The Book of Musical Knowledge: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Book of Musical Knowledge, credited to Arthur Elson, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Book of Musical Knowledge by Arthur Elson. Read in English by LibriVox Volunteers. This book has been planned with a view to placing before the general reader the main facts that will enable him to appreciate music intelligently. One often hears the remark, "I’m fond of music, but I don’t understand it." The present work has been written with the idea of enabling the non-musician to comprehend the real meaning of the tonal art, and to familiarize himself with the value of the great composers’ works, the use of the instruments, the various musical forms, and a number of subjects of similar importance. At the same time, certain other technical topics have been included. While these have been presented in such a way as to be understood by the non-musician, they have been given with sufficient thoroughness to make the work useful also as a textbook. It is therefore fitted to the needs of students and teachers, as well as amateurs. An effort has been made to condense the chief points of a general musical education into a single volume. While this book should prove of interest to the average reader, a course of study has been added, which will make it suitable for use in high schools or colleges also, or in any institution that aims to give a course in the understanding of music. - Summary by Preface NOTE: As with all historical texts, the language used in this volume should be interpreted within the context of the entire work and the cultural context of its publication.

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Book of Musical Knowledge
• Author credits: Arthur Elson
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 62
• Listed recording duration: 23:42:23

Catalogue topics

• music
• opera
• composers
• instruments
• singing
• voice
• composition
• violin

Opening tracks: first 24 of 62

1. 01 - Primitive and Savage Music — 23:52
2. 02 - Greece and Rome — 24:51
3. 03 - Early Christian Music — 19:36
4. 04 - The Minstrel Knights — 23:11
5. 05 - The Schools of Counterpoint — 31:08
6. 06 - The Harmonic Style — 19:40
7. 07 - Bach — 25:54
8. 08 - Handel — 18:03
9. 09 - Gluck — 15:59
10. 10 - Haydn — 17:19
11. 11 - Mozart — 23:55
12. 12 - Beethoven — 32:58
13. 13 - Schubert — 22:16
14. 14 - Weber and Romanticism — 17:09
15. 15 - Mendelssohn — 19:50
16. 16 - Schumann — 20:55
17. 17 - Chopin — 22:00
18. 18 - Italian Opera — 32:15
19. 19 - Cherubini and French Opera — 23:38
20. 20 - Berlioz and Other Frenchmen — 22:37
21. 21 - Liszt and his Circle — 24:49
22. 22 - From Glinka to Tschaikovsky — 29:00
23. 23 - Wagner and his Reforms — 36:11
24. 24 - Brahms and the Symphonists — 23:19

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.