MUSIC AND ITS MASTERS. By O. B. Boise. J. B.
Lippincott Company. $1.50, net.
This work, by an American musician, formerly resident in Berlin, but now Professor of Musical Composition in the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Md., is a study as to the nature of music and of the conditions that are essential to its growth and significance. It is not a history of music, but more the philosophy of the history of music; still it is not in the least dry or heavy, but rather fascinating to the student who has felt within questions as to what music is, how it came to be what it is, and the line in which it seems to be likely to develop.
Music the author divides roughly into the natural and the artificial. It is to natural music, which springs from our imaginations, is formulated for purpose by intellect, appeals to the sympathies, and sways the emotions, that attention is devoted. Of the great masters he has chosen Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Wagner as the six greatest high priests.
Chapter headings are: “The Nature and Origin of Music”; “Music’s First Era”; “Biblical Mention of Music”; “Music From the Invention of Notation to Date”; “Wagner and the Music-Drama”; “What are the Influencing Factors in Deciding Musical Destinies?” “Who is to be Our Seventh High Priest?” “A Summary of Music’s Attributes”; “What Constitutes Musical Intelligence.” In every respect a book for the thoughtful musician.
