Alice in Orchestralia by Ernest LaPrade. Published 1925 by Doubleday, Page and Co. First edition with dustjacket. 12mo.
Illustrations by Carroll Snell.
I think the book was also re-released as Alice in Orchestra Land, and as Alice in Music Land.
Alice enters Orchestralia via the horn of a brass instrument, and once there learns all about the characters of the different instruments in the orchestra.
The conductor Walter Damrosch is quoted on the fly:’ Alice is to be envied, for there is hardly anything about a modern symphony orchestra – its make-up, its functions, its manner of speaking that universal language of human emotions – that she does not learn through the pages of this book. And it is all done in such a beguiling way that one might swear that it had been written by the whimsical and immortal author of the original “Alice in Wonderland.”
I am glad that this work was written by an American, and am proud that he is also a member of my orchestra. I prophesy for this book a wide distribution wherever the English tongue is spoken and the love for music prevails.’
You can usually pick up a cheap copy on Amazon: Alice in Orchestralia
You can read the whole book here.
