Bernarr Rainbow is widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education, from the Greeks up to the present day, as attested by his comprehensive study Music in Educational Thought and Practice. His ambitious series, Classic Texts in Music Education, provides editions of manuals covering methods of teaching music from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. Professor Rainbow wrote detailed prefaces to the manuals, which are conveniently collected in this volume, offering insights into and analysis of those who taught music in different times and places and the methods they employed. They have been put into full context by GORDON COX.