Publisher's Synopsis
From the PREFACE:
IN preparing this new edition of "The Story of Music" the author has perhaps felt a pardonable pride. This little volume first invited the kindly consideration of music lovers twenty-three years ago. At that time neither the author nor the publishers expected that they would be putting forward another edition in this year of grace, 1912. But since this has come about, it is the duty and the privilege of the author to make most grateful acknowledgment of the favor with which the book was received when it first appeared and in which it has so generously been retained through the intervening years.
Minor changes have from time to time been introduced, but it has seemed to be imperative that in the present edition an effort should be made to bring the work up to date. The author has therefore rewritten some passages and has added others. He has carried forward the account of the progress of Italian opera to the completion of the extant works of Puccini. This account will be found in two chapters. That which deals with the creations of Verdi is in Chapter VII. An entirely new chapter is devoted to an exposition of the art work of Richard Wagner and its influence on the representative operatic composers of Germany, France, and Italy. In this chapter will be found a brief review of the contributions of Strauss, Puccini, and Debussy to the lyric drama, and of their indebtedness to Wagner. A succeeding chapter discusses the latest advances in the field of orchestral composition, with especial reference again to such composers as Strauss and Debussy.
