The Musical Companion: A Compendium for All Lovers of Music

What a beautiful old treasury. This big, fat book is an attempt to give a broad overview of what we would now call classical music. There's everything from opera to details of forgotten instruments and how current instruments are arranged on the stage, from the mechanics of singing to a history of most European countries from a musical perspective.

The volume is dated in many ways, including the decision for much of the content to have a slightly opinionated air. This is not a problem, and certainly wasn't in 1934, but 90 years later one must read this with a grain of salt, and an understanding that some things have just changed.

Still, I'm delighted by this.