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The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians: Second Edition.(Review)
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians: Second Edition Stanley Sadie, editor Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 29 vols. $4,850 One-year, single-user access online subscription $295 (www.grovemusic.com). Online pricing is available for public libraries, colleges and universities, schools and organizations; call 800-221-2123 ext. 203 for details.
The twenty-one years since the appearance of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, that essential reference tool, have brought great change to the opera world. The appearance of the New Grove II offers an early chance for reassessment. Among opera composers, the biggest expansions are quite rightly Philip Glass and Benjamin Britten. Glass's presence has grown from a single unsigned paragraph in 1980 to a five-page entry by Edward Strickland (well done, though he takes a gratuitous swipe at Satyagraha). The Britten entry, by Philip Brett, is now twice as long as its earlier counterpart, by Peter Evans. A good example of the "new musicology," it is obsessed with Britten's sexuality. His "love for men and boys" makes the first paragraph and is seldom absent thereafter. Britten's operas are treated within a biographical time line, and there is an excellent bibliography by Judith Le Grove, but Evans's 1980 entry treated the music in more depth and is not superseded. The previous Verdi entry, by Andrew Porter, came under heavy fire for its musical analysis, though it survived into the paperback reprint. The new article by Roger Parker admirably integrates the necessary terminology and Verdi's production books within an excellent overview. Curt yon Westernhagen's blithe defense of anti-Semitism in the 1980 Wagner entry raised eyebrows, but the new article by Barry Millington could hardly be bettered. He doesn't quite address what it is about Wagner's operas that so fascinates stage directors, but in the "Opera" entry (highly readable, though it is the work of eight authors) he does discuss notable productions. Bellini's stock has risen in a greatly expanded entry by Mary Ann Smart. It has many musical examples, essential to understanding the style. (New Grove I was short on them, though some were added for the reprint.) One of the most admired articles from 1980, Philip Gossett's on Rossini, is retained with a helpful sprinkling of updates, such as the rediscovery of Il Viagglo a Reims, and a new final column on "Reputation." Grove editor Stanley Sadie still contributes to the entry on Mozart ("the most universal composer in the history of Western music"), and seldom will readers find such a love of author for subject.
Several of the conductor entries are redone. James Levine is now "one of the world's most ...
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In 1980, 'The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians' became a standard in definitive scholarship in terms of accuracy, scope and scholarship. The New Grove II is scheduled for release in November 2000 and will be available...
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The New Grove Dictionary of Opera has become the first commercial music encyclopedia to...undergo continual revision. The long-awaited second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music, scheduled for publication in fall 2000, 'will represent...