Exercises in Melody-Writing. A Systematic Course of Melodic Composition, Designed for the Use of Young Music Students, Chiefly as a Course of Exercise Collateral with the Study of Harmony. COPY OF VIOLINIST JACQUES GORDON.

iv, 5-126 pp. Original cloth. Top & bottom of spine frayed. Corners of covers worn. Ink stamp of G. Schirmer on front flyleaf. Good. COPY OF VIOLINIST JACQUES GORDON, SIGNED BY HIM FOUR TIMES, on front flyleaf, title page, p. iii, p. 5 (see photos). Gordon "studied music theory with Percy Goetschius at the Institute of Musical Art" (see below). This copy does not have a date on the title page. On the verso of the title page there is a copyright date of 1900, with the number 15209 printed underneath. There were many printings of this book with 126 pp, some with a title page date and some without, as in this copy. Then in 1923 a revised "issue" of 99 pp was published, with an added copyright date of 1923 and this statement in its preface, which is dated October 1922: "thoroughly revised, and partly re-written; and, the author trusts, very greatly improved." The number 15209 is also printed under the copyright date in this revised issue. Quoting Wikipedia about Percy Goetschius (1853- 1943): "an American composer, music theorist, and teacher who won international fame in the teaching of composition and music theory. . . . In 1892, he took a position in the New England Conservatory, Boston, and four years later opened a studio in that city. In 1905, he went to the staff of the Institute of Musical Art (which later merged into Juilliard School) in New York City, headed by Frank Damrosch. Goetschius retired from the Institute in 1925. . . ." Quoting Wikipedia about Jacques Gordon: "Gordon began his violin studies at the age of five and was already performing as a musical prodigy at nine. In 1912, he graduated from the Imperial Conservatory in Odessa. He made his debut as a violinist in Berlin in 1911 and undertook a European tour in 1913. In the same year, he was awarded a gold medal by Tsar Nicholas II. After a concert tour of the USA and Canada in 191415, he studied violin with Fritz Kneisel and music theory with Percy Goetschius at the Institute of Musical Art. At the suggestion of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, he became a member of the Berkshire String Quartet in 1918, where he remained until 1920. In 1921, he founded the Gordon String Quartet in Chicago. That same year, he became concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Frederick Stock. He also headed the violin department at the American Conservatory of Chicago [where he and Arthur Olaf Andersen were colleagues]. In 1930, Gordon moved to Falls Village and founded the Gordon Musical Association, which offered a summer school for music students, particularly chamber musicians, under the name Music Mountain. He therefore resigned his position with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. From 1928, he was a visiting lecturer at the Julius Hartt School of Music in Hartford. In the 1930s, he was conductor of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and a guest conductor of the New Haven Orchestra. For his contributions to chamber music, he was awarded the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal in 1938. In the academic year 194142, Gordon became a substitute teacher for Gustave Tinlot at the Eastman School of Music. In 1942, Howard Hanson appointed him head of the school's violin department. In 1947, he suffered a stroke during a concert with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1948, he succumbed to a second stroke, which he suffered during a private music session with Albert Spalding and Fritz Kreisler in Great Barrington.". …