The Appreciation of Music

The Appreciation of Music
An e-Course of Study for Schools, Colleges and General Readers by
Thomas Whitney Surette and Daniel Gregory Mason
236 pages 1907

The Musical Illustrations are published in a supplementary volume

This e-book has been prepared in order to provide readers who wish to listen to music intelligently, yet without going into technicalities, with a simple and practical guide to music appreciation written from the listener’s rather than from the professional musician’s standpoint.

The authors believe there is at the present moment a genuine need for such a book on music and music appreciation. Music teachers in schools, colleges and universities, educators in music and music appreciation in all parts of the country, and the music loving public generally, are every day realizing more vividly the importance of applying to music and music appreciation the kind of study which has long been fruitfully pursued in the other arts. And with the adoption, in 1906, by the College Entrance Examination Board, of music appreciation as a subject which may be offered for entrance to college, this mode of studying music has established itself firmly in our educational system.

In the following pages, an effort has been made, first, to present to the reader in clear and untechnical language, and account of the evolution of music from the primitive folk-song up to the symphony of Beethoven. Second, to illustrate all the steps of the evolution of music by carefully chosen musical examples, in the form of short quotations in the text and of complete pieces printed in a supplement. Third, to facilitate the study of these examples by means of detailed analysis, measure by measure, in many cases put into the shape of tabular views; and fourth , to mark out the lines of further music study by suggesting collateral reading.

Too much stress cannot be laid on the fact the music itself is the central point of the scheme of study, to which the reader must return over and over again.

At the same time, the authors have realized some readers who might profit much by such study will not be able to play, or have played for them, even these pieces. For them, however, the music will still be accessible through mechanical instruments.

In view of the fact that one of the chief difficulties in the study of music appreciation is the unfamiliarity of classical music to the ordinary student, the use of an instrument of classical music to the ordinary student, the use of an instrument by the students themselves should form an important part of the work in classes where this book is used as a text-book. It is hoped that with such practical laboratory work by all members of the class, and with the help of collateral reading done outside the class under the direction of the teacher, and tested by written papers on assigned topics, the course of study outlined here will be found well suited to the needs of schools and colleges, as well as of general readers.

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