The Oxford Dictionary of Musical Works

by Alison Latham (editor)

Anyone interested in music often wants to place pieces in context, for example to know who wrote them, and when, and where they were first performed. The new Oxford Dictionary of Musical Works provides short articles on over 1750 pieces, including operas and ballets, and choral, vocal,
orchestral, chamber, and instrumental pieces, including operas and ballets, choral, vocal, orchestral, chamber, and instrumental pieces. Other genres included are collections, national anthems, and traditional melodies. Each entry provides the essential information about each the details of
its genre, the composer, librettist, the number of movements or acts, and important dates surrounding the piece. Fully cross-referenced, the dictionary also includes an appendix of nicknamed compositions, such as the "Pastoral" Symphony, as well as an index of composers and a glossary of terms.
Thorough and illuminating, the Oxford Dictionary of Musical Works is an absolute necessity for any music lover.

Genres: Music

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 2005

Reviews

[Evan]

A self-admitted "eccentric" dictionary of famous classical musical works. Kind of a good idea, but it only includes works that have "nicknames" or programmatical titles to them. In other words, Berlioz' "Symphony fantastique" is included, as is Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" (his symphony number 8), yet none of Mahler's others are because they have no such descriptive subtitle, and even his "Titan" (number 1) is not included for reasons I can only guess at. That means that no symphonies by Beethoven or Brahms are included because there are no descriptive second titles, even though these are paramount works of the canon. Even "Ode to Joy," just as an isolated work, is not included. The "double concerto" of Brahms and the "Triple Concerto" of Beethoven are commonly known as that, because because those were not titles officially bestowed by the composers, they could not be included either. I see what the book is trying to do, and it includes a lot, but I think it needed to be a bit more flexible and inclusive. There are ways around its self-imposed restrictions that wouldn't have caused too many additional pages to be added (a special section for major symphonic works that don't fall under the rigid guidelines, for instance, that could include composer, dates of composition and publication, opus number and such would make for pithy handy reference).
I paid a dollar for it, so it's worth that, at least.