To _The Great German Composers_ he prefaces a few words which may be quoted--"The sketches of composers contained in this volume may seem arbitrary in the space allotted to them. The special attention given to certain names has been prompted as much by their association with great art epochs, as by the consideration of their absolute rank as composers. The introduction of Chopin, born a Pole, and for a large part of his life a resident of France, among German composers, may require an explanatory word. Chopin's whole early training was in the German school, and he may be looked on as one of the founders of the latest school of pianoforte composition, whose highest development is in contemporary Germany. He represents German music by his affinities and his influences in art, and bears too close a relation to important changes in musical forms to be omitted from this series."
Various important events have occurred since the publication of these volumes in America: _inter alia_, the performance of Wagner's last great work "Parsifal," and the death of the great German musician; the production of new works by Gounod and Verdi; and so forth. The editor has endeavoured, as briefly as practicable, to supplement Mr. Ferris's _causeries_ with the addenda necessary to bring _Great Composers_ down to date. Mr. Ferris further acknowledges his obligation to the following authorities for the facts embodied in these sketches:--Hullah's _History of Modern Music_; Fétis' _Biographie Universelle des Musiciens_; Clementi's _Biographie des Musiciens_; Hogarth's _History of the Opera_; Sutherland Edwards' _History of the Opera_; Schlüter's _History of Music_; Chorley's _Thirty Years' Musical Reminiscences_; Stendhall's _Vie de Rossini_; Bellasy's _Memorials of Cherubini_; Grove's _Musical Dictionary_; Crowestl's _Musical Anecdotes_; Schoelcher's _Life of Handel_; Liszt's _Life of Chopin_; Elsie Polko's _Reminiscences_; Lampadius' _Life of Mendelssohn_; Urbino's _Musical Composers_; Franz Hueffer's _Wagner and the Music of the Future_; Haweis' _Music and Morals_; and the various articles in the leading cyclopædias.
To this volume the present editor has appended a chronological table of the musicians referred to in the following sketches.