NEW BOOKS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 1, 3 January 1901, Page 5

NEW BOOKS.

THE PIANIST'S A.B.C. PRIMEE AND GUIDE,

It is said that a prophet has no honor in his own country and in like manner we, in these colonies, look with coldness on the works of local authors, being under the impression that nothing worthy of notice can be produced outside of the United Kingdom. This is a mistake which will be rectified in time. We have been lad to make these remarks through perusal of a bulky volume of over 700 pages, entitled Thr Pianist 1 x A. B.C. Primer and Guide, by Mr. W. H. Webbe, a well known musician of Auckland. This is one of the most comprehensive musical treatises that we have had the pleasure of examining for a considerable time. The author is not alone a musician but also a literary man of no ordinary ability. He has in addition to the purely educational portion of the work collected and arranged in his primer a valuable mine $f information regarding the history of the pianoforte, and notices of many eminent oomposers and players. In his preface the author states that his primer is not intended to supersede similar works bat rather to supplement them. Here we differ from Mr Webbe, for we believe that if any young pianist studies thi& work carefully—and there is very little difficulty in doing this, for the writer has the faculty of condensation and of larranging his matter in a methodical manner — he or she will have little need of any other. As showing the wide scope of the book, we may mention that among the subjectß dealt with are scales and intervals, touch, aooentuation, phrasing and rhythm, the art of practising, the pedals, elementary harmony, counterpoint, composition, analysis, sight reading, expression, musical forms, examinations, the American organ, the pianoforte, musical history, composers, sohools of xnnsio, etc. The work is well printed and is written in a clear and attractive manner, and the matter is put in a style which can be easily comprehended by the youngest ohild. Mr Webbe is to be highly complimented on the book, which has been very well reoeived by the leading musical journals of the United Kingdom and America. The publishers are Messrs Forsyth Bros., London.