''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an
encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''
Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart
''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik (MGG)'' is one of the world's most comprehensive encyclopedias of music history and musicology, on account of its scope, content, wealth of research areas, and reference t ...
'', it is one of the largest reference works on the
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
and
theory of music
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "Elements of music, rudiments", that are needed to understand ...
. Earlier editions were published under the titles ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', and ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''; the work has gone through several editions since the 19th century and is widely used. In recent years it has been made available as an
electronic resource called ''Grove Music Online'', which is now an important part of ''Oxford Music Online''.
''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians''
''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' was first published in London by
Macmillan and Co. in four volumes (1879, 1880, 1883, 1889) edited by
George Grove
Sir George Grove (13 August 182028 May 1900) was an English engineer and writer on music, known as the founding editor of ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''.
Grove was trained as a civil engineer, and successful in that profession, b ...
with an Appendix edited by
J. A. Fuller Maitland
John Alexander Fuller Maitland (7 April 1856 – 30 March 1936) was an influential British music critic and scholar from the 1880s to the 1920s. He encouraged the rediscovery of English music of the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly Henry Pu ...
in the fourth volume. An Index edited by Mrs. E. Wodehouse was issued as a separate volume in 1890. In 1900, minor corrections were made to the plates and the entire series was reissued in four volumes, with the index added to volume 4. The original edition and the reprint are now freely available online. Grove limited the chronological span of his work to begin at 1450 while continuing up to his time.
''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''
The second edition (''Grove II''), in five volumes, was edited by Fuller Maitland and published from 1904 to 1910, this time as ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. The individual volumes of the second edition were reprinted many times. An ''American Supplement'' edited by Waldo Selden Pratt and Charles N. Boyd was published in 1920 in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
by
Theodore Presser
The Theodore Presser Company is an American music publishing and distribution company located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, formerly King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and originally based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest continuing music pub ...
.
This edition removed the first edition's beginning date of 1450, though important earlier composers and theorists are still missing from this edition. These volumes are also now freely available online.
The third edition (''Grove III''), also in five volumes, was an extensive revision of the 2nd edition; it was edited by
H. C. Colles
Henry Cope Colles (20 April 18794 March 1943) was an English music critic, music lexicographer, writer on music and organist. He is best known for his 32 years as chief music critic of ''The Times'' (1911–1943) and for editing the 3rd and 4th ...
and published in 1927.
[Blom 1954 (1970 reprint), p. iv.] The 3rd edition was reprinted several times. An ''American Supplement'' was published in the U.S. in 1927, and also later reprinted separately.
An extra-large ''Supplementary Volume'' also edited by Colles was published in 1940 and called the fourth edition (''Grove IV'').
A reprint of the 3rd edition with some corrections, was released at the same time. The five-volume 3rd edition, with the ''Supplementary Volume'' as volume 6, and the ''American Supplement'' of the 3rd edition as volume 7, were reprinted together as a set in 1945.
The fifth edition (''Grove V''), in nine volumes, was edited by
Eric Blom and published in 1954. This was the most thoroughgoing revision of the work since its inception, with many articles rewritten in a more modern style and a large number of entirely new articles. Many of the articles were written by Blom personally, or translated by him. An additional ''Supplementary Volume'' prepared by Eric Blom and completed by
Denis Stevens
Denis William Stevens CBE (2 March 1922 – 1 April 2004) was a British musicologist specialising in early music, conductor, professor of music and radio producer.
Early years
He was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and attended the Royal ...
after Blom's death in 1959, was issued in 1961. The fifth edition was reprinted in 1966, 1968, 1970, 1973, and 1975, each time with numerous corrections, updates, and other small changes.
''The New Grove''
First edition
The next edition was published in 1980 under the name ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' and was greatly expanded to 20 volumes with 22,500 articles and 16,500 biographies. Its senior editor was
Stanley Sadie with
Nigel Fortune
Nigel Cameron Fortune (5 December 1924 – 10 April 2009) was an English musicologist and political activist. Along with Thurston Dart, Oliver Neighbour and Stanley Sadie he was one of Britain's leading musicologists of the post-World War II g ...
also serving as one of the main editors for the publication.
It was reprinted with minor corrections each subsequent year until 1995, except 1982 and 1983. In the mid-1990s, the hardback set sold for about $2,300. A paperback edition was reprinted in 1995 which sold for $500.
* – hardback
* – paperback
* – British special edition
* – American special edition
Spin-offs
Some sections of ''The New Grove'' were also issued as small sets and individual books on particular topics. These typically were enhanced with expanded and updated material and included individual and grouped composer biographies,
[ a four-volume dictionary of American music (1984; revised 2013, 8 vols.), a three-volume dictionary of musical instruments (1984), a four-volume dictionary of opera (1992)., and a volume on women composers (1994).
]
Second edition
The second edition under this title (the seventh overall) was published in 2001, in 29 volumes. It was also made available by subscription on the internet in a service called Grove Music Online. It was again edited by Stanley Sadie, and the executive editor was John Tyrrell. It was originally to be released on CD-ROM as well, but this plan was dropped. As Sadie writes in the preface, "The biggest single expansion in the present edition has been in the coverage of 20th-century composers".
This edition was subjected to negative criticism (e.g. in '' Private Eye'') owing to the significant number of typographical and factual errors that it contained. Two volumes were re-issued in corrected versions after production errors originally caused the omission of sections of Igor Stravinsky's worklist and Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's bibliography.
* – British
* – American (cloth: alk.paper)
Publication of the second edition of ''The New Grove'' was accompanied by a Web-based version, ''Grove Music Online''. It too, attracted some initial criticism, for example for the way in which images were not incorporated into the text but kept separate.
''Grove Music Online'' and ''Oxford Music Online''
The complete text of ''The New Grove'' is available to subscribers to the online service ''Grove Music Online''.
''Grove Music Online'' includes a large number of revisions and additions of new articles. In addition to the 29 volumes of ''The New Grove'' second edition, ''Grove Music Online'' incorporates the four-volume '' New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' (ed. Stanley Sadie, 1992) and the three-volume '' New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', second edition (ed. Barry Kernfeld, 2002), ''The Grove Dictionary of American Music'' and ''The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments'', comprising a total of more than 50,000 articles. The current editor-in-chief of Grove Music, the name given to the complete slate of print and online resources that encompass the Grove brand, is University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
professor Deane Root. He assumed the editorship in 2009.
The dictionary, originally published by Macmillan, was sold in 2004 to Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
. Since 2008 ''Grove Music Online'' has served as a cornerstone of Oxford University Press's larger online research tool ''Oxford Music Online'', which remains a subscription-based service. As well as being available to individual and educational subscribers, it is available for use at many public and university libraries worldwide, through institutional subscriptions.
''Grove Music Online'' identifies itself as the eighth edition of the overall work.[Deane L. Root, 1 July 2012]
History of Grove Music
— at oxfordmusiconline.com
Status
''The New Grove'' is often the first source that English-speaking musicologists
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
use when beginning research or seeking information on most musical topics. Its scope and extensive bibliographies make it exceedingly valuable to any scholar with a grasp of the English language.
The print edition of ''The New Grove'' costs between $1,100 and $1,500, while an annual personal subscription to Grove Music Online is $195.
The companion four-volume series, '' New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', is the main reference work in English on the subject of opera.
Its principal competitor is the ''Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart
''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik (MGG)'' is one of the world's most comprehensive encyclopedias of music history and musicology, on account of its scope, content, wealth of research areas, and reference t ...
'' ("MGG"), currently ten volumes on musical subjects and seventeen on biographies of musicians, written in German.
Contents
The 2001 edition contains:
* 29,499 articles in total
** 5,623 entirely new articles
* 20,374 biographies of composers
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
, performers
The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perfo ...
and writers on music
** 96 articles on theatre directors
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...
* 1,465 articles on styles, terms and genres
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
** 283 articles on concepts
* 805 articles on regions, countries and cities
** 580 articles on ancient music
Ancient music refers to the musical cultures and practices that developed in the literate civilizations of the ancient world. Succeeding the music of prehistoric societies and lasting until the Post-classical era, major centers of Ancient musi ...
and church music
Church music is Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn.
History
Early Christian music
The on ...
** 1,327 articles on world musics
** 1,221 articles on popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
, light music, and jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
* 2,261 articles on instruments and their makers, and performance practice
Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of classical music, which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of the musical era in which ...
** 89 articles on acoustics
* 693 articles on printing and publishing
** 174 articles on notation
** 131 articles on sources
Hoaxes and parodies
Two non-existent composers have appeared in the work:
Dag Henrik Esrum-Hellerup was the subject of a hoax entry in the 1980 ''New Grove''. Esrum-Hellerup's surname derives from a Danish village and a suburb of Copenhagen. The writer of the entry was Robert Layton. Though successfully introduced into the encyclopaedia, Esrum-Hellerup appeared in the first printing only: soon exposed as a hoax, the entry was removed and the space filled with an illustration. In 1983, the Danish organist Henry Palsmar founded an amateur choir, the Esrum-Hellerup Choir, along with several former pupils of the Song School, St. Annae Gymnasium in Copenhagen.
Guglielmo Baldini was the name of a non-existent composer who was the subject of a hoax entry in the 1980 edition. Unlike Esrum-Hellerup, Baldini was not a modern creation: his name and biography were in fact created almost a century earlier by the renowned German musicologist Hugo Riemann. The ''New Grove'' entry on Baldini was supported by a fictional reference in the form of an article supposedly in the ''Archiv für Freiburger Diözesan Geschichte''. Though successfully introduced into the encyclopaedia, Baldini appeared in the first printing only: soon exposed as a hoax, the entry was removed.[
Seven ]parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
entries, written by contributors to the 1980 edition, and full of musical puns and dictionary in-jokes, were published in the February 1981 issue of ''The Musical Times
''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country.
It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer ...
'' (which was also edited by Stanley Sadie at the time).[ "The_New_Grove"]
_in_''The_Musical_Times'',_Vol._122,_no._1656_(February_1981),_pp._89–91._These_entries_never_appeared_in_the_dictionary_itself_and_are:
*_Knees_Up_Mother_Brown.html" ;"title="tanley Sadie and others
"The New Grove"
in ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 122, no. 1656 (February 1981), pp. 89–91. These entries never appeared in the dictionary itself and are:
* Brown,_"Mother"_(Mary)_(''b.''_1550;_''d.''_Wapping,_3_January_1611)
*_Ear-flute
*_Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin.html" ;"title="Knees Up Mother Brown">Brown, "Mother" (Mary) (''b.'' 1550; ''d.'' Wapping, 3 January 1611)
* Ear-flute
* Pied Piper of Hamelin">Hameln [Hamelin]
* Genghis Khan, Khan't, Genghis (Tamurlane, Tamburlaine) (''b.'' Ulan Bator, c. 1880; ''d.'' New York, 22 November 1980)
* Stainglit (Nevers), Sait d'Ail (''Floruit, fl'' Middle Ages) – i.e. "Stanley Sadie", following the example of Luis van Rooten
Luis d'Antin van Rooten (November 29, 1906 – June 17, 1973) was a Mexican-born American actor. He was sometimes credited as Louis Van Rooten.
Van Rooten was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and emigrated to the United States with his parents when ...
* Toblerone
Toblerone ( , ) is a Swiss chocolate brand produced in Bern. Toblerone is known for its distinctive shape, a series of joined triangular prisms and lettering engraved in the chocolate.
Since 2012, the brand has been owned by US company Mondele ...
* Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
, Lasagne
Lasagna (, also , also known as lasagne, ) is a type of pasta, possibly one of the oldest types, made of very wide, flat sheets. Either term can also refer to an Italian dish made of stacked layers of lasagna alternating with fillings such as ...
Il Bolognese'(''b.'' Bologna, 10 October 1813; ''d.'' Naples, 15 March 1867)
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
* Eric Blom, editor (1954). ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (fifth edition). New York: St. Martin's Press () and London: Macmillan ()
** Supplementary volume, associate editor Denis Stevens, 1961, New York (), London ()
** Fifth edition reprints: 1966: New York (), London (); 1968: New York (); 1970: New York (); 1973: New York (), London (); 1975: New York (), London (, .)
* Barry Kernfeld, editor (1988)
''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Volume One, A-K''
670 pp., The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Volume Two, L-Z, 690 pp. (set of 2)
* Barry Kernfeld, editor (1994)
''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'' (in one volume)
1358 pp.
* Barry Kernfeld, editor (2003). ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd edition (in three volumes)'', 3000 pp.
External links
* Grove, George, ed.; ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians 1450–1889 (1900)'', 4 Volumes. ''Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
''.
Volume 1Volume 2Volume 3Volume 4
:Second edition:
Vol. 1 (1904) A–E
Vol. 2 (1906) F–L
Vol. 3 (1907) M–P
Vol. 4 (1908) Q–S
Vol. 5 (1910) T–Z, Appendix
* , San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San F ...
"Grove sees trees but not forest"
Greg Sandow
Greg Sandow (born June 3, 1943) is an American music critic and composer.
Education
Sandow is a graduate of Harvard University, with a bachelor's degree in government. He is also a graduate of Yale University, with a master's degree in composi ...
and Anne Midgette
Anne Midgette (born June 22, 1965) is an American music critic who was the first woman to write classical music criticism regularly for ''The New York Times''. She was the chief classical music critic of ''The Washington Post'' from 2008 to 20 ...
, ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', 3 July 2001
* Benjamin Ivry
"You could look it up: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians''" (Review)
''Commonweal
Commonweal or common weal may refer to:
* Common good, what is shared and beneficial for members of a given community
* Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and advocacy group
* Commonweal (magazine), ''Commonweal'' (magazine), an American lay-Cath ...
'', 9 March 2001 (archived at the Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...
)
* Allen P. Britton
Review: ''The New Grove Dictionary of American Music''
''American Music'', Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer 1987), pp. 194–203, at JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
*
* Phillip D. Crabtree, Donald H. Foster, 1993
''Sourcebook for Research in Music''
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993, .
* Bruce Duffie
29 October 1992.
* (1904 edition, 1920 supplement)
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