The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed.

(review)
Mark Germer

Notes, Volume 58, Number 2, December 2001, pp. 320-325 (Review)

Published by Music Library Association

For additional information about this article

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 BOOK REVIEWS
Edited by Eunice Schroeder

〫
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2d ed. Edited by
Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan; New York: Grove’s
Dictionaries, 2001. [29 vols. ISBN 1-56159-239-0. $4,580.]
The encyclopedic articulation of a world the centrality of this compulsion, this
presupposes, in a way that the art of the “Drang zur Universalität,” as Hermann
summa does not, a plurality of dichotomies Broch and Elias Canetti encapsulated it. (I
and discourses. Oppositions concerning rely on Ronald Swigger, “Fictional Encyclo-
the nature of meaningfulness, understand- pedism,” Comparative Literature Studies 12
ing, and knowledge itself are at its core. [1976], 351–66.) Testimony of a contrast-
What is knowledge? And what determines ing sort can be read in the susceptibility of
its relationship to information? Is it repre- the encyclopedic mode to broad parody,
sented best as a closed inventory— most famously in Flaubert’s Bouvard et
d’Alembert’s “engine of ordered learning”; Pécuchet, as well as to irony bordering on
or as an open-ended arbitration—Diderot’s ridicule, as in a number of the ficciones of
“living school for philosophers”? (For this Borges, so beloved of librarians on account,
duality within the encyclopedic enterprise among other things, of their proof that en-
does extend back to the Encyclopédie; I have cyclopedias are impossible.
benefited from Wilda Anderson’s “Encyclo- It has been suggested that encyclopedias
pedic Topologies,” Modern Language Notes made for today’s audiences are consulted
101 [1986], 912–29). The institutionaliza- not for knowledge but for information.
tion of encyclopedism since the nineteenth While conceding that the specialist souls of
century would appear to express Western our age give small quarter to the notion of
culture’s hegemonic striving to collect, pos- a comprehensive speculum mundi (even as a
sess, order, and control—a given—but does pedagogical device), I would not care to see
the totalizing text in fact represent some to- the work under review—hereafter NG2—
tal stock of knowledge, or does it instead relativized that way. (My remarks, it should
propose a model? That is, does the order- be stressed, are intended to apply to the
ing of fragments (the dictionary) in an in- printed edition. The attributes and objec-
tegrated structure (the system) mirror the tives of the electronic edition are addressed
world or set out principles for constructing in this issue in a separate review, pp. 406–
it? The problem does not end here. How 8.) Obviously NG2 may be consulted as a
can the additive progress of knowledge be modern reference resource: for informa-
called into play? And to what degree must a tion. But it seems clear to me that it inclines
self-conscious attempt at encyclopedism ac- toward something greater, if that is the word.
quiesce before its own utopian premise— Emphatically not a deviant offshoot from
that ongoing discourses will yield new frag- the Grove family line—in all important as-
ments and thus new connections—and so pects its profile remains recognizable—NG2
account for its own fragmentary condition? presents itself as an encyclopedic dictionary
It is of course these dichotomies and (per- of a lofty order, aspiring to eloquence, capa-
haps insoluble) oppositions that infuse the cious and long-breathed, synthetic and sys-
themes of totalizing fictional narratives tematized, replete with a diagrammatic
with urgency, from Dante’s Divine Comedy map (29:[viii]) that for all the world looks
to Cervantes’s Don Quixote and Goethe’s like the divine scheme from some humanis-
Faust, paradigmatic allegories of the quest tic Bibliotheca Universalis. It is fair to say
for encyclopedic knowledge. The status of that this articulation of an inhering totality
such works in the Western canon testifies to fulfills its promise as a milestone.

320
Book Reviews 321

The reasons why this should be so have cism,” reprinted in Collected Essays and
much to do with the parallel evolution of Lectures, 1937–1995, ed. Jonathan Bernard
the successive Grove editions and European (Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester
academic musicology. (A publication his- Press, 1997), 335–42] and of George
tory in outline can be assembled from the Steiner’s attempt to imagine it all the same
verso of NG2 ’s title pages and the reprinted [“A Secondary City,” in Real Presences
prefaces in vol. 1.) In the first lines of (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
introduction to the index—a triumphant 1989), at 4 – 21].) For a phenomenon often
innovation, not incidentally—Margot Levy deemed abstract beyond words, music in-
invokes Guido Adler’s holistic conceptual- spires enough of them. (NG2 offers twenty-
ization of music study. (“All errors are my five million.) And this engagement brings
own,” she concludes [29:xii], but her edi- us round again to the dichotomous proper-
tors might have saved her from assigning ties of encyclopedism, this time framed in
Adler’s foundational “Umfang, Methode, ontological terms. “What there is does not
und Ziel der Musikwissenschaft” [Viertel- in general depend on one’s use of lan-
jahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft 1 (1885): 5– guage,” the logician tells us, “but what one
20] to the year of his birth, and thus from says there is does” (W. V. Quine, “Logic
introducing into the literature the Borge- and the Reification of Universals,” in From
sian invention that an 1885 publication a Logical Point of View: 9 Logico-philosophical
“informed” a lexicon in press by 1879. Or is Essays, 2d ed. rev. [Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
it 1878? The title-page versos, the reprinted vard University Press, 1961], 102–29).
preface, the index, and the article on With Levy’s index and Stanley Sadie’s
George Grove do not agree.) Adler, a “meta- editorial introduction (1:xv–xxv), then,
encyclopedist” in that he outlined a totaliz- Nettl’s courageous article “Music” com-
ing plan without implementing it, does in- pletes the triune statement of NG2 ’s sys-
deed deserve the credit Levy prematurely tem. It seems elementary to me that the
bestows. Though in certain defining ways work’s epistemological as well as method-
his conspectus has been honored chiefly in ological underpinnings should be discover-
the breach—with respect to what is consid- able here, and I believe that readers can
ered essential as opposed to marginal— well start with this assumption. But Nettl’s
Adler still exerts influence: no other arts charge is unenviable. In the first place,
discipline encompasses the range from the the lexicographical literature offers little
physics to the sociology of its subject in precedent in approaching whatever may
a manner comparable to that of music. be meant by the “essential nature” of mu-
Bruno Nettl, musicology’s latter-day chroni- sic. (Oddly, The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane
cler and the first author of an article under Turner, 34 vols. [New York: Grove’s Diction-
the heading “Music” in Grove history, has aries, 1996], contains a small entry for “Art”
observed additionally a reanimation in that proves remarkably well written for all
Adler’s reach, linking his speculative its phlegmatic reticence. In succession, his-
premise that “All peoples who can be said to torians of ideas, anthropologists, psycholo-
possess a musical art [Tonkunst] also have a gists, and philosophers are all taken to task
system of musical thought [Tonwissen- for failing to provide insight. Scholars of art
schaft]” to the recent embrace by Western are tacitly let off the hook. The question of
scholars of autochthonous “musicologies” art’s essential nature remains unsettled, we
(“The Institutionalization of Musicology,” are told, because it is ignored!) In the sec-
in Rethinking Music, ed. Nicholas Cook and ond place, the word “music” corresponds
Mark Everist [Oxford and New York: Ox- to things and behaviors and concepts that
ford University Press, 1999], 287–310; I do seem to exist in sharp focus for those
have altered the translation slightly). There who use it, unlike such terms as “national-
is something familiar about this formula- ism,” whose meanings exist, tautologically,
tion, perhaps in part because composers of within the debate over meaning itself. In an
our own time cultivate so much analytical important sense, therefore, “music” lends
language. (One thinks of Elliott Carter’s itself to generalization unwillingly. And in
aside: “How serious music would have de- the third place, pioneering efforts tilt to-
veloped without its accompaniment of ward the unsatisfying. Nettl enlists some
verbiage is hard to imagine” [“Music Criti- anecdotal evidence uncritically, employs
322 Notes, December 2001

some rhetorical constructions without rigor popular idioms. With the principal excep-
—in passages, for instance, on the alleged tion of some organological surveys (e.g.,
primacy of instrumental music and of com- “Trumpet,” sec. 2; “Bell (i),” sec. 4), for the
position as opposed to performance, on most part this is subject integration on a su-
the question of musicmaking in nonhuman perficial level, more a matter of where the
species, and on the relative profile of im- discussion resides than a search for conti-
provisation and its psychology. Seemingly nuities or commonalities. The point here,
contradictory elements need deeper recon- in any event, is—ungratefully—to ask for
ciliation. (In Western culture, “music is a more. It does not seem inescapable to
good thing” [17:428, col. 2] but often “dan- me that, even (or especially?) in Adlerian
gerous and to be avoided” [17:434, col. 1].) terms, “Musicology” and “Ethnomusi-
A weakness, too, lies in the pervading ac- cology” would have to be so severely di-
ceptance of aesthetic value (judgment re- vorced in NG2. “Dance” follows suit, shunt-
garding success or failure) as culturally ing “Traditional” and “Non-Western” over
dominant in most contexts, with limited ex- to “Ethnochoreography.” Perhaps scholar-
position of poetic value (judgment regard- ship has not come far enough for NG2 to
ing intent, not to be confused with mere account for either a psychology or a philos-
descriptions of “function”). Yet the article ophy of music from somewhere East, but
reflects both our tenuous grasp and its im- the same cannot be said with respect to
perfect encyclopedic representation. manuscript sources of music. Curiously,
“Imperfect” by NG2 ’s own standard, be- “Harmony” and “Melody” take no notice of
cause the system has not yet been fully what we are presumably to call the “Non-
worked out. This “intermediate” status is West.” The article “Chanson,” exemplary
clearest in articles on modern nation-states on its subject up to 1600, leaves the reader
that divide, predictably but unhelpfully, without so much as directional help to
into “Art” and “Traditional” halves. Others whatever it was that Edith Piaf sang, al-
—“Uzbekistan” can serve as an example— though the term is found throughout the
succeed in exhibiting idiosyncratic plans bibliography for her entry and in the text
driven by their content. “Indonesia” is too of the article on Aristide Bruant.
magisterial to be contained within any gen- Nettl’s reference in “Music” to the limita-
eralization. (An important expansion is tions of a “statement by one author”
worth bringing to notice: NG2 preserves an (17:425, col. 2) rings slightly hollow, I
older layer of survey articles—“Arab Music,” think, given that numerous articles involve
“Amerindian Music,” “European Tradi- contributions from twenty authors or more.
tional Music,” “Latin America”—without Leaving aside his implicit question about
sacrificing individual entries; thus “Syria” how well his subject has been served, I must
has a separate discussion now, as opposed register admiration for many new single-
to a directional reference to “Arab Music.” author commissions. The editors succeed
A few exceptions remain, e.g., “Melanesia,” often enough in hewing to house style
not “Papua New Guinea.”) Inter- and intra- when multiple authorship must have pre-
cultural accounts appear in a number sented difficulties; but where they most ex-
of conceptual articles, some enhanced cel is in giving latitude to strong literary
from the previous edition but all ideologi- presences. The concluding columns on
cally significant. “Polyphony” divides into Beethoven by Scott Burnham will, through
“Western” and (infelicitously) “Non- sheer brilliance, enhance the reception of
Western” sections, “Popular Music” into Beethoven reception; Thomas Connolly’s
“West” and “World,” and “Performing “Cecilia” comes closer to poetry than what
Practice” into “Western” and “Non-Western can reasonably be expected of nonfiction
and Traditional.” In a parallel vein, it is not prose. Parallel energies of clarity and in-
necessary to cite some empty capitulation sight elevate passages such as these:
to “cultural diversity” in order to appreciate
that mass media have become so integrated The preoccupation with the moment-
into the modern world as to require schol- to-moment resolution of dissonance in
arly notice. Thus the article “Singing” bene- Rameau’s theories mirrors the sensuous
fits from its greater acknowledgment of harmonic sonorities and episodic nature
the central place of the human voice in of French Baroque music. These disso-
Book Reviews 323

nances urge the fundamental bass for- used in works by composers such as
ward, but gravitational momentum in Boulez and Cage still strikes us as revolu-
this music nevertheless tends to be local tionary, for not only do such scores lack
in significance, directed toward an imme- pitch and durational specification among
diate cadential goal. It is an improvisa- their parts, they also have loosened or
tional, accompanimental harmonic prac- even abandoned any pretense of coordi-
tice, one that responds to the expressive nation among them. Interestingly, many
needs of the moment: rapid transitions pieces in graphic notation, such as
from one tonic to the next—Rameau was Berio’s Sequenza III . . . make use of stop-
inclined to hear any triad without a disso- watch timings to determine structural ar-
nance as a tonic—organize the music ticulations. As with the music of the
into additive series of modulations con- Middle Ages, this mode of temporal reck-
nected together by chains of dominants oning is not intrinsic to the temporal ac-
in which tonal coherence has more to do tivity of any part of the music itself, but
with the dramatic action on stage (or the must be imposed from without. (21:289–
sentiment of a poetic image) than an ab- 90)
stract musical design. (25:589, col. 1)
Rameau and modernism in the hands of
[T]onality virtually coincides with the Brian Hyer (“Tonality”), recitative and
age of Western modernism, the great era graphic notation in those of Justin London
of representation that stretches from the (“Rhythm”): such are the very embedded
philosophical meditations of Descartes to riches that will earn NG2 its longevity. A
the general crisis of representation in the veritable study could be undertaken of
arts around 1910. It thus forms a precise one of conventional musicology’s most im-
analogue to linear perspective in paint- portant critical achievements of the last
ing as one of the principal cognitive generation—a serviceable, largely nontech-
structures in Western culture: in their re- nical vocabulary and syntax for the discus-
spective media, tonality and linear per- sion of musical style—by making use of
spective are responsible for the effect of passages so crystalline as to augur NG2 ’s
subjectivity—the notion that an individ- potential to exert a formative influence.
ual embodies an historical consciousness Roger Parker on Verdi, Rob Wegman on
—so crucial to modernity. (25:592, col. 2) Obrecht, Bradford Robinson on Basie, and
[T]he representation of speech rhythms James Webster on Haydn—they and others
[in seventeenth-century Italy] by a lim- go some distance toward enacting a syl-
ited number and proportionally specific labus on the subject of style:
set of durational values hardly yielded
accurate or natural results. Thus by the As with his conservatism in larger formal
century’s end this practice had been matters, this self-imposed restriction had
abandoned and most recitative was no- the effect of channelling Verdi’s inven-
tated in rapid and even notes (crotchets tion into manipulations of the prototype
or quavers), with the understanding that from within, into expansions, contrac-
the rhythm would follow that of the tions, and enrichments of the lyric form.
speech declamation. Grounding the Elvira’s Andantino in Act I of Ernani, for
rhythms of recitative in speech also example, sees a dramatic expansion of
means that the singer need not worry the B section that injects a new sense of
about precise coordination of most sylla- dialectic tension into the aria. More than
bles with the accompaniment, save at ca- that: far from ‘dissolving’ into ornamen-
dence points. (21:289, col. 1) tal writing at the end, the aria continues
to subordinate, or rather harness, the or-
In the music of the common practice pe- namentation, containing it within a
riod the coordination of various parts rel- strictly controlled periodicity. (26:440,
ative to an externalized metre became col. 2)
such a deeply rooted aspect of Western
musical culture that its presence has The older aesthetic of the ‘wall of sound’
gone largely unnoticed. It is perhaps for disappears completely: cantus-firmus
that reason that the graphic notation based passages in full scoring tend to
324 Notes, December 2001

move at varying rates of rhythmic and eting play with beginnings that are end-
harmonic activity, ranging from drawn- ings and the reverse. (11:192, col. 2)
out homophonic passages, usually at key
phrases of the mass text, to stretches of The article on Wuorinen can stand for
almost frenzied contrapuntal activity. The material at the opposite end of the spec-
allocation of these different passages typ- trum, its silliness unsalvageable by any
ically reflects a purposeful musical design means. Inhabiting the middle ground
—though one, significantly, that is sel- somewhere, “Modernism” stalls and disinte-
dom dictated by the shape of the prede- grates into lists. (“Verbally,” Steiner has ar-
termined cantus firmus, and indeed may gued, “it is very nearly impossible to arrive
encompass long stretches in which the at any satisfactory concept of the coming of
tenor is not heard at all. Instead of a con- ‘modernism’ into music” [Real Presences,
ventional alternation between sharply 21]. Emphasis should be placed, of course,
contrasted passages in full and reduced on the word “satisfactory.” Even so, the at-
scoring, standing side by side as mono- tempt here to relate musical phenomena
lithic stretches of relatively undifferenti- to the problems of modernity can only be
ated counterpoint, Obrecht now tended described as desultory.) The promotional
to treat the beginning or ending of a literature announced that NG2 would con-
tenor statement as one of several steps in tain some two thousand new entries for
a continuing musical development. contemporary composers. But the formulas
(18:299, col. 2) can be tiresome: the music of Pēteris Vasks,
while modeled on that of Lutosl-awski, has
Using an elliptical style of melodic leads a “radical individuality,” and its aesthetic is
and cues, Basie was able to control his “rooted”—lo and behold—in traditional
band firmly from the keyboard while culture. Vapidity of this order may be at-
blending perfectly with his rhythm sec- tributable to editorial fatigue, one suspects.
tion. This celebrated group . . . altered One also suspects slight humor in the asser-
the ideal of jazz accompaniment, making tion that the reputation of rap music
it more supple and responsive to the spread by word of mouth (20:830, col. 2). I
wind instruments and helping to estab- confess I do not know what to make of the
lish four-beat jazz (with four almost iden- fact that Imogen Holst’s music often fea-
tically stressed beats to a bar) as the tures the minor second, any more than I
norm for jazz performance. Of particu- can appreciate how Wuorinen’s music of
larly far-reaching significance was [ Jo] the 1980s “became more rhythmic.” And
Jones’s technique of placing the constant then there are the rock groups. The writing
pulse on the hi-hat cymbal instead of the about them has not yet, I think, come of
bass drum, thereby immeasurably light- age; in any event, while there seems to be a
ening the timbre of jazz drumming. consensus that it must always be noted how
Another important factor was the accu- many copies of each album were sold, I
racy and solidity of [Walter] Page’s walk- simply do not know what to do with this in-
ing bass technique, which obviated the formation. That the music of Siouxsie and
need for left-hand patterns in the piano the Banshees is “stylish and uncompromis-
and imparted a buoyant swing to the en- ing” may be true; I just do not know what it
semble. (2:837, col. 2) means. I hope I can be forgiven for feeling
mystified about the songs of ABBA, which
The crucial point, however, is that use “combinations of diatonic melody and
Haydn’s popular style is not a simple pro- tonal harmony, often involving harmonic
jection of his personality, but his compo- motion alternating between two or three
sitional ‘persona’ or ‘musical personal- chords.” It is not merely disturbing that
ity’, deliberately assumed for complex such drivel takes up space in NG2; it is dis-
artistic purposes. Indeed ‘wit’ signifies turbing that it takes up space anywhere.
intelligence as well as humour: his inex- Obviously I cannot speculate on the
haustible rhythmic and motivic inventive- cause of every editorial misstep; most of us
ness, the conversational air of many quar- will not easily accept České Budějovice,
tet movements, his formal ambiguity and beautiful Renaissance market town that it
caprice, his brilliant and at times disqui- is, as the “cultural centre of Bohemia,” and
Book Reviews 325

entries out of alphabetical order braces for the Gilbertian patter: Marcel
(“Narantsogt”) are just mistakes. But it may Moyse, the flutist, has earned a place but
be useful to identify recurring errors that Marcel Mule, the saxophonist, has not; the
can be corrected in the electronic edition, Savoy Record Company is there, but not
and perhaps will have been before these the Savoy Opera Company; Gwen Verdon
words appear. Three such categories may but not Ann Miller; Mallarmé but not
be related: I call them the cut-and-paste Valéry, Byron but not Milton, Nketia but
complex and cite them in part owing to not Kebede, Albrecht but not Zagrosek, ka-
their status as markers in documenting the zoo but not conch—and only three mem-
first electronically produced music Grove. bers of the Modern Jazz Quartet. The parsi-
First is the replacement (or duplicate) monious treatment of jazz, finally, must be
problem, wherein the edited text contains counted among NG2 ’s most conspicuous
both the correction and the element(s) in- flaws. It scarcely seems arguable that two
tended for deletion (e.g., “expression rep- jazz violinists marginal to American jazz
resentation” [25:587, col. 2]; the last entry should appear in the absence of Joe Venuti,
in the “Tunisia” bibliography; “Gheraert de Eddie South, Stuff Smith, and Billy Bang—
Hondt,” duplicated in the index). I call the an extreme but not unique case. As a rule,
second category the “misplaced ibid.” prob- the bibliographies for important jazz fig-
lem and regard it as self-explanatory; see, ures are minimally updated, while the in-
for example, the two 1995 Rousseau entries troduction of discographies to document
in the bibliography of the article on Jean- primary source material, begun in The New
Jacques Eigeldinger. The number of these Grove Dictionary of Jazz (London: Macmillan;
cut-and-paste errors cannot be regarded as New York: Grove’s Dictionaries of Music,
considerable in a work so vast, but a third 1988) and continued in NG2 for ethno-
sort moves beyond the arena of the chiefly graphic (and some chant) entries, is inex-
mechanical into that of the frankly trou- plicably abandoned—“inexplicably” be-
bling: the double attribution problem. The cause the data obviously already exists in
Benjamin Franklin article and “Musical the Grove computer files. Even if cost were
Glasses,” for instance, contain identical excluded from consideration, all those sen-
portions of text attributed, respectively, to sitized to this distortion will unlikely be
W. Thomas Marrocco and Alec Hyatt King comforted by the imminence of NGJ2.
(9:207; 17:472, col. 2). Even allowing for For the distortion, of course, offends
editorial license, in an age when students against NG2 itself. Until we step back, that
have difficulty grasping how their “appro- is. What systematic corpus of critical and
priation” of blocks of text from documents interpretive discourses does not offend
not their own is construed as theft, any dis- against itself ? “The encyclopedia is a tool,”
regard for accuracy in crediting authorship goes a paraphrase of Diderot, “to maintain
poses an obstacle to their understanding, organization in the face of change” (Ander-
to say nothing of fidelity to humanistic stan- son, “Encyclopedic Topologies,” 925). Its
dards. It would seem that this instance out- achievements have to do with pointing the
lines the tip of an iceberg of editorial high- way not to perfect summation (Samuel
handedness, as the voices of contributors Beckett’s “vain entelechies”) but to that
who claim that their names are attached to which must still be transcended. What
work that does not represent them begin to Umberto Eco prescribes as the first duty of
form an intelligible chorus. the cultivated person—“to be always pre-
Serious, too, are the much-discussed pared to rewrite the encyclopedia” (“The
omissions in the print edition of the up- Force of Falsity,” in Serendipities: Language
dated bibliography for Richard Wagner and Lunacy, trans. William Weaver [New
and segments of the worklist for Stravinsky. York: Columbia University Press, 1998], 21)
It should be recorded that promises for re- —is, at best, a gamble.
mediation have been made by the pub-
lisher. Everyone can play the parlor game
“What has NG2 omitted?” yet for reference
librarians there is a serious side to this, too.
(My first three encounters with NG2 on be- Mark Germer
half of students proved unsuccessful.) One University of the Arts