From the PREFACE. The paucity of books in our language on the subject of Instrumentation has always appeared to the present writer a matter of surprise. On the Continent many excellent treatises have been published, such as those of Berlioz and Gevaert in French, and of Lobe and Marx in German; but with the exception of the translations of Berlioz, and of Czerny's " School of Practical Composition " (the third volume of which treats, it must be confessed rather superficially, of orchestration), we have scarcely anything in English beyond such elementary details as may be found in Musical Catechisms. The present Primer is an imperfect attempt to supply the deficiency. In writing this book the author has more than once had occasion to remark that under no circumstances can Instrumentation be taught from an instruction-book; and in completing his work he feels this even more keenly than in commencing it. It is by no means with unqualified satisfaction that he looks at the result of his labours. The subject is so rich in- details, and there is so much that ought to be said which it has been impossible to say within the limits of a primer, that the author feels that many parts of his subject (especially those discussed in Chapters VI, VII, and VIII) have been dealt with in a manner so summary as to be inadequate to their importance. Want of space must be the excuse - it is hoped not altogether an insufficient one. An apology appears needful for the very fragmentary nature of the quotations given from the scores of the great masters. In many cases these do not exceed three or four bars; it would have been impossible to render them more complete without greatly enlarging the size of the work. Fortunately so many cheap editions of full scores have recently been published, that students will be able, without any very considerable outlay, to obtain them for themselves. For this reason, the best known and most easily procurable scores of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, have been in many cases merely referred to, instead of quoted. In the selection oi illustrative passages the author has been guided by the desire to render his work useful, as far as possible, to those who might have in their libraries other treatises on Instrumentation. He has therefore endeavoured to avoid quoting extracts already given by Berlioz and other authors; and he has in every instance selected examples from scores in his own library, and not from other instruction-books, for the purposes of illustration. It has always appeared to him a curious thing that although Mendelssohn is, from the purity and fine taste displayed in his instrumentation, one of the best possible models for the young composer, hardly any of the treatises previously published contain so much as one illustration taken from his works. His scores have therefore been somewhat freely drawn upon for the present volume. The author's general plan has been to quote from works less accessible to the student, rather than from those which he could easily procure for himself.... ....In spite of the care which has been expended on the present book, the author dares not flatter himself that no important inaccuracies or omissions will be found in it. It is indeed almost inevitable that, in a work containing such a multiplicity of details, errors will creep in.