Lexikon Programmusik. (Book Reviews).

Lexikon Programmusik. By Klaus Schneider. Kassel: Barenreiter, 1999-2000. [Vol. 1, Stoffe und Motif. ISBN 3-7618-1431-3; Vol. 2, Figuren und Personen. ISBN 3-7618-1497-6. DM 146.]

Most subject headings included in bibliographic records to provide access to scores and sound recordings in library collections express genre or medium rather than topic--what a musical work is, so to speak, rather than what it is about. Yet it is clear that music, even instrumental music apart from any sung text, can bear some relationship to an extramusical entity such as an object, scene, character, story, or philosophical idea, and that it is capable of representing, expressing, evoking, or imitating that entity. Klaus Schneider, head of the music library of the Stadtbibliothek Hannover from 1969 to 1993, has devoted much attention over the past two decades to the idea of topical access to Western instrumental music in bibliographic databases. He has published a thesaurus of topical subject terms for accessing music according to "occasion, purpose, and content" (Thesaurus zur Erschliessung von Musik nach Anlass, Zwech und Inhalt [Berlin: Deutsche Bibliotheksinstitut, 1982; 2d ed., 1994]; all translations are mine) and an article discussing its principles ("Uber den Musik-Thesaurus und die inhaltliche Erschliessung von Musik," Forum Musikbibliothek: Beitrage und Informationen aus der musikbibliothekarischen Praxis, 2 [1996], 100-108), as well as many lists of musical works that relate to specific thematic categories, including paintings ("Vertonte Gemalde: Gesamtverzeichnis der Kompositionen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts nach Werken der bildenden Kunst" ["Paintings Set to Music: Complete List of Compositions Based on Works of Visual Art"], in Vom Klang der Bilder: Die Musik in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. Karin v. Maur [Munich: Prestel, 1985], 452-60), birds ("Musikalische Ornithologie: Vogeldarstellungen in der Instrumentalmusik: Eine Bibliographie" ["Musical Ornithology: Representations of Birds in Instrumental Music: A Bibliography"], Gefiederte Welt, 109 and 110, various issues [1985-86]), and insects ("Darstellende Instrumentalmusik: Hilfen fur die themenbezogene Programmgestaltung, 5: Insekten" [" Representational Instrumental Music: Help for Thematic Programming. 5: Insects"], Das orchester 40, no. 6 [1992]: 741-45). Schneider's Lexikon Programmusik, building on this previous work, provides topical access to thousands of instrumental works from the sixteenth through twentieth centuries that relate to general subject categories (vol. 1, Stoffe und Motive [Subjects and Themes]), historical figures, or characters from mythology, legend, or literature (vol. 2, Figuren und Personen).

The main section of volume 1 comprises 147 thematic categories listed alphabetically, with associated concepts grouped together as one heading (flight, pursuit; hell, underworld, devil; circus, acrobat, clown) or cross-referenced from related terms in other categories. Under these categories, and likewise under names of persons and characters in the main section of volume 2, Schneider lists instrumental compositions (orchestral, ensemble, and solo) alphabetically by composer and then title, providing brief information for each: medium and year of composition, publisher (omitted for well-known works with many different editions), and year of publication; for sections of movements, he gives the title of the larger work. After the main section, each volume has a list of abbreviations and one of publishers, followed by a composer index. Volume 1 concludes with a list of terms ("Stichwort-Register"), volume 2 with a classified list of figures and persons. A glance at the latter (2:340-51) shows Schneider's astoni shing breadth of coverage; among those given entries in volume 2 are gods, heroes, prophets, kings, emperors, statesmen, scientists, humanists, explorers, angels, demons, saints, and sinners. Not included are composers themselves as referents of musical works (for example, laments), because this category, Schneider says, is so extensive that it would require a separate monograph (2:6). Under the names of artists and writers, the user will find entries for compositions related to specific works of visual art or to literary characters.

Program music in its proper sense, according to Roger Scruton, is narrative or descriptive rather than merely imitative or evocative, deriving "its ...