Never in the history of music has so much been said about instrumentation as at the present time. The reason perhaps lies in the very recent development of this branch of the art and perhaps too in the profusion of criticism, discussion and widely differing opinions held and judgments passed, both sane and insane, written and spoken, about even the most trivial works of the obscurest composers.

Much value seems now to be attached to this art of instrumentation, which was unknown at the beginning of the last century, and whose advancement even sixty years ago faced resistance from numerous so-called lovers of music. They now do all they can to raise obstacles to musical progress elsewhere. Things have always been like that and we should not be surprised. At one time music was only permitted as a series of consonant harmonies interspersed with a few suspended dissonances. When Monteverdi tried to introduce the unprepared dominant seventh, scorn and abuse was hurled at him. But once this seventh had been accepted as an addition to the repertory of suspended dissonances, it became a point of honour among those who regarded themselves as musically aware to disdain any composition whose harmony was simple, mild, clear-sounding or natural. They were only content with music stuffed with minor and major seconds, sevenths, ninths, fifths and fourths, applied without any rhyme or reason whatsoever, unless making harmony as unpleasant on the ear as possible can be said to be a reason.