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The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music: Every Listener's Companion: Arranged Chronologically and Alphabetically
A perfect gift for an admirer of classical music, this indispensable volume condenses seven hundred years of classic music history and covers periods from Baroque to Contemporary, in an easy-to-use format.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 26, 2021
A pleasurable re-visit, having found this dictionary of composers and their works again after decades tucked away in a dark corner on a book shelf. I've been dipping into this between the Euros, the French Open, Nordic Noir repeats, a Genesis and Joni Mitchell spell, and Penguin's Little Black Classics - like Kane, feeding off scraps. But what enriching foraging!
Gilder and Port, musicologists and music teachers, note in their preface that this cannot be a fully inclusive catalogue of all of the works for all of the composers, but it is comprehensive enough for a layman like me. Though it does have some obvious omissions which are significant works that even I have known since my teens: Glazunov's Raymonda ballet, for example, though it does list his (lesser known) 8 complete and unfinished 9th symphonies.
The 3 parts, the A-Z of composers and their chronological works, the year-by-year chronological listing of works by composer, and the timeline of composer's lives, all appeal to the filing-cabinet mentality in me and must be of value to many in the gifted profession. The timeline (and so other parts) cover 'classical' composers since 1550 till 1975. Of the 275 composers listed, I have heard works of 65 - less than 25%. But even so, that's around 405 works - ranging from operas and symphonies to incidental music and small piano pieces - and my database goes back to the early '90s, but including this book, back to the late '70s when this was published, and I used it as a diary of what I listened to then. I'm pretty sure that I've missed some, but must have a good 95% of them recorded in some form. Most of these are from composers between 1800 and 1950, with a few outliers like Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart (before Beethoven), and Shostakovich and Ligeti (after Prokofiev). Plenty to go, then.
Traversing its pages since my first noting of all the works I had heard from each composer in 1981- and there are a huge majority I have never heard of nor heard since - is a secret little pleasure I am entirely unashamed of. Apart from some Bach, 'classical' music started for me in 1804, from Beethoven's Eroica, when the symphony changed for ever with the beginning of the Romantics, one of the key symphonies (with Mahler's 1st, Sibelius's 5th, Rachmaninov's 2nd and Prokofiev's 7th) that got this teenager into 'classical' music in the late '70s.
Since then I have heard all of Mahler's works listed, many times, including early works not listed (piano concerto...), most of Sibelius (coming to love his later symphonies as well), all of Bruckner's symphonies, most of Satie's phenomenal piano output, plus Liszt's piano concertos and symphonies and many more of Chopin's works apart from the well-loved Piano Concerto No. 1. Beethoven's piano concertoes, apart from the Emperor, have come late in my life (though I did explore his string quartets early). As have Ravel's piano works (lovely), and Elgar's and Wagner's symphonies (uninspiring). The one composer I have never found my ear attuned to is Shostakovich, whose 5th and 8th Symphony are the only addition to his 11th that I have found time for since my passionate youth. But I will make time. And I have all those smaller works by Beethoven, Rachmaninov and a score of others yet to explore properly.
I now have the task of updating that earlier record against a significant database I have accrued myself since the early '90s - and I love it. This is not a book that you read from cover to cover, but over the years you almost certainly have. A very handy and enjoyable book, and a valuable record to me.
Gilder and Port, musicologists and music teachers, note in their preface that this cannot be a fully inclusive catalogue of all of the works for all of the composers, but it is comprehensive enough for a layman like me. Though it does have some obvious omissions which are significant works that even I have known since my teens: Glazunov's Raymonda ballet, for example, though it does list his (lesser known) 8 complete and unfinished 9th symphonies.
The 3 parts, the A-Z of composers and their chronological works, the year-by-year chronological listing of works by composer, and the timeline of composer's lives, all appeal to the filing-cabinet mentality in me and must be of value to many in the gifted profession. The timeline (and so other parts) cover 'classical' composers since 1550 till 1975. Of the 275 composers listed, I have heard works of 65 - less than 25%. But even so, that's around 405 works - ranging from operas and symphonies to incidental music and small piano pieces - and my database goes back to the early '90s, but including this book, back to the late '70s when this was published, and I used it as a diary of what I listened to then. I'm pretty sure that I've missed some, but must have a good 95% of them recorded in some form. Most of these are from composers between 1800 and 1950, with a few outliers like Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart (before Beethoven), and Shostakovich and Ligeti (after Prokofiev). Plenty to go, then.
Traversing its pages since my first noting of all the works I had heard from each composer in 1981- and there are a huge majority I have never heard of nor heard since - is a secret little pleasure I am entirely unashamed of. Apart from some Bach, 'classical' music started for me in 1804, from Beethoven's Eroica, when the symphony changed for ever with the beginning of the Romantics, one of the key symphonies (with Mahler's 1st, Sibelius's 5th, Rachmaninov's 2nd and Prokofiev's 7th) that got this teenager into 'classical' music in the late '70s.
Since then I have heard all of Mahler's works listed, many times, including early works not listed (piano concerto...), most of Sibelius (coming to love his later symphonies as well), all of Bruckner's symphonies, most of Satie's phenomenal piano output, plus Liszt's piano concertos and symphonies and many more of Chopin's works apart from the well-loved Piano Concerto No. 1. Beethoven's piano concertoes, apart from the Emperor, have come late in my life (though I did explore his string quartets early). As have Ravel's piano works (lovely), and Elgar's and Wagner's symphonies (uninspiring). The one composer I have never found my ear attuned to is Shostakovich, whose 5th and 8th Symphony are the only addition to his 11th that I have found time for since my passionate youth. But I will make time. And I have all those smaller works by Beethoven, Rachmaninov and a score of others yet to explore properly.
I now have the task of updating that earlier record against a significant database I have accrued myself since the early '90s - and I love it. This is not a book that you read from cover to cover, but over the years you almost certainly have. A very handy and enjoyable book, and a valuable record to me.
September 6, 2009
A lovely little book that is never far away. I keep it at hand and refer to it at least once a month.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews