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.
-
Volume 58, Number 05 (May 1940)
James Francis Cooke
Youth Cries, Wake Up America!
New Thing Came and They Would Not See
New Insights to the Mastery of Debussy: Three Striking Period Pictures
Breaking into Radio
Mr. Bach of 1940
Composers and Their Mothers
German Masters
Our Musical Presidents
How to Make Pupils' Recitals Fascinating: Stage Etiquette for Every Performing Musician
When Music is King: A Week When a Nation Turns Musical
Odyssey of Oscar Levant (interview with Levant, Oscar)
-
Volume 58, Number 06 (June 1940)
James Francis Cooke
Sure Fiddler at Seventeen
Agreeable Succession of Sounds
Road of Glory: A Spiritual Pageant in the Deep South That Rivals Green Pastures
Your Community Should Have a Public Music Library (interview with Dorothy Lawton)
Truth About the Mysterious Death of Peter Ilyich Tsychaikowsky
Invitation to Mr. Paderewski's Eightieth Birthday Party: A Birthday Cake with a Million Candles
Beethoven, the Eccentric
William C. Steere of Worcester, Massachusetts
Teaching Phrasing Through Rests
Stamp of Approval
Toscanini, Man and Legend
What Good Is the Middle Pedal?
Sumer Is I-Cumen In: How a Teacher Solved the Problem of Keeping Busy Through the Summer, by Doing a Useful and Profitable Type of Musical Work that Gave Both Benefit and Pleasure to All Concerned
Master Lesson Upon Canzonetta from Tschaikowsky's Concerto, Opus 35 in D Major, for Violin and Orchestra
-
Volume 58, Number 07 (July 1940)
James Francis Cooke
Champions
America's Pioneer A Cappella Choir of Youth
Music of the Walt Disney Cartoons (interview with Paul J. Smith)
Operatic Nomads in Opera Land: Do You Want to Sing in Opera in Italy? Here is How They Begin
Aeolian Harp—and How to Make It
Was Herbert Spencer Right?
Polka Again
Love of Music and How It Is Cultivated
First American Pianist: A New Orleans Prodigy—First American to Appear in European Concerts
Fate Was Their Fortune: How Destiny Remade The Lives of Famous Musicians
Napoleon Helps a Yankee Town
Their Toughest Spot: Getting the Right Start
Behind the Scenes in Radio
Origin of a Great School: The Paris Conservatoire
In a Garden of Genius: An Introduction to the Study of the Preludes of Chopin
Making Sight Reading Easy
Chopin's Most Popular Short Prelude, Master Lesson on Prelude Opus 28, No. 20, in C minor
-
Volume 58, Number 08 (August 1940)
James Francis Cooke
Significant Musical Advance
Music and the World's Great Hour
Part Work and Part Play
Mental Approach to Singing (interview with Jessica Dragonette)
Music All Around the Fair
Story Book Recital
Hill Billy and River Songs at Their Source: Notes of an Active Collector in Discovering American Folk Songs
Music Can Work Miracles: Why Singing in the Bath tub is Good for Your Ego
Protecting Your Piano Investment: Milions and Millions of Dollars are Invested in Pianos in America, Yet Few Know How to Protect Their Instruments
Sound Track of Yesterday and Today
Miraculous Case of Blind Tom: The Enigma of the Famous Musical Genius Who Astonished the World
Making Practice Produce: A Nine Months Program Designed to Compel Results
Chords Are Personalities
How to Increase Expansion of the Hand
Putting the Finger on the Spot
Flowers of a Great Musical Epoch: How to Study the Preludes of Chopin
Master Lesson—Etude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3 by Frederic Chopin
-
Volume 58, Number 09 (September 1940)
James Francis Cooke
Permanent Wealth in Music Study
Conservatory in the Home
Opportunities for Opera Singers (interview with Edward Johnson)
Great Bells and Little Bells: A Story of Carillons
Requirements of Rhythm Playing (interview with Fred Waring)
Contralto of the String Family (interview with Emanuel Feuermann)
Kings of the Keyboard—Liszt and Rubinstein: A Vivid Picture of Great Moments in Late Victorian Days
Make Progress by Making Friends
Story of the Mystic Stick: The Part Played by the Baton in Musical History
Rotary Exercises Develop Piano Playing
Greatest of the Garcias: The Romance of Maria Malibran—The Great Prima Donna to Visit America
How to Play the Piano Over the Air: Effective Radio Piano Playing Made Simple for Students
Johann Caspar Mertz
-
Volume 58, Number 10 (October 1940)
James Francis Cooke
Good Neighbor Policy
Armies of Singing Men
Take Time to Take Time
Good Singing is Natural (interview with Jussi Bjoerling)
Romance in Songs
How Ferruccio Busoni Taught (interview with Egon Petri)
Who Wrote That?
Basis of Violin Playing Today
What Shall I Sing? (interview with Eva Gauthier)
Getting a Start in a Small Town
Dissecting the Chromatic Scale
Dr. E.E. Hipsher Retires
Helps Toward Sight Reading
Sign That Paid
Getting Laughter Through Music: An Important Description of Works in Which Composers Have Stiven to Make Fun with Tones
-
Volume 58, Number 11 (November 1940)
James Francis Cooke
Scoring a Success
Middle Years
Great Painters and the Art of Music
Practicing on a Mental Keyboard
Vocal Training from a Famous Master (interview with Zinka Milanov)
What the Pianist of Tomorrow Must Possess (interview with Sigismond Stojowski)
Mystery of Sound Effects in the Radio Studio
Christmas Piano and the Nineteenth Hole
Clear and Distinct Piano Playing
Demand for Unusual Song Programs (interview with Eva Gauthier)
Radio Help Music Pronunciation
Practical Antidotes for Stage Fright
Master Lesson—Bird As Prophet, Op. 82, No. 7 by Robert Schumann
Mauro Giuliani
Why Copying of Copyrighted Music by Hand or Otherwise is Illegal
-
Volume 58, Number 12 (December 1940)
James Francis Cooke
Promissory Notes
Light That Shineth in Darkness
Carols for the Feast of Christmas
Music as an Avocation (interview with Mrs. Vincent Astor)
Bill of Musical Rights
Christmas Music in the Little Town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: Unusual Customs in the Bustling Industrial City that Make Music a Religion, and Religion, Music
Radio Staff Pianist: What It Takes, and What He Makes
What Is Behind the Popular Song (interview with Eddie Cantor)
For Unto Us a Child Is Born: The Story of Handel's The Messiah
Musician Decorates for Christmas
Christ Reigns To-Day: A Hymn of Christian Faith
Quick Work! Remarkable Feats in Composition
Legato Pedaling
There Is No Open Sesame (interview with Lawrence Tibbett)
-
Volume 57, Number 01 (January 1939)
James Francis Cooke
American Epic of Attainment
Amazing Musical World of To-day (interview with Walter Gieseking)
Going Through the Book
Moonlight Sonata: Fact, Fiction and Fancy
How to Abolish Fear Before Audiences: The Meaning of Mike-Fright
Men of the Orchestra: A Visit with the Individuals Who Produce the Music (interview with Mishel Piastro)
Spelling of Musical Notation: Musical Orthography Made Clear
Earning a Living Through Singing
Astonishing Invention of Musical Interest
New European Sound Reproducing Invention
Etude in C-sharp Minor by Chopin
Etude's Courses in Culture
Quest for Harmony in Decoration
Forward March of Music
Aids to Sight Reading
Another Use for Reward Cards
-
Volume 57, Number 02 (February 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Music and the Arts
Smart Attire for Concert and Recital (interview with Elizabeth Hawes)
Why Music Is the Most Popular of the Fine Arts
Let's Go to the Music Hall: How They Put on the Show in the World's Largest Theater
How to Play Notes
Music's Debt to Shakespeare
Recent Record Releases
Musical Foresight-Hindsight
Mystic Dances of the Far East
Music Elects a Governor
Threshold of Music: Linking Chords into Sentences—And Punctuating Them
Meaning of Musical Ornamentation: The Psychology Behind These Interesting Tonal Decorations in Music
Etude's Courses in Culture
Magnificent New The Mikado in Technicolor: A Cinema Presentation from Engand Which Accomplishes the Unbelievable
Forward March of Music
Musicians Should Read History
Next Lesson We Advance a Little
When to Start Teaching Music
-
Volume 57, Number 03 (March 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Musical Quirks
Victor Herbert as I Knew Him: Memories of The Man and His Music
Simplicity as a Background for Art (interview with Guiomar Novaes)
Radio Flashes
Adult Piano Beginner: What Should be Done to Make the Hands Supple (interview with Isidor Philipp)
Hand and the Keyboard
William Mason—An American Master: High Lights in the World's Famous Piano Methods
Good Singing Must be Natural (interview with Bruna Castagna)
Recent Record Releases
Unknown Victor Herbert: Intimate Pictures of the Life of a Widely Loved Composer
Lazy Hand
Scrambling Pupil
Romance of Annie Laurie: The Story Behind One of the Most Famous of All Songs
Music and the Child's Decorative Sense
Forward March of Music
Introducing the Minor Scales
-
Volume 57, Number 04 (April 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Sound the Trumpet, Beat the Drums! (from Handel's Judas Maccabeus)
Renaissance of the Band (Interview with Edwin Franko Goldman)
What Do Bands Mean to America? (interview with Fred A. Holtz)
And the Band Won
New Concepts in Present Day Music (interview with Paul Whiteman)
America's Oldest Civic Band: One Hundred and Ten Years of Activity; and Still Flourishing
Sing With Your Heart (interview with Frieda Hempel)
Recent Record Releases
Tooting a Horn for Fifty Years (interview with B.A. Rolfe)
Eight Years Abroad With a Jazz Band
American Bandmaster Speaks—A Symposium
March of the Grail Knights: From Richard Wagner's Parsifal as Transcribed by Franz Liszt
Forward March of Music
-
Volume 57, Number 05 (May 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Quest for Ideals
New York World's Fair Music Festival
Staccato Star
Building and Use of a Vocal Instrument (interview with Kerstin Thorborg)
Bach's Musical Helpmate: A Graphic Picture of Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Notenbüch
World's Largest Carillon: Dedicated to Stephen Foster
My Old Kentucky Home: An Eighty-five Year Old Folk Song and Something of Its History
Threshold of Music: The Art of Musical Voyaging: Modulation
Ten Remarkable Years Before the Mike (interview with Virginia Rea)
Schumann's Hints to Young Musicians
Music Study Means Music Study (interview with Mischa Elman)
Forward March of Music
-
Volume 57, Number 06 (June 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Now That Commencement Is Here?
Learning How to Help Yourself (interview with Kirsten Flagstad)
Yes There is a Musical Market
Radio Flashes
Pianist, Know Your Fingers: A New Approach to Piano Technic
Democracy of Radio (interview with Stephen West)
Mother Goose, Mus. Doc.: A Dramatic Piano Recital
Vital Inner Structure of Music: Is Counterpoint the Dry Bones of the Tone Art?
Some Tuneful Towns in the United States
Astonishing New Instrument
Beethoven's Best Clothes (an Anecdote)
Musical Radical Reforms
Great Master's Principles of Composition: Balakirev's Clear and Practical Ideas Upon Musical Structure
New Lights on Giuseppe Verdi as Seen in His Letters
Forward March of Music
Courses in Culture
Importance of a Fine Music Room
Making Songs by Magic
-
Volume 57, Number 07 (July 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Joy of Singing
Learning to Interpret Great Music (interview with Robert Casadesus)
Radio Flashes
Negro Stephen Foster: The First Published Biography of James A. Bland
New Genius Who Does Not See—Alex Templeton
How to Improve the Child's Reading Ability
Music Circus in Recital: A Program That Will Delight All Youngsters, and Intrigue the Boys
Having Fun with the Ears
Music from a Carpenter's Saw
Music as a Business Man Sees It (interview with Allan Hancock)
Our Insect Musicians
Wrist Lubrication
Abandoned Farms of Music Education
Threshold of Music: Keys That are Related—Sisters and Cousins and Aunts—Natural Laws That Guide the Flow of Chords
Musical Lighthouse of New York's East Side: A Study of the Music School of The Henry Street Settlement
-
Volume 57, Number 08 (August 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Musica Pan-America
Music of the Woodland: A Musical Playlet
History of the Marimba
Teaching the Little Tots: The Real Pre-School Age
Mind's Ear
Diversions of the Masters
How to Teach Broken Chords
Couldn't Fool Him on Pitch
Music Makers in Old New England: A Timely Review of Many Quaint Customs
Singers of the Soil: Including the Fascinating Story of Buckwheat or Shaped Notes
Jascha Heifetz Transposed to the Films
Color in Piano Styles
Music's Debt to the Poets
New Experiment with Music in Business
Scherzo from the Sonata in F Minor of Brahms—A Master Lesson
-
Volume 57, Number 09 (September 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Practical Crime Prevention: Better Spend $5000 for a Band Than $50,000 for a Jail
Make Your Pupils' Recitals Fascinating
Getting Acquainted with the Keyboard
Style's the Thing (interview with John Brownlee)
Czerny, Master of Masters
Independent Finger Motion
Schumann Drill
Luring the Child to Love the Piano (interview with Marcele Chéridjian-Charrey)
Painless Review Work
Liszt Trick
Fascination of Two-Piano Playing (interview with Silvio Scionti)
Strange Music Makers
Threshold of Music: Borrowed Chords and Altered Chords
Are You Aiming for the Opera?
-
Volume 57, Number 10 (October 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Music, Now, More Than Ever
Youth and Music Disciline
How People Are Swayed by Song (interview with Mark Sullivan)
Shall We Educate the Parents?
Increasing the Attendance at Pupils' Recitals
Time, Only, Tells (interview with Paul Hindemith)
Tradegy of a Deaf Musician: The Dramatic Fate of Friedrich (Bedrich) Smetana
Some Reflections on Singing (interview with Maria Anderson)
Helpful Octaves
How to Make Money by Teaching the Piano
Musical Viking: New Vistas of the Life of Edvard Grieg
Magnificent Musical Undertaking
How to Make Polyphonic Playing Interesting: Practical Doorways to the Art of Performing Interwoven Melodies
Hungarian Dance, No. 6 by Johannes Brahms—A Master Lesson
How Can We Make Our Pupils Think?
Music in China
When Mozart Was in London
-
Volume 57, Number 11 (November 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Heredity and Music
Success in Voice Study (interview with Nelson Eddy)
Radio Flashes
Practical Aids in Getting Pupils
Composing for the Radio
ASCAP's Giant Music Festival
Do You Know?
How I Mastered Eighty Piano Concertos (interview with Henrietta Schumann)
Helpful Pedal Exercises
Who Wrote America?
Short Cuts in Piano Technic: Valuable Ideas Derived from a Study of the Keyboard Philosophy of Tausig, Deppe, and de Pachmann
Music for the Pre-School Child
Fatigue Hour
Success for the Young Musician (interview with Jan Smeterlin)
Encouragement Versus Criticism
Make Your Practice Period Profitable
Use and Misuse of the Metronome
Music As an Anaesthetic
Threshold of Music: Foreign Notes—And Chords That Are Not Chords
Romantic Music of Other Days: A Visit to the Dolmetsch Family
-
Volume 57, Number 12 (December 1939)
James Francis Cooke
Secret of a Merry Christmas
What the World War Did for Music in Europe (interview with Granville Bantock)
Mistaken Idea
Amaryllis and Louis XIII
Dr. Damrosch on Musical Tolerance
Night Before Christmas. A Musical Playlet
Let Us Give the Piece a Rub
Pencil
Story of Major Bowes and His Amateur Hour: A Million Dollar Idea Carried Out by a Million Dollar Personality
How to Make Money by Teaching the Piano, Part 3
Billings' Best
Old Familiar Carols Game
Music Is My Hobby!: The Engaging Story of How Successful Business and Professional Men and Women Avoid Life Monotony and Insure Against a Dull and Profitless Old Age by Taking Up Music Study
Threshold of Music: Foreign Notes—And Chords That Are Not Chords, Part 2
Earl King of Schubert as Transcribed for Piano by Franz Liszt—A Master Lesson
-
Volume 56, Number 01 (January 1938)
James Francis Cooke
Saga of Virgil W. Bork: The Remarkable Story of a Successful Musician Who Was Brought up Under Ground and Now Directs the Large Union Band and Orchestra in Roselle, New Jerse
Language of Music, Harmony at Your Doosteps
Once a Week Musical Club
Art of the Violin Lies Under the Surface (interview the Joseph Szigeti)
Music of War Torn China
Do You Practice Too Much?: A Well Known Musical Pedagog and Business Executive Discusses This Very Practcal Subject
Music According to Webster
From Typist to Prima Donna: An Inspiring Story of Success Because an Artist Refused to Compromise with Obstacles
-
Volume 56, Number 02 (February 1938)
James Francis Cooke
Australia's New Day in Music
Musical Life in Australia (interview with Richard Crookes)
Melody Study a Stimulant
All About Four Hand Music
Music Written about Abraham Lincoln
Progressive Steps to Velocity
Title Page, Josef Hofmann's Début
Getting Joy out of Life (interview with Ralph T. Senter)
Flash! Walter Winchell Talks on ASCAP
Mrs. G. Waddington Snore Acquires a Classic: A Monoloque for Recitation at Musical Gatherings
Missed Lesson Cure
How to Break into Print: Practical Suggestions for Young Composers
From Jungle to Symphony Hall: An Extraordinary Musical Life
Switzerland Will Have an Interesting Musical Season
Holding Over the Tied Notes
-
Volume 56, Number 03 (March 1938)
James Francis Cooke
Hacks Who Become Masters
Career in Radio: Soprano Soloist of the Critics Service Radio Hour of the National Broadcasting Company (interview with Lucille Manners)
Let Us Have More Piano Duets
Romance of Easter Carols: Music of the Great Restival of the Resurrection
Personal Memory of Ippolitoff-Ivanoff
Story of the Gloria Patri, Glory Be to the Father
Civic Value of a Music Hobby: Justice of the Municipal Court of the City of New York, Founder and Conductor of the City Amateur Symphony Orchestra (interview with Leopold Prince)
Student Repertoires
Threshold of Music: The Simplest Chord in Music—The Major Triad
Bugles over the Hudson
Stage Deportment at Student Recitals
Pupil's Questionnaire
Debussy's Principles in Pianoforte Playing
Italian Concerto of Bach, A Master Lesson
Sugar Coating the Scales for Sammy
How to Make Chord Practice Interesting
Teaching the Beginning Pianist to Take Dictation
-
Volume 56, Number 04 (April 1938)
James Francis Cooke
How Can I Help?
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Composers and Stylists: This Able Composer and Teacher of Chicago, Writes for Those Who Feel the Impulse to Compose
Personal Trip Through Musical Paris
Wagner and the Box Office: A Story of Musical Trends (interview with Artur Bodanzky)
Etude Prize Winners in the Contest Why I Take the Etude
He Never Took Lessons
Interesting Falsetto
O Promise Me
Story of a Great Librettist: Eugene Scribe and the Opera
Threshold of Music: A Melodic Alphabet—The Major Scale
Mr. Maier's Seventy-Five Test Questions
Dressing up the Studio Performance: Suggestion on Costuming, Make-Up, and Photography
Eliminating the Arm Touch
Beethoven's Tragic Affliction
-
Volume 56, Number 05 (May 1938)
James Francis Cooke
Liszt's Green Gloves
Song of Praise for Grace Before Meals
Goal is Always Music (interview with Yehudi Menuhin)
Operatic Spectacles Two Centuries Ago—Pictorial
Musical Memory: Why, When and Where: How They Memorize at the Paris Conservatoire
Arpeggio Fingerings
How to Start a Prosperous Summer School: How a Teacher in a Small Vermont City Built a Prosperous Summer School Despite the Depression
Making Pupils' Recitals Interesting
Threshold of Music: A Melodic Alphabet—The Major Scale
Forgotten Fingers
In Defense of Mendelssohn
Some Be's for Your Studio Hive
School Accompanist: How th e Piano Teacher May Enrich His Pupil's Experience
Important Steps in the Making of a Pianist
Etude's Musical Vacation Tour: Plan to Take Your Family on this Epoch-Making Tour
Rumpus Room: Every Harmonious Home Should Have One . . .
Laying the Span Ghost
Coöperation of Teacher and Parent