Etude Magazine was published by Theodore Presser Company between 1883 and 1957. It was a staple for music teachers throughout the country, providing articles related to music history, new developments in music, and practical teaching techniques, as well as musical scores from the classics and new pieces for beginning to advanced students. Begun as an aid for piano teachers, the magazine grew to include information and literature for vocal and instrumental enthusiasts as well. Not only is the series important to the musician, but it provides an insight into the culture itself, including the impact of the development of the car, radio, and television, and expands to world music and the influence of world wars on that culture.
This offering of searchable .pdf scans of the Etude Magazine is made available by Dr. Pam Dennis of Gardner-Webb University. These scans are to be used for research only and are not to be reproduced. Attribution should be given to this website and to its compiler, when using for research. These issues are available under permission from the Theodore Presser Company as they appeared in Etude Magazine.
Dr. Pam Dennis's Index to the articles published in the Etude magazine, 1883-1957: Part 1 and Part 2 are available in the Gardner-Webb Faculty and Staff Book Gallery.
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Volume 54, Number 07 (July 1936)
James Francis Cooke
Romance of In the Gloaming
Road to Correct Fingering
Why Every Child Should Have a Musical Training
Short Cuts to Easy Practice
First Love of Franz Liszt
At What Age Shall My Child Begin to Learn the Piano?
Different Bach
Developing Interest in Practicing
Stamps for Success
Sources of Beethoven's Inspiration
Secrets of the Conductor (interview with Fritz Reiner)
Musical Make-Believe
How the Tuner Can Help You
Indefinable Liszt (interview with Frederick Lamond)
How About Figured Bass?
Safe Rule for Clear Pedaling
Musicians and Their Food
Pitfalls in Teaching Piano Tone Production
Pupil's Piano
Progressive Music Chart
Darkness Before Dawn
Why, When, and Where of And
Open Door to Another World
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Volume 54, Number 08 (August 1936)
James Francis Cooke
What Makes a Good Violinist (interview with Jascha Heifetz)
Story and History of Gounod's Faust, The
Musical Repartee
Why Every Child Should Have a Musical Training
Music in Public Schools
Neglected Phases of Piano Practice and Playing
Ringing Doorbells to Get Pupils
Music of Hindustan
Hand Building Exercises
Memory Pictures of Famous Musicians
Art of Counting
Sostenuto Pedal
Romance of Felix Mendelssohn
Curing Stiff Wrists and Fingers
Quick Way to Memorize
Combining Different Rhythms
Making Old Etudes Work
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Volume 54, Number 09 (September 1936)
James Francis Cooke
Good Humor in Music: Do Composers Tend Toward the Sombre Colors, or Do They Inclinde Toward the Gay?
Radio and Music (interview with David Sarnoff)
Music at Harvard: From a Historical Review
Memories of William Mason and His Friends
Whetting the Children's Appetite for Music
A-440 by National Broadcast
Origin of Sousa's Name: Ridiculous and False Stories about the Ancestry of John Philip Sousa Which Should be Corrected by Etude Readers
Making Tempo Rubato Understandable
When Should Piano Study Be Commenced? A Question Asked by Thousands
Roll of Honor
Finger Independence as Applied to Bach's Fugues
How They Gave Early Concerts
Publisher and Composer
Marking Lessons Stimulates Interest in Practice
Empty-the-Basket Game
Strengthening the Finger Tips
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Volume 54, Number 10 (October 1936)
James Francis Cooke
Musical Educational Renaissance, A (interview with Josef Hofmann)
Hallowe'en Spirits Go Musical
Early Romance of Haydn
Lesson Check Ups
Harps and Harpists in 1936 (interview with Carlos Salzedo)
Problem of the Adolescent Student
Daily Dozen from the Diatonic Scales
Meistersingers of Nuremberg and Their Wooden Tablet
Subdividing the Beat
Selecting the New Piece
Midnight King: The Tragedy of the Mad Musical Monarch Whose Support Made Wagner's Giant Projects Possible
NBC Music Appreciation Hour
Making a Start with Bach: Practical Helps for the Student Who Desires a Better Knowledge of the Great Master and His Style
Interesting Bit of American Musical History
Great Poet as a Music Critic: Heinrich Heine's Relation to the Great Masters of Music
Great Musical Revival: Chicago Industrial Music Meeting Indicates Notable Advance
Hints from Chopin
String Quartet: A Radio Talk
Do You Know
Mark Twain's Favorite Music
Preschool Music Class
Finishing That Piece
Mastering Skips in the Waltz Bass
Do We Listen Enough?
Exercises that Strengthen the Fingers
Game of Flats
Bringing Up the Left Hand
Quicker Practicing
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Volume 54, Number 11 (November 1936)
James Francis Cooke
Reflections from a Musical Life
Bird in Grand Opera
My Symphonic Debut in the Films
Pep in Music
For That Weak Left Hand
Harp in History
Woman's Struggle for Recognition in Music
Forgotten Pedal of the Piano
Gift of Liszt to Grieg
Spirituals to Symphonies: A Brief Survey of Negro Music in America, from the Jubilee Singers and their Spirituals to the Playing of Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony by the Philadelphia Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (founded by Theodore Thomas)
Gala Days with Liszt at Weimar
Photo-Chart for the Piano Accordion
New Piano Accordion Field
Securing Finger Control
Jazzy Repartee
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Volume 54, Number 12 (December 1936)
James Francis Cooke
Sentiment vs. Sentimentality: A Short History (1900-1936) of the Development of the Ability of the American Student to Express Himself through Music (interview with Rudolph Ganz)
Nativity: A Musical Pageant Arranged for High School Glee Clubs
Manager States His Case (interview with Lawrence Evans and Jack Salter)
Good Lesson Tree
For Scale Practice and Hand Position
From a One-Fingered Virtuoso
Musical Aeroplane Trip Around the World: Music Visits to Many Nations in Story Recital Form
Yuletide Carolles Olde and Newe: Often on Legends with a Whimsy Background
Fundamentals in Advertising
Reflections from a Busy Musical Life (interview with Alexander T. Gretchaninoff)
Roll of Honor
Music Study in Paris
Eight Hands on One Keyboard: Standard Piano Quartets (Four Players at One Piano)
Getting the Gentle Art of Part Singing
Rejected Falsetto Made Valuable
Singer's Attire
Home Work
Bricks Without Straw
Something New About Dixie
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Volume 53, Number 01 (January 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Broken Strings
Personal Conferences with Claude Debussy: A New Posthumous Interview, Introducing Hitherto Unpublished Correspondence of Famous Writers and Musicians with the Master
Famous Czerny Study and How to Play It
Which Scale First
If You Were My Pupil (interview with Grete Stueckgold)
Mrs. B. Natural's Party: Children's Costume Recital or Musical Playlet
How Fast Shall I Practice
Rules and Exceptions in Music Theory, Part 1
Modern Piano Pedagogy
California's Musical Marvel
Piano Classes That Make Success
Gold Star Contest
Modern Bravura Playing of Octave-Chords
We Wish Our Teachers Wouldn't
Cherubini and the French Revolution
Changing Notes
Little Tale of Music Study Accomplishment: Who Gets to the Piano First?
Nature of Sound
Getting the Pitch of the Piece
Ten Admonitions for the Serious Pianist
Voice Questions Answered
Strength and Flexibility
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Volume 53, Number 02 (February 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Getting Jobs through Music
Jennygrams: An Amusing Episode in American Musical History—How Barnum Turned Jenny Lind's American Début Into a Money Making Scheme
Dr. Brahms and Dr. Bilroth
Can Any Music Enthusiast Become a Master of the Piano?
Are You a Musical Parasite?
Musical Instruments of Old and Modern Cathay
Concerning the Jazz Question
Rules and Exceptions in Musical Theory
Music and Postage Stamps
Lilting Strains of the Waltz
Don't Save Time—Take It!
Music Everywhere: What the Radio is Doing for Musical America
Why Every Child Should Have a Musical Training
How I Use My Etudes
Travelogue Recital
Glinka and Orchestral Music
Musical Cobweb
Stretching the Muscles
Note Drill and Relaxation
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Volume 53, Number 03 (March 1935)
James Francis Cooke
What I Learned from Broadcasting (interview with Nino Martini)
Relaxation Rather then Contraction
Short Course in Memory Training: Making Your Mind Work Along Right Lines
Why Music Should be Retained in the Public Schools: Music's Influence Upon Mankind
Beethoven's Estimate of His Fellow Musicians
One Way to Start a Pupil at the Very First Lesson
Pupils Everywhere: A Letter from a Practical Teacher Who Looked Depression Between the Eyes Until Depression Smiled Back with Success
Little Bach Program Recital
Do We Listen Creatively?
Charles Marie Widor, the Grand Old Man of French Music
Debussy and the Pedal Blur: The Lure of Atmosphere and How It Is Produced
Nuggets of Piano Wisdom from Deppe
Funeral March of Chopin Master Lesson
Little Tales of Music Study Accomplishment
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Volume 53, Number 04 (April 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Mission Mass Chimes
Vast American Cultural Movement
Savoyard Saga: Comments Upon One of the Most Unusual Happenings in the History of Music in the Theater—The Fateful Combination of Gilbert, Sullivan and D'Oyly Carte at the Savoy Theater in London
Accent the Charm of Music: Why the First and Third Beats are Accented
Piano as a Broadcasting Instrument
Modern Tendencies in Music
Saving for Music Study
Evening With Ethelbert Nevin
Passing of a Great Diva
Cultivating a Dependable Memory
Grand Tradition of Opera (interview with Léon Rothier)
About Fifth Fingers, Ladies' Hands, and Camels' Backs
Helping the Parent to Help the Pupil Practice
Why Every Child Should Have a Musical Training
Head Study
Composers and How They Create
Music in Pompeii
Tests for Music Students
Make Your Music Look Professional
Samson and Delilah of Saint-Saëns
Adult Piano Student
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Volume 53, Number 05 (May 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Music and America's Greatest Problem
Palestrina, The Prince of Music: The Story of One of the Most Picturesque Figures
Reason for a Certain Theory of Fingering
Finger Exercises on Black Keys
Learning to Pronounce a Foreign Language: Something that Musicians Who Need Languages Should Know
Story of Musical Notation
Music of the Spains: Those Lands of Melody,Gaiety, Dancing, Chivalry and Song
Stars for Star Pupils: Rewards That Interest the Piano Pupil
Why Every Child Should Have a Musical Training
Beauty Through Wrist Action: A Study of Tonal Effects for Piano Students
Etude Music Study Expansion League
Have You Got Rhythm?: Being a Practical Way to Teach the Uneven and Compound Rhythms
Music and the Boy of Junior Age
Solos in Groups
Basting Stitches
Cure for Nervousness
Things to Do Before You Practice
How To Strengthen the Muscles for Octave Playing
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Volume 53, Number 06 (June 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Nulla Dies Sine Linae (No Day Without Its Lines)
Violoncello as a Solo Instrument (interview with Beatric Harrison)
Sight Playing and to Improve It
Speed at the Piano Keyboard: Using Geometry to Help
Study Hints for the Advancing Student
Current Radio Programs
Visits to European Musical Shrines: Frankfort, Dresden, Stuttgart and Other Teutonic Music Centers
Organ Point or Pedal Point
Beethoven Advises a Piano Teacher
Altered Chords
Why Every Child Should Have a Musical Training
Evolution of the Piano Action
Lessons from Hearing Great Pianists
Learning to Pedal Effectively
Addison, The Spectator, on Eighteenth Century Music
Mother's Part
Developing a Flexible Wrist
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Volume 53, Number 07 (July 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Musical Prosperity Leads the Way
Distinctly American Vocal Problems (interview with Queena Mario)
Star Spangled Banner: Our National Anthem, Enshrined in the Hearts of all Patriotic Americans
Violinist's Summer (interview with Mischa Elman)
Geography of the Piano: Where the Piano Comes From
Failures that Triumphed
Romances of Great Musicians: Romance in the Life of Mozart
Why Every Child Should Have a Musical Training
Increasing the Resources of the Piano (interview with Walter Gieseking)
Music of the Congo: An Interesting Romance of the Music of Darkest Africa
Music Study Extension Course
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Volume 53, Number 08 (August 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Forty Years in Showdom
And the Twain Shall Meet (interview with Armand Tokatyan)
Parent's Musical Opportunity
On Hearing the Lesson: Miss Kammerer's Lucid and Practical Expositions of Her Highly Successful Pedagogical Ideas Are Widely Welcomed by Teachers
Etude Day in the Public School
Program for Our Mothers
Couppey Suggestion
How Scotland Sings Her Story
Know Your Piano: Your Piano Has Over Six Thousand Parts; It Pays to Know Something About Them
Making My Family Musical: What It Has Meant to Their Lives and Mine
Romances of Great Musicians: Romance in the Life of Schumann
Why Every Child Should Have a Musical Training
Lure of Musical Instruments: Something of the Romance That Surrounds These Music Makers
Should I Change Teachers (interview with Lawrence Tibbett)
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Volume 53, Number 09 (September 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Hector on Broadway
Day in Radio City
Bands Everywhere
Stage Fright Preventatives
Why Every Child Should Have a Musical Training
Food and the Voice (interview with Leon Felderman)
Three Important Chords in Music: Numerous Ways of Using the Chord of the Seventh, the Chord of the Sixth, and the Chord of the Sixth and Fourth
Why Czerny?
Romances of Great Musicians: Romance in the Life of Schubert
That Troublesome Fourth Finger
Wisdom of W.S.B. Mathews: A Collection of Paragraphs from the Writings of One of the Most Original and Distinctive Thinkers in the Field of American Musical Education
Making Sure of Responses
Master Lesson on the Nocturne in F-sharp Major, Op. 15, No. 2, of Chopin
Concentration
Czerny Contest
Tone Memory in Children
What the Depression Did for Music
Shall I Form a Junior Club
Glissando on Black Keys
Another Recital Type and its Preparation
Prospective Pupils Call Every Day
Unique Program
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Volume 53, Number 10 (October 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Amazing Career of Ignace Paderewski: Pianist, Composer, Orator, Statesman
Should Piano Teachers Study Other Instruments?
Lowered Second Scale-Step
National Broadcasting Company Music Appreciation Hour
Most Amazing Romance in Musical History
Genial Dr. Burney: The Originator of the Paino Duet
William Byrd in Praise of Singing
Day in Radio City
La Bohome—A Tragedy of Humble Life in Paris—An Adaptation of Puccini's Famous Opera, to be Used as a Reading at Music Clubs
Why Every Child Should Have Musical Training
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Volume 53, Number 11 (November 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Hobbies for Everybody
Wagnerian Singer (interview with Kirsten Flagstad)
Dolls' Music Festival
Have Musicians a Sense of Humor
What About Radio? (interview with Wilfred Pelletier)
Bach and Handel Compared
Very American Story of Emma Abbott: In Which Poverty Becomes the Vestibule to Success
Rubinstein's Famous Song Der Asra, As Arranged by Liszt: A Soliloquy on This Widely Known Composition
Memorybook Pages of a Musical Pilgrim: Presenting Messages and Music from Many States
Musical Embroideries at the Piano
Why Counterpoint?
How Music Lovers May Become More Truly Musical
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Volume 53, Number 12 (December 1935)
James Francis Cooke
Let Nothing Discourage You (interview with Lotte Lehmann)
So, This is the Hurdy-Gurdy!
Bach Fugue Simplified
Soul-Light
Music: The Magic Carpet of Radio
Why Every Child Should Have a Musical Training
Where Does American Musical Composition Stand?
Fiddle Box of Memories (interview with Sam Franko)
Counting the Group
One Way to Enjoy Music
Music Teachers' National Association Convention of 1935
Music of the New Day (interview with Mana-Zucca)
Christmas Prayer
Boston Symphony Orchestra: Its Origin, History and Activities
How Famous Composers Break all the Rules (interview with William Strasser)
Voice of Experience Inspects the Hammond Organ
Honesty in Piano Study (interview with Jose Iturbi)
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Volume 52, Number 01 (January 1934)
James Francis Cooke
Studying Music for the Joy of It (interview with Artur Bodanzky)
Old Friends are Best
Evening of Mozart: A Musical Play in Three Acts for Children and Adults
You Can Sing—If You Will! (interview with Ernestine Schumann-Heink)
Music of Nature: A Series of Programs for Studio, Club or Radio Recital
Coming Back Without Teacher
Why Not Give an Etude Radio Recital?
Music Supervisor's Forum
New Deal, the New Leisure, and Music
Interesting Stephen Heller
Here's a New One
Those Troublesome Octaves
Value of Music Study to a Business Woman
Ledger Lines and Spaces Simplified
Sight Reading Suggestions
Drilling for Independence Day
Musical Pepper Box
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Volume 52, Number 02 (February 1934)
James Francis Cooke
Education of a Conductor (interview with Bruno Walter)
Stage Fright and How to Cure It
Berlin, The Weltstadt of Music
Music and the Adult
From Bell Stand to Throne Room: A Remarkable Autobiographical Interview with the Eminently Successful American Negro Composer (interview with R. Nathaniel Dett)
Kindergarten Highway to Tone and Rhythm
New Approach to the Thumb-Under Problem
Conquering the Jazz Craze of Young Pianists
Four Times Twenty Musical Years
Old Friends are Best
Indian Drill for the Fingers
Violin Teaching Far From Ordinary: An Unroutined Routine of Violin Instruction (interview with Louis Persinger)
Provincial Opera in Italy
Devices for Oral Scale Drill
Why Not Resume the Study of Music?
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Volume 52, Number 03 (March 1934)
James Francis Cooke
Student Hardships that Lead to Success (interview with Elisabeeth Rethberg)
Studying the Pianissimo
Musical Courtesy
Composer's Workshop: How Composers Employ Simple Devices to Expand Their Musical Ideas
Irish Quartet
On Choosing a Musical Career
Music and the Ritual of the Dance in Ceylon: The Subtropical Themes and Rhythms that Have an Undying Allure
Pride of Personal Performance
Musical Pepper Box
Helps to Better Sight Playing
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: Its Origin, History and Activities
Slighted Finger
Teach All Keys in the Early Grades
Piano Accordion Band
Conducting a Practical Studio Piano Contest
Problem of the Baby Violinist
Story of Aloha Oe
Music of Nature: A Series of Programs for Studio, Club or Radio Recital
Playing with Both Hands Together
Value of Easy Pieces
Gaining Control of Fingers
Eliminate the Word Practice from Your Vocabulary
Novel Rehearsal of Tristan
Some Things Musicians Should Know about Pitch
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Volume 52, Number 04 (April 1934)
James Francis Cooke
There is No Royal Road to Singing! (interview with Göta Ljungberg)
Bass Drum
Chopin Odiosyncracy
How I Managed to Secure Pupils During The Depression
Dating Recitals for Success
Bandmaster Gilmore: The Indomitable Pat Whose Masterpiece was Probably When Johnny Comes Marching Home
London: A World Music Center
Chopin's Masterly Valse in A Flat, Op. 42: A Detailed Lesson Analysis
Music Popular at the Time of Lincoln
Cultivation of Musical Taste in a Small Town
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Volume 52, Number 05 (May 1934)
James Francis Cooke
Singing Student's Vacation (interview with Sigrid Onegin)
New Piece
Holding Notes
Guiding Signs in Music
Making Piano Technic Simpler
Educational Running Mates: School and Music Teacher
Friendly Notes
When Interest Flags
Four-Year-Old Children Make Good Students
Intensive, Profitable Summer Vacation Music Study Calendar
Father of the Pianoforte: Clementi, 1752-1832
Dimished-Seventh Chords
Divine Purcell: Englands Most Distinctive Master Composer and His Music
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Volume 52, Number 06 (June 1934)
James Francis Cooke
Music of New Russia (interview with Albert Coates
Do Snakes Like Music?
Ethelbert Nevin's A Day in Venice (Un Giorno in Venezia): A New Tone Film Presentation Which is Commanding National Attention
Give the Child a Good Piano
Staccato Accents
Baseball and Scales
Use the Metronome in Practicing Sight-reading
Novelty for Your Recital
National Element in Polish Music
Getting a Start in Music Teaching in the Country
How One Teacher Did It
Art of Program Making
Accompanist
Music of the Land of the Bourrée
Music of Nature: A Series of Programs for Studio, Club or Radio Recital
Experimenting With the Class Lesson System of Teaching: Changing a Class of Private-Lesson Pupils Over to Groups
Teaching Legato to Children
That Spare Moment After the Lesson
Making Sight Reading a Pleasure
Musical Scramble
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Volume 52, Number 07 (July 1934)
James Francis Cooke
Paderewski and Modern Piano Progress
Proper Care of School Pianos
Signor Patti and a Few Others: Notable Husbands of Famous Singers
Older Hands
Earliest Americans and their Music
To Overcome Mistakes in Note-Reading
How to Conduct a Piano Tournament
Music and Life
When Summer Comes Will Music Lag Behind? (interview with Harold Bauer)
Music of Nature: A Series of Programs for Studio, Club or Radio Recital
Some Piano Questions
Piano Lessons with Camille Saint-Saëns
Use of Music as a Healing Agent Among the Indians
Life Span of Famous Composers
Hint in Reading
Tambourine Corps
Signposts to Successful Piano Teaching
How Haydn Composed