Dictionary of Music

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ABOUT THE BOOK This book can be used for quick reference by anybody who is at all interested in music and this may be used even by those who have no special learning and who may not be able to read music notation. An attempt has been made to explain technical points without the aid of music-type.

This book contains references to Ancient and Oriental music and instruments. Even the performances of the past who do appear will be found to have comparatively short entries allotted to them.

All entries consisting of more than one word are ranged in such a way as to make the first word alone the key to their place in the alphabet. Abbreviations are plentiful.

The contents of the Dictionary are uncritical. One very important feature of the book is the full list of National Anthems found under that head. Operas which have historical importance for their music or their librettos will be found under their titles as well as under their composers' entries.

PREFACE STRICTLY speaking, this book is not a dictionary in every sense of the term. It includes biographical sketches, which it is no function of dictionaries to do; on the other hand, though it trans lates foreign terms, as a book of this kind should, it rarely attempts to offer guidance in the matter of pronunciation, for a reason to be explained presently. At the same time it could not have been called an encyclopaedia, for, although as comprehensive as possible within the small space allotted to the vast material, it does not contain long historical and critical articles, but contents itself with definitions, some of considerable length, yet all as brief as they could be kept without omitting essentials.

In order to keep within an amount of space permitting Every man's Dictionary of Music to come within the reach of every man's pocket-and, it is hoped, every woman's handbag-and, more particularly, to make room for some special features that may claim to be both novel and useful, its scope had to be drastically restricted in some respects. There could be no pictures and no music-type examples, and no claim whatever is made that larger books containing a more or less lavish supply of both, as well as offering substantial articles, have now been superseded. This is not a manual for specialists: it is a book to be used for quick reference by anybody who is at all interested in music, and it may indeed be so used even by those who have no special learning and who may not be able to read musical notation. An attempt has been made to elucidate technical points without the aid of music type. All the reader will need in some instances to grasp an explanation is to know the notes on the pianoforte keyboard.

Not everything that may conceivably be looked for will be found entered, and some subjects have been very briefly treated. References to ancient and oriental music and instruments have been excluded altogether. Western music of the Christian era alone-and not much of the early centuries of that-is dealt with. Little is said about the history and construction of instruments, and only what is essential about their character and functions. Few instrument makers or music printers and publishers appear, though the most important have been included. Birds, bells and other matters that barely reach the fringes of music as an art, though often found in other musical works of reference, have been ignored here. So, for pretty much the same reason, have ballet dancers, dead or alive.

**Contents and Sample Pages**