General Musical Instruction

A work on music theory and practice, published in 1854, in Novello's Library for the Diffusion of Musical Knowledge series.

Adolf Bernhard Marx (Author), George Macirone (Translated by)

9781108051750, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 June 2012

146 pages, 383 music examples
24.4 x 17 x 0.8 cm, 0.25 kg

Adolf Bernhard Marx (1795–1866) was an influential music theorist, critic, composer and pedagogue. He believed that music should be part of everyone's general education and lobbied the Prussian government for a comprehensive national music-education scheme. This English translation by George Macirone of Marx's 1839 Allgemeine Musiklehre was published in 1854 as the first work in the series Novello's Library for the Diffusion of Musical Knowledge. The series, described by the publisher as 'a collection of standard treatises on the art of music written by the most esteemed English and foreign masters', was devised in response to a growing demand for training books and manuals to support domestic music-making. It also included Berlioz's famous treatise on instrumentation (also reissued in this series). Marx's work covers the basic elements of music theory, musical instruments, compositional techniques, forms of music, performance advice, and the importance of musical education in general.

Introduction: review of the province of music, and of the object of general musical instruction
First division - of the doctrine of tones
Second division - of rhythm
Third division - instruments
Fourth division - of elementary forms of composition
Fifth division - artistic forms of composition
Sixth division - artistic performance
Seventh division - on musical education
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Music reviews & criticism [AVC]