In Tuneful Accord. Trevor Beeson

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      Preface

      Of the many books for which I have been responsible over the last fifty years, the writing of In Tuneful Accord has given me the greatest pleasure. I entered upon the task with some hesitation but, now completed, I hand it over to my publisher with the sadness that attends parting from a valued friend.

      It might be argued, and I am ready to concede the point, that a survey of the development of church music during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries should have preceded a trilogy on bishops, deans and canons. After all, the musicians have a deeper, wider, and usually longer-lasting influence than all but a handful of church leaders. Music is more attractive to most churchgoers than even the most eloquent of sermons, though both have their place. The personalities of musicians can also be interesting and I have included something about the most important of them in my period.

      During these early years of a new millennium music is everywhere. Never before has so much music, and in such a variety of forms of music, been created, performed and heard by so many people. The development of broadcasting and sound recording is largely responsible for this, and it is difficult to withhold sympathy from the man who sought to have a quiet drink in his local pub and offered to pay for a short period of relief from the rowdy jukebox. But of course the music explosion of the last half-century has also given joy, inspiration, illumination and consolation to millions.

      Music СКАЧАТЬ