In the Grove

For three-quarters of a century, the sun never set on Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. For archivists and amateurs, professors and performers around the world, England's queen-size compendium* was the first authority on the ways and means of music. But the fourth edition of Grove's (published in 1940) was much the same as the first (1878), and after World War II, London's Macmillan & Co. decided it was high time for a completely revised edition. After nearly ten years of labor--by about 500 contributors under the stern supervision of London Music Critic and Scholar Eric Blom--Grove V is out at last. Almost twice as big as the 1940 edition, it runs to a weighty nine volumes (at $127.50 a set) that fascinatingly reflect the world of music in mid-20th century.

Film to Concrete. Among the new developments since Grove IV: P: The phonograph (called gramophone in British English), which in 1940 got 3 1/2 pages plus a perfunctory listing under MECHANICAL APPLIANCES (along with barrel organs and pianolas). gets eight pages in 1954, including the comment that "all over Europe . . . American technicians are to be found with their spools of recording tape." P: Film music, with no listing in Grove IV, gets 16 pages documenting the art from its early catch-all scores (catalogued as The Slimy Viper, Gruesome Misterioso, Love's Response, etc.) to background music by such recognized modern composers as Copland, Honegger and Prokofiev, with learned descriptions of how music is photographed on film and a running account of how a film composer operates.

P: CONCRETE MUSIC, a recent development involving recorded natural sounds that are edited and (usually) electronically transformed into (usually) hair-raising compositions, gets a stiff nod. Grove's admits that it "does represent a new means of expression." P: The diminished seventh, a foreboding chord much abused by 19th century composers and some 20th century organists, gets its comeuppance. Because it has four notes belonging to widely distant keys, Editor Blom recalls a reference to it as a railway station, from which it is "possible to get to any destination in the shortest possible time . . ." He adds, "It became stale . . . not only because later composers abused its sensational nature but also because as a harmonic device it represents a line of least resistance." P: Schoenberg's once highly controversial twelve-tone system is recognized as a technique of worldwide significance in 20th century composition.

P: Jazz still "occupies a place entirely apart," but is given a complete chronicling from its African "origins through bop. In Grove IV, blues were kissed off with a See FOX TROT.

Beethoven to Mendelssohn. As a result of Editor Blom's uninhibited pen (always filled with green ink), much of Grove V is merry and informative,* avoids the sentimental dogma of earlier editions.

Where Sir George Grove in Grove IV was "certain" that Beethoven's romantic "attachments were all honorable," Grove V is more cautious, also concludes that "we need not expend much pity upon Beethoven the thwarted lover." Beethoven's cryptic answer when asked what the Appassionato Sonata meant ("Read Shakespeare's Tempest") is now interpreted as a flip: "Don't ask silly questions." Mendelssohn, who was the No. i darling of Grove IV, with 60 florid pages ("Few instances can be found in history of a man so amply gifted with every good quality of mind and heart"), gets his shrift shortened. Grove V explains that he expected a minimum of intellectual effort from his audiences and failed to write a successful opera because he was unwilling to "speak of his own emotional life: to exhibit naked feeling appeared as a breach of etiquette." Mild-mannered Cyclopedist Blom, 66, also sharpened up his donnish ax on the Queen's English and "made war" on certain usages that irked him. Among the casualties: GLISSANDO, which Blom calls a "mock-turtle with a French head and an Italian tail . . . unfortunately used by composers anywhere but in Italy," and TONE (used for "note" in twelve-tone music), which "has been accepted in America," says Grove V severely, "but must not be allowed to impose itself on the English language." Grove V "aims at being encyclopedic and universal," writes Blom. It shows the expanding universe of music: the ever-increasing number of musicians, the broadening audience, the hints of new kinds of music that may be heard in the future.

The work's 8,350,000 words cover just about every aspect of music's history, creation and performance. Rather ironically, one word is too big for even Grove's to define. The word: MUSIC.

-*Substantially as planned and edited by Sir George Grove (1820-1900), London civil engineer, biblical scholar and Zin Arthur music commentator, who was secretary of the Crystal Palace and first director of the Royal College of Music. -- And sometimes quaint. Samples: "Charles,? ('Mr. Charles') b. ?, d. ?. Prob. Hungarian 18th-century horn player and clarinettist. He is a shadowy but important figure, since he was the first named performer on the clarinet in the British Isles." "ZUFFOLO. In modern Italian, the name for the tin whistle. [There is] no reason for concluding, as some have done, that [the] zuffolo was a small shawm."

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