Fontana Guide To Orchestral Music

If you like to listen to music on the wireless or television, if you sometimes go to the “Proms” or are thinking of starting to collect L.P. records-This is the book for you.

Here is everything you need to know about The orchestra and its instruments:
• Musical form, explained authoritatively but simply
• The lives and work of the great composers
• A history of music’s development through the ages
• The elements of acoustics and an explanation of such puzzles as harmonics, “equal temperament”, etc.
• Conducting and conductors

Written by the music critic of The Times Based on his book “Full Orchestra”, published in 1943, but greatly revised and enlarged.
This is an indispensable companion for the music lover, however expert-or inexpert—he may be; recommended alike for its authority, clarity, simplicity and completeness.