Musical Myths and Facts, Volume 1 (of 2)

In this 1876 volume, Carl Engel undertakes a mission: to separate musical truth from centuries of accumulated legend. As one of the first scholars to treat folk music as worthy of rigorous intellectual inquiry, he dismantles popular misconceptions about musical traditions across cultures, replacing folklore with documented fact. The book opens with a sharp critique of England's musical library, deficient in both canonical masterworks and the lesser-known traditions that reveal how nations hear themselves. Engel argues passionately for folk songs and national music as essential expressions of cultural character, not mere curiosities. What follows is an expedition through musical instruments and practices across continents, examining what we believe about music's past and revealing how much of that belief is fiction. This is proto-ethnomusicology: curious, methodical, and occasionally wrongheaded by modern standards, but fundamentally serious about understanding music as human behavior rather than abstract art. For readers interested in the history of how we came to understand world music, or anyone curious about the myths we once believed about the songs humanity sings, this volume remains a fascinating artifact of Victorian scholarly ambition.