François-Auguste Gevaert (1828-1908) was Director of the Brussels Royal Conservatory, a Prix de Rome winner, and successful composer of light opera. His 1885 New Treatise on Instrumentation, together with his follow-on Methodical Course in Orchestration, was hailed as "by far the finest book on the subject ever written" and garnered the admiration of contemporaries such as Tchaikovsky, Humperdinck, Rimsky- Korsakov, and Richard Strauss.

 

For the first time, both of these volumes are available in English.