Lussy Mathis. Musical Expression

London; New York: Novello, Ewer & Co. no date [ca. 1890s.] — 236 p.The object of this work is to demonstrate the hitherto unknown reason which guides artists and professors in their accentuation, and to furnish a system of rules by which a player will be enabled to annotate and perform with expression every kind of vocal and instrumental music. The work thus forms a complement to all other Methods, and addresses itself to all who are occupied with music, vocal or instrumental. To Artists and Professors it offers an explanation of the causes and mysterious laws of expression ; to Amateurs and Students, without teachers, it offers rules as regards tempo, accents, and nuances, applicable not only to one particular piece, but to all kinds of compositions. These rules claim neither originality nor novelty, for the greatest masters have observed them unconsciously from time immemorial, and artists and people of taste have always submitted to them instinctively. The task of the present writer has therefore been merely to discover, classify, and formulate them. By this discovery, and in spite of all imperfections in carrying it out, the want above described in the ordinary systems of instruction is supplied ; chance gives way to scientific method, and musical expression leaves the exclusive domain of sentiment and enters that of reason.