[Praise for the previous edition] A genuinely indispensable book, readable, accurate, and completely reliable. -- Andre Previn, Conductor, pianist, and composer Easily the most useful of all musical dictionaries because of its accuracy, concision, and ease of reference. -- Charles Rosen, pianist, author, and critic
Don Michael Randel, former Professor of Music at Cornell University and Professor of Music and President of the University of Chicago, is President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
When it appeared in 1986, The New Harvard Dictionary of Music was
hailed in many quarters as the most valuable single-volume
reference work on classical music in English. Now, still
unsurpassed in the classical field, it has become even more
valuable, with a new edition… The Harvard Dictionary now makes
incursions into rock, pop and world music… This is all good news
for music lovers whose tastes run to the traditional, the more so
for any who might want to broaden them.
*New York Times*
The essential one-stop reference has been newly updated, making it
even more essential. After all, how else are you going to find out
what euouae are (the vowels of the words ‘seculorum Amen’ sung in
Gregorian chant) or that you just missed Berlioz’s 200th
birthday?
*Los Angeles Times*
The book—approximately 1,000 pages in length—is solidly accurate
and refreshingly concise. Best of all, it provides a complete
listing of all relevant terms, literally from A (Abendmusik, or
evening music) to Z (Zigeunermusik, or gypsy music)… In short, the
Harvard Dictionary of Music is amazing, wonderful, and highly
useful.
*Bloomsbury Review*
[The Harvard Dictionary of Music] manages…to live up to a sentence
from its own entry on ‘Dictionaries and encyclopedias’: ‘The
success of a dictionary is judged mainly on its factual details,
completeness of coverage, and clarity of presentation.’ On all
these counts, this volume scores very highly.
*Times Higher Education Supplement*
The Harvard Dictionary of Music (Fourth Edition) is a resounding
success… I can’t imagine how Harvard University Press can offer
such a detailed and meticulously produced volume for $40, but that
being the case there is no reason it should not become a
much-thumbed part of every serious music-lover’s library.
*Symphony*
Readers will not be disappointed with the fourth edition of the
Harvard Dictionary of Music, long known as the essential
single-volume music dictionary. Existing articles have been
fine-tuned, and additions and deletions reflect new developments in
musical scholarship as well as the changing world and its political
boundaries.
*Choice*
[Moves] impressively and easily between non-Western and Western
music, integrating ancient theory and modern practice into a
genuinely, and invigoratingly, global survey.
*Times Literary Supplement*
Its discussion of complicated technical issues is admirably concise
and clear (see the entry on ‘twelve-tone music’), and some of its
entries on pop music are both sensible and amusing… This book has
proved of daily, error-free usefulness.
*Boston Globe*
May well be the indispensable one-volume reference work on the
subject of music—classical, ethnic, pop or rock… If you must know
the difference between the Lydian and Mixolydian modes, you can
find that lucidly described, but not to the exclusion of a note on
the practice and etymology of doo-wop.
*Los Angeles Times*
This single volume [provides] as full a range of non-biographical
information as most of us are likely to require.
*The Observer*
A genuinely indispensable book, readable, accurate, and completely
reliable.
*André Previn, conductor, pianist, and composer [reviewing the
previous edition]*
Easily the most useful of all musical dictionaries because of its
accuracy, concision, and ease of reference.
*Charles Rosen, pianist, author, and critic [reviewing the previous
edition]*
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