This volume devoted to the symphonies of the great composers is addressed to serious students of music, students who think about music as well as listen to it, and do not merely approach music sensuously, as one might a hot bath or a pipe of tobacco. We grant that the sensuous appeal of music is a vital and important part of appreciation, but it is only a part and not the whole. Our first reaction to music is an emotional one, after which, if we are intelligent listeners, we want to know something about its construction, how the composer obtains this or that effect, and the process of his thought. The purpose of this book is therefore to guide the intelligent and serious listener towards a deeper understanding of the masterpieces of symphony, which he is likely to hear frequently in the concert hall, on the radio, or on the gramophone.
In the first chapters the Editor outlines the early development of the symphony, after which there is a series of chapters, each written by a leading critic, containing commentaries on some or all of the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, schumann, Liszt, Franck, Bruckner, Brahms, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Mahler, Elgar, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Rachmaninov, and Bax..