Popular History of the Art of Music

A single-volume journey through the entire history of music, from ancient times to the late nineteenth century, written by American music critic W.S.B. Mathews. Mathews intended this as an accessible introduction for general readers who wanted to grasp the sweep of musical development without wading through the massive scholarly works of his contemporaries. He gives proportionate attention to the eras, spending more ink on the "luxuriant" developments of recent centuries while tracing the thread of musical evolution from its earliest manifestations. The result is a window into how educated readers once understood the grand narrative of music's past. Reading it now feels like stepping into a Victorian drawing room where someone is passionately explaining the entire history of harmony, counterpoint, and opera over tea. For modern readers, the value lies partly in its comprehensiveness, but mostly in its charm as a period piece: here is how music history was written when the discipline was still young and full of certainties about progress and the great chain of musical being.