The Etude Music Magazine October 1934

The Etude magazine was established in 1883 by Theodore Presser with $250 saved from his income as a music teacher. The subsequent history of the magazine and the Theodore Presser Company is one of the great entrepreneurial success stories of American music. The Etude remains one of the longest-lived music magazines in American history and is still a ubiquitous presence in flea markets and online auctions.In the early years, each issue published roughly five or six musical scores, but by the 1930's there were upwards of twenty compositions published each month. The resulting list of repertoire comprises well over 10, 000 musical compositions in an eclectic range of styles and difficulty levels. The major composers of Western art music appear side by side with a broad range of popular composers, including a strong representation of American and female composers.This rich resource has never been indexed and has thus been virtually inaccessible to scholars and performers, who now have access to three quarters of a century of music in this valuable repository of scores.

Published from 1883 to 1957, The Etude Music Magazine featured a series of "Master-Lessons" by noted piano virtuosi. Among the chapters in this collection are master-lessons on Paderewski's Minuet in G, Chopin's Military Polonaise, Grieg's Norwegian Bridal Procession, Mendelssohn's Scherzo, and Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata. Authors include Wilhelm Bachaus, Percy Grainger, Edwin Hughes, and Mark Hambourg.

This October, when Radiohead release their highly anticipated follow-up to 1997's guitar-driven OK Computer, music critics may very well bestow the Oxford quintet with "The Most Important Band in Rock" accolade that cursed U2, R.E.M. and the Clash. The East Coast editor of Launch magazine, Randall is undoubtedly one of the many journalists eager to exclaim "genius!" again, but his biography of the Grammy winners is economical, restrained and unauthorized (band members "respectfully declined" Randall's requests to cooperate). After briefly reenacting the now mythic June 1997 concert at New York City's Irving Plaza, attended by rock's superstar aristocracy (Bono, Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, etc.), Randall smartly spends most of his narrative on the band's fascinating, decade-long conception in and around culturally barren Oxford, whose Radiohead landmarks he visited and lays out. Non- and neo-Anglophiles will especially appreciate Randall's definitions of British terms and background on the British music industry, music press and education system (all five musicians met at the all-male Abingdon School). As for the inevitable "record critique" chapters, Randall rarely throws in his two cents, preferring to sprinkle passages with the band's own pithy observations and recording-session anecdotes culled from magazine interviews. Exit music? Not quite, as Radiohead are pushing the boundaries of pop music (the new record is rumored to include Miles Davis and backwards singing). Because the book will be published right before the new album debuts, it will be nearly out of date by the time it hits bookstores. However, Randall's work will still serve as a reliable introduction to an ever-evolving band.