A. B. Marx (1795–1866) was a scholar, teacher and critic of music, for many years Professor of Music at the University of Berlin, and a close friend – before a falling-out over the libretto of an oratorio – of Mendelssohn. This influential book, published in German in 1855 and translated into English in the same year, consists of two parts: a survey of the significance of music to western culture, and an impassioned and thought-provoking guide to the necessary moral qualities, skills and understanding required to teach – and to be taught – music. Marx's appreciation of such composers as Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz and Wagner is placed in a context in which music is seen as a crucial moral influence on the future development of mankind, and musicians therefore as playing a vital role in that development.
