ineffaceable impression upon the mind—the exquisite beauty of movement, of gesture and of grouping seen in the exercises; and the nearness of a great force, fundamental to the arts and expressing itself in the rhythm to which they attain. Jaques-Dalcroze has re-opened a door which has long been closed. He has rediscovered one of... more...

INTRODUCTION My friend the publisher has asked me to tell you what I know about Old Fogy, whose letters aroused much curiosity and comment when they appeared from time to time in the columns of The Etude. I confess I do this rather unwillingly. When I attempted to assemble my memories of the eccentric and irascible musician I found that, despite his enormous volubility and surface-frankness, the old... more...

EUGÈNE YSAYE THE TOOLS OF VIOLIN MASTERY Who is there among contemporary masters of the violin whose name stands for more at the present time than that of the great Belgian artist, his "extraordinary temperamental power as an interpreter" enhanced by a hundred and one special gifts of tone and technic, gifts often alluded to by his admiring colleagues? For Ysaye is the greatest exponent of... more...