Music Ho: A Study of Music in Decline by Constant Lambert - 1934

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. First American Edition. Hardcover. Good/no jacket. Two short tears at the upper spine tip of the book; previous owner's penciled name and an inked notation to the front endpaper, penciled underlinings scattered through the text. No jacket. On British sheets. First printing, no others noted.From the preface: "Avoiding both the pigeon hole and the blackboard I have tried to trace a connecting line between the apparently diverse and contradictory manifestations of contemporary music.... The book as a whole is meant to be a non-technical presentation of the position the composer (and, for that matter, the listener) finds himself in today.." Constant Lambert's good friend, Anthony Powell, based the character Hugh Moreland on him. Moreland, a pivotal character in the 12 novel work A Dance to the Music of Time, is one of the most beloved and poignant creations among Powell's readers. From Wikipedia: "An expert on painting, sculpture, and literature as well as music, Lambert differed from most of his fellow English composers of the time in his acute and prophetic perception of the importance of jazz. He responded positively to the music of Duke Ellington. His embrace of music outside the 'serious' repertoire is illustrated by his book Music Ho! (1934),subtitled "a study of music in decline", which remains one of the wittiest, if most highly opinionated, volumes of music criticism in the English language."We specialize in the works of and about Anthony Powell. Every effort is made to ship all books and other items within 24 hours. Clean recycled packing material will be used when possible. The Book Shed has a been a member of the Vermont Antiquarian Bookseller's Association since 1997. An online bookseller with a bookshop sensibility!