The book Games and puzzles for the musical : a collection of the best games, puzzles, etc., for musical clubs and the home (1910) by Daniel Bloomfield is freely available online: https://archive.org/details/gamespuzzlesform00bloo/page/n3
The book consists of 51 items in the Games chapter and 26 under Puzzles, Charades, and other titles. The activities are described both for the purpose of education as well as entertainment (in the context of social meetings of that time), and the exact target audience seems to be mixed up from time to time as the book is a compilation of texts that appeared earlier in The Etude magazine.
Both the intended challenges and educational effects often revolve around the history of music. Unsurprisingly, the expected familiarity with biographies of classical composers is above the modern average. Most of the games don't involve music performance, sometimes their connection to music is nominal, like a game of "Professor's Piano", where you alphabetically find adjectives about the instrument… Other wordplays come up often as well as other old-school parlour mechanics like leaving the room, blind-folding, or paying forfeits.
Games with music-making
| title | page | description |
|---|---|---|
| Game in Ear-training | 11 | (see an example below) |
| Musical Potpourri | 12 | Chaining compositions for others to guess |
| Magic Music | 14 | Volume as a guiding dimension, see below |
| Humming Birds | 21 | Everyone hums a song one by one while the rest tries to guess it |
| Table Tapping | 24 | tapping on a table, nothing more actually, but described in detail … |
| Captured Composers | 26 | Guess a played piece and grab a picture of a composer |
| Silent Music | 40 | Omit syllables together when singing a song |
| A Musical Pastime | 42 | Staves layered on the floor to play with, "aire" performed as a variant |
| A Musical Story Game | 45 | For recognizing the played tune (again…) |
| Improvisatore | 63 | Improvise and point to a person who takes over the improvisation |
| Who is the Singer? | 68 | Singing with disguised voices and guessing the performers |
| A Home-made Musical Instrument | 69 | Glassware tuned with water |
Game in Ear Training
This is a game that will do much to amuse and instruct the participants. One of the party, whom we shall call The Composer, is blindfolded, and seated in the middle of the room; the rest of the party, who are The Critics, forming a ring around him. The Composer is given a baton or short stick. He then sings a short phrase of about five notes or more, according to the maturity of the players. When he is through he points his stick to any member of the company. The Critic at whom he is pointing must repeat the phrase. If he repeats it correctly, he takes the Composer's place; if not, he must pay a forfeit. Of course, the players change places after a Composer is blindfolded.
Magic Music
This game is well known, but is reproduced for the information of those who may be unfamiliar with it. One of the company is sent from the room, and during his absence it is arranged that he is to do something. e.g. sit down in a certain chair, or take a book and carry it across the room to place it on a table, etc. When he returns, he is told that the music will guide him in his efforts to learn the task he has been appointed to do. Suppose, for instance, that he is to take a chair and place it upside down in a corner of the room. The player plays softly when he is at a distance from the chair and more loudly as he draws near to it. As he puts his hand on it, the music is very loud but does not stop, so he knows that he is to do something with it. It is then played softly until he approaches the designated corner, but still does not stop. Guided by the music he essays various things with it until he hits upon the one appointed, when the music stops with a crash.
As a parlor game Magic Music might be intended to be played accompanied by a simple tonal piece, but it of course might be played more freely. The game is still used in improvisational theatre and it's main appeal is in the fuzziness of actions and their judgment.
Forfeits that involve performing music
17. Laugh first, sing next, then cry and lastly whistle.
18. [Imitate your favorite instrument]
23. Imitate a donkey as best you can
26. Perform a laughing scale, without a pause or mistake. [plus the diagram of ascending and descending "ha"s]
27. Act the musical duck. The player must sing a tune correctly, using only the words, "quack, quack."
Please note: The broad understanding of "music" used in the title of this section is an anachronicism and the forfeits were probably not intended as an occasion for musical performance.
