"A comprehensive guide to the literature of song, from the time of the troubadours to the present day" - jacket of 1970 edition.

This book is concerned with secular art-song as perceived from two main angles: historical depth and geographical breadth. The book has been entrusted to a group of writers, each of whom has set forth, in his own way (though within the general framework of the initial plan) an account of some aspect of song related to his own specialized studies and experience. If this book suggests new departures and new additions to the repertory of singers who feel hemmed in by a narrow range of musical style, it will have fulfilled one of its principal aims and objects. If it assists the musician and musical historian to grasp the essential continuity of a genre that has flourished with particular vigour during the past millennium, some part of the editor's hopes will have been realized. - Foreword.