William A. Everett’s The Musical: A Research and Information Guide (2011), 2nd edition, is a bibliography that focuses primarily upon the history, creators, performers, and the production of American musical theatre from the late nineteenth century to the present day.  It contains 1,474 items such as reference works, websites, articles from both scholarly and popular periodicals, recorded anthologies, essays, and dissertations and theses. Within his definition of ‘musical,’ Everett includes filmed and television musicals alongside the more traditional stage musicals, both mega-musical and obscure.  Although the focus is predominantly American musical theatre, a few small sections also address European musicals, French operetta, and Bollywood.  The broad majority of citations include annotations, as well as ISBN and Library of Congress call numbers when appropriate. Excluded from coverage are anthologies of “greatest hits,” cast and studio albums, soundtracks, and solo albums with a Broadway or Hollywood theme. As with all print publications citing websites, these items have the potential to disappear; however, the internet resources Everett chose to include are all reliable, popular reference sites that are unlikely to disappear from the Internet or change domains anytime soon. Students performing research on musical theatre will find this volume useful, as will those interested in expanding their knowledge on the subject.

Lindsay Weaver
Research Assistant 

Edited by Cliff Eisen and Simon P. Keefe, the Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia (2006) is an excellent reference work that not only encapsulates current academic thought about Mozart, but also offers a guide to understanding the composer and his world through over 500 entries addressing a variety of topics such as people, musical works, places, genres, and society. Entries can range in length from a large paragraph to long, meaty essays. Five useful appendices conclude the work such as a complete workslist, a collection of theatrical biopics about Mozart, a selective list of his operas on DVD and video, a directory of Mozart organizations, and a list of useful Mozart websites. Extremely up to date, this book contains topics and subjects which have never before been addressed in English-speaking scholarship, and is recommended for students, scholars, and layman audiences.

Lindsay Weaver
Research Assistant 

Susan Lewis Hammond’s The Madrigal: A Research and Information Guide (2011) is a selective bibliography of 1,237 items intended as a guide to the best scholarship written on the subject of polyphonic Italian madrigals. Specifically, she includes within her scope the canzonetta, villanella, and spirit madrigal), English and German adaptations to the genre, lute intabulations, hybrids and transitional forms of monody, and madrigals with basso continuo accompaniment. This book is useful to students and anyone researching this subject because the annotations clearly identify which sources are important to the understanding of various aspects of the madrigal and why these works ought to be consulted.

Lindsay Weaver
Research Assistant 

A result of the collaborative of efforts of Robert Lamar Weaver, John Karr, and Caterina Pampaloni, edited by Susan Parisi The Music Library of a Noble Florentine Family (2012) is a catalogue raisonné of the Ricasoli Collection acquired by the University of Louisville in 1989, which consists of music and pedagogical books collected by the Ricasoli family during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This particular catalogue builds upon the work of nineteenth-century inventories already completed for this collection; therefore, while the majority of the collection is housed at the University of Louisville, the catalogue will occasionally items not in the University’s possession either because they’re been lost or separated from the collection as a result of private sales before the acquisition.

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The Music Library of a Noble Florentine Family: A Catalogue Raisonné of Manuscripts and Prints of the 1720s to the 1850sRead More »

Nicole V. Gagné’s Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music (2012) surveys modern and contemporary classical music dating from 1890 to the present day, representing composers on an international scale. Although biographical information on composers and musicians who specialize in modern or contemporary music constitutes the primary focus of this book (350 entries), Gagné also includes 60 entries on relevant musical topics such as compositional methods and styles, which provides reader with better understanding of the music discussed. Composers in jazz, pop, and rock have typically been excluded on the basis that these genres are too broad and varied to be adequately addressed within the scope of this work; however, individuals like Duke Ellington whose musical accomplishments extend into the realm of the concert hall have been included, as well as musicians like The Beatles whose work left such an indelible, “radical” mark in their own field that it is appropriate to discuss them within the book’s context. Biographical entries typically provide dates of birth and death, nationality, career overview, important compositions, and cross-references to relevant topic entries. As for the topic entries, these typically discuss the historical overview of the subject, its characteristics, its important or prominent proponents, and often cross-reference to the entries of said proponents.

Beyond the dictionary proper, Gagné supplies a useful introduction discussing the musical history of the time period considered by this book, a chronology, and a lengthy bibliography citing books, articles, reviews, and websites. The citations are exclusively English-language, with the majority of books published after 1970.  Because the bibliography is divided into sections concerned with a specific publication type, and entries often grouped by the subject composer, readers will find it easy to quickly locate citations pertaining to a specific individual. Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music is recommended for scholars and students (musician or otherwise) who are performing research in this field or are interested in learning more about this corpus of music and the individuals who create it.

Lindsay Weaver
Research Assistant

Dal Segno al suono: Il Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella: Repertorio del patrimonio storico-artistico e degli strumenti musicali. A cura di Gema Cautela, Luigi Sisto, Lorella Starita

This beautiful and lavishly illustrated volume is an exhaustive catalogue of all the portraits, instruments and museum artifacts conserved at the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella in Naples, Italy. Every item is accompanied with a photograph, many in full color.