Life of Chopin Book

It's heartening to be able to obtain such a dedicated study of a lesser known composer. Mr Jenkins had a "delightful personality" marked by with modesty and good humour and was always welcome as a guest in homes where he could compose peacefully providing much music for amateurs. He lived into his eighties and so saw much political and social change in his time. It seems he achieved greatness quietly by humble study of other's compositions and applying his own careful innovations. The music is well discussed in great detail and compared with that of his contemporaries and earlier composers. One must actually hear the sound of these pieces to appreciate how different they are to later string chamber music played on violins. The next composer to pursue would be William Lawes.

My only reservation was that the musical examples were handwritten in tiny notation and the motivic relations could have been labelled more clearly.