In its scope and command of primary sources and its generosity of scholarly inquiry, Nikolai Findeizen's monumental work, published in 1928 and 1929 in Soviet Russia, places the origins and development of music in Russia within the context of Russia's cultural and social history.
Volume 2 of Findeizen's landmark study surveys music in court life during the reigns of Elizabeth I and Catherine II, music in Russian domestic and public life in the second half of the 18th century, and the variety and vitality of Russian music at the end of the 18th century.

Editors' Introduction to Volume 1
Author's Preface
List of Abbreviations
1. Introduction. The Predecessors of the Slavs
2. Pagan Rus'
3. Kievan Rus'
4. Novgorod the Great
5. The Activities of the Skomorokhi in Russia
6. Music and Musical Instruments in Russian Miniatures, Woodcuts, and Glossaries
7. A Survey of Old Russian Folk Instruments
8. Music in Ancient Moscow (Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries)
9. Music in the Monastery. Chashi (Toasts). Bell Ringing. Sacred Performances (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries)
10. Music in Court Life in the Seventeenth Century
11. A Brief Survey of Singers, Composers, and Music Theorists of the Sixteenth and Seventeeth Centuries
12. Music and Theater in the Age of Peter the Great
Music Appendix
Notes
Volume 1 Bibliography

Nikolai Findeizen (1868-1928) founded The Russian Musical Gazette in 1894 and was a member of the artistic council of the Soviet State Opera and State Ballet Theater.
Samuel William Pring (1866-1954), whose home was the Isle of Wight, was an accountant, an amateur clarinetist, and a translator of works about Russian music.
Milos Velimirovic is Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Virginia.
Claudia R. Jensen has published articles on Russian music in The Musical Quarterly and Journal of the American Musicological Society.