''The Etude'' was an American print

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

dedicated to

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

founded by Theodore Presser (1848–1925) at

Lynchburg, Virginia Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner John Lynch, the city's population was 79,009 at the 2020 census. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mounta ...

, and first published in October 1883. Presser, who had also founded the

Music Teachers National Association Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) is an American nonprofit professional organization for the support, growth, and development of music-teaching professionals, with more than 17,000 members in 50 states, and more than 500 affiliated loc ...

, moved his publishing headquarters to

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

in 1884, and his

Theodore Presser Company The Theodore Presser Company is an American music publishing and distribution company located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, formerly King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and originally based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest continuing music pub ...

continued the magazine until 1957. Aimed at all musicians, from the novice through the serious student to the professional, ''The Etude'' printed articles about both basic (or "popular") and more-involved musical subjects (including history, literature, gossip, and politics), contained write-in advice columns about musical

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

, and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, ...

, of all performer ability levels, totaling over 10,000 works.

Helen Tretbar Helen Dellenbaugh Tretbar (May 16, 1835 – April 3, 1902) was an American author, librettist, and translator who edited '' The Etude'' magazine in the late 1880s and was fluent in French, German, and Italian. Early life and education Tretbar was ...

edited the magazine in the late 1880s.

James Francis Cooke James Francis Cooke (November 14, 1875, Bay City, Michigan – March 3, 1960, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania) spent his life involved with music.''New York Times'' obituary, March 5, 1960, ''Dr. James Cook, 84, Ex-Editor of Etude'' He was a pianist, ...

, editor-in-chief from 1909 to 1949, added the phrase "Music Exalts Life!" to the magazine's masthead, and ''The Etude'' became a platform for Cooke's somewhat polemical and militantly optimistic editorials. The sometimes conservative outlook and contents of the magazine may have contributed to a decline in circulation in the 1930s and '40s, but in many respects it moved with the times, unequivocally supporting the phonograph, radio, and eventually television, and, by the late 1930s, fully embracing jazz. By the end,

George Rochberg George Rochberg (July 5, 1918May 29, 2005) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Long a serial composer, Rochberg abandoned the practice following the death of his teenage son in 1964; he claimed this compositional technique ...

was an editor of ''The Etude'' under Guy McCoy, who had succeeded Cooke as editor-in-chief after over two decades as an assistant, and the magazine's musical content had come more closely in-step with the contemporary world.

References

External links

The Etude Magazine: 1883-1957
(Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University), offers an interface for searching the contents and makes it possible to download colour scans of entire searchable issues
A tribute site to ''The Etude''
including scans of certain issues and articles, with commentary
''Music Magazines in the early 20th century''
ParlorSongs.com Defunct magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1883 Magazines disestablished in 1957 Magazines published in Virginia Magazines published in Philadelphia Music magazines published in the United States {{music-mag-stub

References

Further reading

External links