1966 edition. Letters are the most precious and revealing illustrations of the mind of the writer. With rare exceptions a letter is more or less an improvisation, and is therefore more telling and personal than any other written statement. In this book, Dr. Hans Gal, the distinguished musicologist and composer, has gathered together letters written by fifty great composers from the end of the Renaissance in Italy to the days of Nazi Germany, and has introduced each writer in turn and supplied a running commentary on their lives, their times and their music.