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xvi |
PREFACE. |
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references to French bands, explaining that France was the only country that possessed any literature on the subject. His survey, which even made reference to Austria and Germany, ignored England entirely.
To a certain extent his remarks were correct, although it seems strange that Major Mahan had not heard of the present author's " Memoirs of the Royal Artillery Band: An Account of the Rise of Military Music in England" (1904), a work that had even been reviewed in American papers, and much of it reproduced (withÂout permission) in the pages of the " Metronome."
However, as I have remarked, Major Mahan had real cause for his complaint. Take Engel's "Literature of National Music"; the only works he mentions, relative to our subject, are Kastner's "Manuel General de la Musique Militaire" (1848) and his "Chants de l'Armee Francais" (1855). Matthew, in his "Literature of Music," refers only to the first book of Kastner and Day's " Catalogue of Instruments at the Royal Military Exhibition." Grove's "Dictionary" enumerates the foregoing and adds Perrin's brochure on "Military Bands" (1863), and the present author's "Memoirs of the Royal Artillery Band" (1904), which is referred to as "an excellent book of its kind." In Breitkopf and Hartel's "International Anthology of Musical Books," the last-named work alone is mentioned. There is no need therefore to apologise for the appearance of the present work, which, with the author's earlier book, are the only works on this subject in the English language. |
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