"The "Catechism of Musical Instruments," while dealing primarily with the compass, the technical possibilities, and the aesthetic effects of the single instruments, concerns itself also with the more important and usual combinations of instruments into special contrasting groups (strings, wood wind, brass), and makes occasional references to the role these groups as well as the single instruments play in the Orchestra and the Ensemble. It is thus the subtitle "Guide to Instrumentation" is justified. If, therefore, in the present little volume I give a special introduction to Instrumentation, a few explanatory remarks may be required.
In the first instance, then, it is easy to see that the fundamental difference of arrangement, the diversity in the starting point and in the total treatment of the material, makes this book a kind of practical application and proof of the former." [...]
Reprint of the great work by Hugo Riemann, initally published in 1900.
