It is impossible to understand principles without some statement of theory; and a book in order to be practical must therefore be to some extent theoretical. I have been as concise and brief in the theoretical parts as clearness would permit of, and I trust they are not out of proportion to the practical parts.

Either to paint well, or to judge well of a painting, requires an understanding of the same things: namely, the theoretical standpoint of the painter; the technical problems of color, ...

In addition to extended studies of orchestral scores themselves, the standard works of Berlioz, Gevaërt, Riemann, Parry, and others have, as a matter of course, been referred to.

The subject under discussion has already been admirably handled by Lavoix in his voluminous work entitled "Histoire de L'Instrumentation," but it was unquestionably done through French glasses, and the scores of not one German romanticist are submitted to careful analysis beyond those of Weber and Wagner. "Parsifal"...