Musical Criticisms

Johnstone, Arthur, 1861-1904Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 487K words
Chapters: 49

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Musical Criticisms by Arthur JohnstoneAuthor: Johnstone, Arthur, 1861-1904,Language: English, Class: ML: Music: Literature of music, Release Date: Feb 15, 2013

Editor's review

This book is a collection of music criticism by the British critic Arthur Johnstone, written in English and spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; it is a public-domain e-book in the category of music literature. Its value lies not in constructing a complete music history but in conveying the immediacy of concert life, performance fashions, and critical discourse of the time: readers can see how critics evaluated performers, repertoire, and audience taste, and thereby understand the climate of opinion in late Victorian British musical culture. For the history of music, the history of criticism, and periodical studies, it is a citable primary source; for ordinary music lovers, it is more like a window onto musical life of the past. It should be read as a historical text rather than a model for contemporary criticism, with attention to the aesthetic biases and linguistic habits of its era, and can be read alongside background material on the works and musicians reviewed.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars studying late nineteenth-century British musical life and the history of criticism
Readers interested in the evolution of Western music criticism as a genre
Music lovers with some knowledge of classical music who enjoy a sense of historical immediacy

Not a good fit for

Learners seeking systematic music theory or composition technique
General listeners wanting recommendations for contemporary performances and recordings
Readers who struggle with English and lack background knowledge of music

Reading tips

Skim the topics of the pieces and start with reviews of composers or works you know to lower the background barrier.
Note the critic's evaluative criteria and turns of phrase as you read, and compare them with contemporary music criticism.
Read alongside basic information on the musicians and works reviewed to avoid misreading outside the historical context.
Use it as supplementary material for a music history course, excerpting by theme for discussion or writing.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What musical content does this book discuss?

It is a collection of Johnstone's music criticism, dealing with concerts, performers, and repertoire reviews of the time; the specific contents follow the original book. Readers can use it to understand the issues and style of late nineteenth-century British music criticism.

Can it be read without a professional music background?

Yes, but it requires some general knowledge of classical music and English reading ability. Many reviews target specific performances and individuals, and comprehension suffers without background; reading with reference works or related music history materials is advised.

How does it differ from modern music criticism?

The book was written in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and its subjects, aesthetic standards, and periodical context differ from those of today, carrying clear period biases and literary rhetoric. It is better suited as material for the history of criticism than as a guide to contemporary listening.

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About the author

Johnstone, Arthur, 1861-1904 Author · British · 1861–1904

Arthur Johnstone (1861–1904) was a British music critic. Public information about him is limited, and the details of his life are for the most part not fully recorded; it can nevertheless be confirmed that he wrote music reviews and musical essays for The Manchester Guardian over a long period, being active in British music criticism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His collection Musical Criticisms is the only work of his held in the collection and embodies his writing: it takes newspaper criticism as its form, concerns the concerts, works and musical life of the time, and addresses ordinary readers in an accessible style that combines record with commentary. Such writing is not only the expression of personal views but also preserves material for later generations seeking to understand British musical performance and public discussion of music in that era.