Henry Fothergill Chorley made his name as music journalist for The Athanaeum from 1830 until his retirement in 1868. He published weekly reviews of concerts as well as gossip on musicians and composers of the day. This book is based on four lectures presented by the author at the Royal Institution in 1862, and edited after his death by Henry Hewlett. It outlines the development of the different traditions and cultures of music across the world and how western classical composers were inspired and influenced by them. It contains many musical illustrations, drawn particularly from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (for example, the fashionable so-called 'Turkish' music by composers including Mozart and Rossini). The book, though idiosyncratic and full of sweeping generalisations, conveys the spirit of its time and the lively character of its author. It will appeal to all those interested in the Victorian reception of world music.

Thirty Years' Musical Recollections, first published in 1862, is a year-by-year commentary in two volumes on the European operas, ballets, singers and dancers popular in London from 1830 to 1859. It's author was music critic of The Athaneum for over thirty years and also wrote book reviews, novels, plays and poems. Volume 1 covers the period 1830-1847 and serves as a valuable reference work to the musical life of London during these years. Starting with his reminiscences of the opera season in 1830, Chorley takes the reader on a journey from early performances of Italian and German opera in England, via works by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti and the first appearances of Lablache and of Mademoiselle Taglioni, through to Verdi's operas in 1846. He also describes famous opera singers including Maria Malibran, Giambattista Rubini, Madame Grisi, Madame Pasta, Madame Persiani, Rachel Felix, Signor Mario, and Mademoiselle Jenny Lind.

Thirty Years' Musical Recollections, first published in 1862, is a year-by-year commentary in two volumes on the European operas, ballets, singers and dancers popular in London from 1830 to 1859. Its author was music critic of The Athaneum for over thirty years and also wrote book reviews, novels, plays and poems. Volume 2 covers the period 1847-1859 and serves as a valuable reference work to the musical life of London during these years. It begins with an account of the deterioration of Her Majesty's Theatre and the opening of the Royal Italian Opera. Chorley intersperses discerning observations about the changing trends in public taste with descriptions of famous opera singers - including Mademoiselle Alboni, Signor Ronconi, the Countess Rossi, Madame Ristori and Madame Pauline Viardot - and highlights their more noteworthy performances. The book is an entertaining eyewitness account of the lively musical scene in mid-nineteenth-century London.

Henry Fothergill Chorley was music critic of The Athenaeum for over thirty years, and published several books on the state of contemporary European music, including Music and Manners in France and Germany (1841) and Thirty Years' Musical Recollections (1862), both reissued in this series. In the two-volume Modern German Music, published in 1854, he revisits many of the topics and places discussed in the 1841 volume, but views them from the other side of the Year of Revolution, 1848, which, he argues, changed the cultural as well as the political atmosphere of the German states significantly and permanently. Lively descriptions of German cities, their culture and especially their music festivals are accompanied by extended essays on Spohr, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn, but Chorley is by no means an uncritical observer, and his comments on the rise of nationalism and militarism in the German states after 1848 now seem prophetic.

Henry Fothergill Chorley was music critic of The Athenaeum for over thirty years, and published several books on the state of contemporary European music, including Music and Manners in France and Germany (1841) and Thirty Years' Musical Recollections (1862), both reissued in this series. In the two-volume Modern German Music, published in 1854, he revisits many of the topics and places discussed in the 1841 volume, but views them from the other side of the Year of Revolution, 1848, which, he argues, changed the cultural as well as the political atmosphere of the German states significantly and permanently. Lively descriptions of German cities, their culture and especially their music festivals are accompanied by extended essays on Spohr, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn, but Chorley is by no means an uncritical observer, and his comments on the rise of nationalism and militarism in the German states after 1848 now seem prophetic.

Henry Fothergill Chorley was music critic of The Athenaeum for over thirty years. This three-volume book, published in 1841, originated in a journal written by Chorley while travelling in Europe. His aim was to 'illustrate the present state of theatrical, orchestral, and chamber music abroad', focusing on aspects that would be least familiar to an English readership. There are detailed accounts of Paris and Berlin, with prominence given to opera, theatre, art galleries and monuments. Chorley also describes visits to Brunswick, Leipzig, Dresden and Nuremburg, and performances by artists including Mendelssohn and Liszt. He intersperses anecdotes about transport, lodgings, landscapes and local customs. Chorley's incisive and entertaining eyewitness accounts will fascinate music-lovers and theatre historians, as well as others interested in the performing arts or travel writing in the nineteenth-century. Volume 1 describes his visits to Paris and Brunswick, focusing on opera.

Henry Fothergill Chorley was music critic of The Athenaeum for over thirty years. This three-volume book, published in 1841, originated in a journal written by Chorley while travelling in Europe. His aim was to 'illustrate the present state of theatrical, orchestral, and chamber music abroad', focusing on aspects that would be least familiar to an English readership. There are detailed accounts of Paris and Berlin, with prominence given to opera, theatre, art galleries and monuments. Chorley also describes visits to Brunswick, Leipzig, Dresden and Nuremburg, and performances by artists including Mendelssohn and Liszt. He intersperses anecdotes about transport, lodgings, landscapes and local customs. Chorley's incisive and entertaining eyewitness accounts will fascinate music-lovers and theatre historians, as well as others interested in the performing arts or travel writing in the nineteenth-century. Volume 2 describes his visits to the Harz mountains and Berlin.

Henry Fothergill Chorley was music critic of The Athenaeum for over thirty years. This three-volume book, published in 1841, originated in a journal written by Chorley while travelling in Europe. His aim was to 'illustrate the present state of theatrical, orchestral, and chamber music abroad', focusing on aspects that would be least familiar to an English readership. There are detailed accounts of Paris and Berlin, with prominence given to opera, theatre, art galleries and monuments. Chorley also describes visits to Brunswick, Leipzig, Dresden and Nuremburg, and performances by artists including Mendelssohn and Liszt. He intersperses anecdotes about transport, lodgings, landscapes and local customs. Chorley's incisive and entertaining eyewitness accounts will fascinate music-lovers and theatre historians, as well as others interested in the performing arts or travel writing in the nineteenth-century. Volume 3 describes visits to Leipzig, Dresden, Nuremburg and Paris.