In this sequence Augusta Webster experimented with eight-line verses grouped thematically by the seasons of the year. These poems also explore the cyclical stages of life from youth, courtship and parenthood through age and loss. Summary by Newgatenovelist.

The first of three volumes of the first scholarly biography of Ludwig van Beethoven. Covers the years 1770-1802. - Summary by Zain Solinski

This 1898 book is the result of a survey of 107 hymn-books. The thirty-two hymns are ranked in order of popularity. The texts in this recording are said only, not sung, along with a few explanatory notes for each hymn . The texts are preceded by two essays concerning hymns and their standards. Benson was an American Presbyterian minister who edited several hymnals. - Summary by David Wales

"Owing to the appreciation which has been accorded to my three series of "Stories from the Operas," it has been decided to re-issue the collection in one volume, and to include in this additional stories of new and popular operas recently produced in England.The plan of the work, as before, is to present all the incidents of each libretto in the clear, readable form of a short story; and it is hoped that the combined volume will continue to prove of interest, not only to opera-goers but to all lovers of dramatic tales. The three volumes have been entirely reset and re-collated in a manner which it is hoped will make them easier for reference." - Summary by Gladys Davidson

Theodore Wratislaw was a fin de siècle poet and a less famous Decadent author than some of his contemporaries. This short collection of verse was first published in 1892.

Theodore Wratislaw was a fin de siècle poet and a less famous Decadent author than some of his contemporaries. This short collection of verse was first published in 1896.

'A guide to the meaning of important symphonies, overtures and tone-poems from Beethoven to the present day'. Gilman became notorious for scathing reviews of compositions later to become classics. Here he analyzes the stories behind some famous and not so famous works. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

Mary Coleridge was a novelist, essayist and biographer. She was also a talented poet, and her posthumously published verses are variously meditative, joyous, gothic, wistful and devotional.

Verses, Popular and Humorous was the second collection of poems by Australian poet Henry Lawson. It features some of the poet's earlier major works, including "The Lights of Cobb and Co", "Saint Peter" and "The Grog-An'-Grumble-Steeplechase". Most of the poems in the volume had been written after the publication of In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses in 1896. The original collection includes 66 poems by the author that are reprinted from various sources. Later publications split the collection into two separate volumes: Popular Verses and Humorous Verses, though the contents differed from the original list...

Elizabeth Siddal was a British poet, artist and model. Her poems were not published in a single volume in her lifetime; this collection brings together fifteen of her verses on themes such as loss and relationships. Summary by Newgatenovelist

volunteers bring you recordings of Double Sestina - Ye Goatherd Gods by Phillip Sidney. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 5, 2019. ------ Poem is included in the book "Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia" Ye Goatherd Gods" depicts the sorrows of two shepherds who love the same woman. She has left them both, however, and the two shepherds are dejected and heartbroken. They appeal to the gods, to nature, and to the heavens in their angst, and everything they see is altered because of their sorrows...

Nina Salaman was a noted scholar, translator and columnist. As well as translating medieval Hebrew poetry, she was a poet in her own right. This collection, first published in 1910, shows her remarkable grace.

On a Grey Thread was first published in 1923, one of the first books of openly lesbian love poetry to be published in the United States. Her early verse is concise and highly original.

The Wind Among the Reeds was first published in 1899 and features short, personal lyrics on subjects such as Irish legends and personal relationships. - Summary by Newgatenovelist

Laurence Hope was the nom de plume of Adela Florence Nicolson, a British poet who wrote verses inspired by India, where she lived. This collection, her first, was originally published in 1901.

Maria Letitia Stockett was a highly respected English teacher in Baltimore, Maryland, but also well-known as an author. In addition to her poetry she wrote Baltimore: A Not Too Serious History in 1928, and America, First, Fast & Furious . This is a collection of her short lyrical poems of nature, sentient and spirit. - Summary by Larry Wilson

John Hall Wheelock is an American poet who during his student years at Harvard University was editor-in-chief of The Harvard Monthly, and began to publish his first poems. He later worked for publisher Charles Sribner and Sons finally becoming senior editor. He received many awards for his poetry including the Golden Rose in 1936 for the most distinguished contribution to American poetry of that year. The poems in The Black Panther reveal a deep spirituality but also a strong humanistic reach, sometimes dark and sometimes celebratory and full of joy...

This book is a collection of English translations of medieval Latin hymns. It contains interesting historical and/or liguistic facts about each hymn, some of which are still used in one form or other in the modern Christian church.Note: An asterisk implies a belief that the piece so marked has not previously appeared in an English translation. - Summary by Devorah Allen

Katherine Hale is the pen name of Amelia Beers Warnock Garvin, a Canadian poet and literary critic. This volume is one of her collections with the background of World War I as a theme, but full of faith and hope. - Summary by Larry Wilson

Twenty, Stella Benson’s first poetry collection, was first published in 1918. It deals with topics such as personal independence, the First World War and London’s landscape.

Published in 1918, Zora Cross’s book of poems, The Lilt of Life, was her third book of verse, and, like her earlier works, largely focused on her experiences of love, erotic entanglements , and motherhood. Many of the poems are written as an homage to her then-husband, David McKee Wright, whom she met while writing for The Bulletin, where Wright was her editor, causing a significant scandal in Sydney literary circles. - Summary by Elise Dee

This 1904 book by composer, conductor and pianist Felix Weingartner examines the development of the symphony as a musical form since one of its greatest practitioners, Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven's symphonic works gave the symphony an unprecedented importance as an art form and inspired his contemporaries and later composers to take it more seriously. Weingartner helped create a widespread appreciation for Beethoven's symphonies through his writings on, and performances of, these works. He conducted all of Beethoven's symphonies, and was the first conductor to make commercial recordings of all nine of them.

Elinor Jenkins was a British poet whose published work focuses largely on the First World War. This volume, based on her collection published in 1915, incorporates 16 later poems and was published posthumously in 1921.

This short account of the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is part of the “Life Stories for Young People” series. It is written in an engaging dialogue format beginning with the young Mozart’s first notes on the piano keyboard at age three to his admission to membership in the Accademia Filarmonica at Bologna, Italy, ten years later. This child prodigy astounded the musical world of Europe to become one of the most cherished of all classical composers.

Tom Maguire was a trade union organiser from Yorkshire of Irish descent whose poetry reflects his socialist beliefs. This volume was published posthumously in 1895 and includes prefatory commemorative remarks by Keir Hardie and John Bruce Glasier. NB Listeners may find some of the references to sexual assault and suicide distressing.

The theme around these poems is how poets expressed their ideas of love as well as the type of language used to convey said love through poetry; it also indirectly highlights how society may perceive love based on how those poets' values may have aligned with/against society during their era. All the poems revolve around a discussion of love through the language they used to describe their feelings of love as well as the images they paint through said language .

Volume 1 in the "The Art of Music" series, published by the National Society of Music. This first volume covers the "Pre-Classic periods", from early human primitive music, through to the music of the Ancient Greeks and other ancient cultures, plainsong, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and up until the music of J.S. Bach. Included are musical examples, which are performed in the audio as they appear in the text. - Summary by Jake Malizia

Two narrative ballads, based on local lore, by the Cumberland poet John Stagg. In 'The Hermit of Rockcliffe', a young fugitive takes refuge with a hermit, hears a bizarre and cautionary tale of what might befall a lusty young man at a masked ball, and learns surprising news about himself. In 'The Rose of Corby' a young maid's elopement with her lover, on the day of her betrothal to a local lord, has an unexpected outcome.

Florence Henniker was a British poet and novelist whose ‘Poesies from Abroad’ was first published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine in September 1889. This collection also includes ‘An Autumn Lyric’, which was first published in May 1889 in the same journal. - Summary by Newgatenovelist

“... But, beside those great men, there is a certain number of artists who have a distinct faculty of their own by which they convey to us a peculiar quality of pleasure which we cannot get elsewhere; and these, too, have their place in general culture, and must be interpreted to it by those who have felt their charm strongly, and are often the objects of a special diligence and a consideration wholly affectionate, just because there is not about them the stress of a great name and authority.” - Summary by Walter Pater

Volume 2 in the "The Art of Music" series, published by the National Society of Music. This first volume covers the Classical and Romantic periods, encompassing: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, opera in Italy and France, Romanticism, song literature, pianoforte and chamber music, orchestral literature, romantic opera, choral song, Wagner and Wagnerism, Brahms, Franck, Verdi and other contemporaries. - Summary by Jake Malizia

This is a collection of 27 poems, some seasonal to New Years and Christmas, but others on themes of religion, nature and home.

Born in Ontario, Canada, Walter Percy entered the ministry and pastored churches in New England and Pennsylvania, often speaking on behalf of the temperance movement. Many of his poems were written for his children and are here collected under the topics: nature, fireside, sentiment, memories, philosophy, homilies, country, humor. sacred, song poems, and miscellaneous poems. - Summary by Larry Wilson

The celebrated German-British composer G.F. Handel premiered his now famous oratorio "Messiah" in 1742. In 1785 there was a celebration at Westminster Abbey of Handel's birth 100 years before. It was on this occasion that John Newton decided to preach 50 sermons from the Bible passages that form the libretto of Messiah. The sermons were preached over two years in the Parish Church of St. Mary Woolnoth, Lombard-Street - 3 miles from Westminster Abbey. - Summary by InTheDesert

In these translations from the Danish the author attempted to adhere strictly to the metres of the original, however in some, where this was not possible, she developed her own interpretations.

Alice Meynell was a British poet and suffragist. This collection was published in 1902 and explores the author’s Catholic faith as well as the natural world. - Summary by Newgatenovelist

A collection of poems by the Canadian poet William Wilfred Campbell addressing themes of National Identity, Imperialism and the Divinity of Man. - Summary by Alan Mapstone

A collection of essays on things musical by Vernon Blackburn, including composers, music in different time periods, and modern music.

Poetry by two radical poets, born in the same year, who suffered exile and punishment under the Tsarist Russian empire. Taras Shevchenko is celebrated as the founder of Ukrainian literature , while Lermontov wrote in Russian. Both died young, Lermontov in a duel and Shevchenko as a result of his sufferings in exile. This collection includes Ethel Voynich's moving biography of Taras Shevchenko and translations of six short lyrics written over the course of his life, as well as her translation of Lermontov's narrative poem, The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov. - Summary by Phil Benson

F. W. Harvey was an English poet, broadcaster and solicitor. These poems, taken from his 1921 collection Farewell, embody his love of nature, his native Gloucestershire and his beloved. - Summary by Newgatenovelist

As Romain Rolland indicates in the preface, this book is a brief sketch of the life and technique of Handel. He provides biographical background and addresses the operas, oratorios, clavier compositions, chamber music, and orchestral compositions. Images of musical examples mentioned by Rolland can be found in the printed text. The text also includes a list of Handel's works organized by category and chronology.