The task of compressing into one small volume suitable sketches of the
more famous Italian and French composers has been, in view of the extent
of the field and the wealth of material, a somewhat embarrassing one,
especially as the purpose was to make the sketches of interest to
the general music-loving public, and not merely to the critic and
the scholar. The plan pursued has been to devote the bulk of space to
composers of the higher rank, and to pass over those less known with
such brief mention as sufficed to outline their lives and fix their
place in the history of music. In gathering the facts embodied in
these musical sketches, the author acknowledges his obligations to the
following works: Hullah's "History of Modern Music"; Fétis's "Biographie
Universelle des Musiciens"; Clementi's "Biographie des Musiciens";
Hogarth's "History of the Opera"; Sutherland Edwards's "History of the
Opera"; Schlüter's "History of Music"; Chorley's "Thirty Years' Musical
Reminiscences"; Stendhalls "Vie de Rossini"; Bellasys's "Memorials of
Cherubini"; Grove's "Musical Dictionary"; Crowest's "Musical Anecdotes";
and the various articles in the standard cyclopædias.
"The Great Italian and French Composers" is a companion work to "The
Great German Composers," which was published earlier in the series in
which the present volume appears.