Excerpt from The Song: Its Birth, Evolution, and Functions; With Numerous Selections From Old English Lyrics
The purpose of the writer has not been to make a collection of songs, which would have been an almost endless task, or to write their biographies, but rather to set forth briefly the origin of song and its development among various peoples; to examine the different classes of song, with brief references to prominent examples; to define their characteristics, and to illustrate the investigation by selections of a few in each class which are perennials in the garden of song.
In carrying out this scheme he has confined his selections and classes to songs in the English tongue, making little reference to songs of other countries, except in chapters relating to their origin and evolution. He has also sought to trace the various functions of song, and to attempt to explain why some of the simplest of the old songs live on, generation after generation, as fresh and forceful as when they were written, while so many of the higher and more elaborate musical forms perish or are soon forgotten. In a word, the writer has sought to present the story, the psychology, and mission of the song, the oldest and most enduring form of music.
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