Historical Dictionary of English Music: ca. 1400-1958

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Historical Dictionary of English Music: ca. 1400-1958

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This reference seeks to identify and briefly annotate a wide range of subjects relating to English musical culture, largely from the early 15th century through 1958, dates that reflect the coalescence of an identifiable English style in the early Renaissance and the death of the iconic Ralph Vaughan Williams in the mid-20th century. Some of the truly great "English" composers figuring in this volume include Johann Christian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, and Georg Frideric Handel, along with singers like Jenny Lind and Farinelli and many others. The Historical Dictionary of English Music covers its subject matter through a chronological table of important events, an introductory essay on the history of English music, an extensive bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on people, venues, repertory, genre, and sources. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about English music during this important period.

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Oberlin scholars McGuire and Plank here maintain the high standards achieved in earlier volumes of the "Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts." An introductory essay discusses the establishment of a specifically English musical idiom, and there is also a useful chronology. The main dictionary includes entries for composers, performers, genres, organizations, important manuscripts and publications, and specific works regarded as English musical landmarks (e.g., Dido and Aeneas, Messiah, Elijah). McGuire and Plank provide entries for both English musical figures and continental European composers and performers (e. g., Mendelssohn, Lind) who made major contributions to English musical life. The two compilers discuss in detail certain genres peculiarly English, such as the carol and the masque. They also provide fine descriptions of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, including the Old Hall Manuscript, Eton Choirbook, and Fayrfax Book. The bibliography is wide-ranging. Recommended. All academic libraries; lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty

Authors McGuire and Plank, both on the music faculty of Oberlin College, present brief entries for people, musical styles, organizations, significant compositions, and events related to more than 500 years of English "classical" music history. They are clear in their preface that coverage is limited to the music of England, not the greater British Isles, unless particular topics or people from outside England had a significant connection to England's musical culture. Examples of these inclusions are German-born composers Felix Mendelssohn and George Frideric Handel. A chronology is followed by the introduction, in which the authors walk readers through each featured century of English music, highlighting characteristics, composers, styles, and genres that represent music of the country: for example, secular "lute songs" of the Elizabethan sixteenth century, operas of Henry Purcell in the seventeenth century, and the "Golden Era" of English music in the twentieth century, led by composers Benjamin Britten, Gustav Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. In fact, England's "Golden Era" ends with the death of Vaughan Williams, in 1958, not coincidentally the terminal date for the volume's coverage. More than 600 entries vary in length from a paragraph or two to more than two pages for some broad musical subjects like Opera. The majority of the biographies are for composers, with only a few prominent performers included. The well-organized bibliography is arranged by name and topic. Surprisingly, there are no significant comparable volumes available on this topic, making this a nice addition for academic and music libraries

McGuire (Music and Victorian Philanthropy) and Plank (Choral Performance) identify the composers, publishers, venues, movements, companies, genres, and major works from England's Renaissance to rock's infancy....The alphabetized entries are accessible and fully cross-referenced and in a field of period-specific monographs, this is the first book to embrace such a broad span of musical history

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