Musicians & Composers of the 20th Century

1800 pages $400.

The new set offers biographies of musicians active and influential between the years 1901 and 2000. More than 200 contributors, most associated with academic institutions, provide articles ranging from three to five pages in length for more than 600 artists. In his introduction, editor Cramer offers interesting comparisons of music, musicians, performance, and music consumption in 1900 versus later in the century. He also discusses how music and musicians were affected by historical events like wars and the Great Depression. The essays are well written and well organized, each consisting of birth and death dates, biography, discography (if applicable), bibliography, and a final section describing the ΓΓé¼┼ômusical legacyΓΓé¼┬¥ of the artist. Many of the entries are accompanied by a black-and-white photograph; and a glossary, a chronological listing of musicians by date of birth, an annotated list of electronic resources, and several indexes round out the set. Works that cover many musical genres are often limited in their coverage of each. For example, of the 608 essays, 111 are on classical composers and 57 are on classical musicians. This represents the ΓΓé¼┼ôtop tierΓΓé¼┬¥ from the period but is hardly exhaustive. Also notable is the prominence of artists from the U.S. and England (481 entries), especially in the popular genres. The result is an interesting juxtaposition of artists of strikingly different styles and periods. One is unlikely to find other reference works containing consecutive entries for Ice-T, Julio Iglesias, and Burl Ives, for example. There are many genre-specific music biographical reference works and several important general ones, most notably the 29-volume New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2d ed., 2001), whose online component allows for editing and adding new entries. In terms of numbers of articles, this new set cannot compare, but it does present many artists that the editors of Grove have chosen to exclude, especially from the popular-music genres. Currency and inclusiveness make this new set valuable to general music researchers and enthusiasts. For purchasers, free online access is available until 12/31/11 through the Salem History platform. --Steven York


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