Editor’s Foreword - Jon Woronoff
Preface
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Chronology
Introduction
The Dictionary
Bibliography
About the Author
Nicole V. Gagné is the co-author of Soundpieces: Interviews With American Composers and the author of Sonic Transports: New Frontiers In Our Music and Soundpieces 2: Interviews With American Composers.
Composer Gagné has been writing on the topic of modern and
contemporary classical music for about three decades. Her
dictionary focuses on composers of and, occasionally, the musicians
performing, concert music during the 19th and 20th centuries. It
consists primarily of an alphabetical listing of almost 400 people
and topics and lacks a table of contents that would alert readers
to other, smaller sections. These include a key to acronyms and
abbreviations, a chronology, and a useful introduction that defines
modern and contemporary classical music and describes “how
techniques and technology interacted with the art."... The
bibliography begins with a table of contents and an introduction
that suggests several seminal books on broad topics, essential
writings by composers, and books about composers and compositional
analysis. It is divided into sections by composer and by format
(e.g., books, journals, and websites about individual composers,
multiple composers, and organizations). BOTTOM LINE This dictionary
will be an excellent and useful addition to high school and college
libraries as well as to the collections of modern classical music
aficionados.
*Library Journal*
When most people think of classical music, they summon up images of
tinkly baroque or sweeping Romantic music. Relatively few
instinctively go for the dissonance, polyrhythm, and atonality of
the modernist movement, still fewer for the minimalism, multimedia,
and free improvisation movements that are hallmarks of
postmodernism. The Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary
Classical Music focuses on these movements worldwide, from 1890 to
the present. Included are pop, jazz, and rock composers and
musicians whose work overlaps classical music or is radical enough
in its own field to merit inclusion.The lengthy introductory essay
provides a comprehensive introduction to the field, covering not
just the movements, composers, and musicians but methods, styles,
and media peculiar to modern and contemporary music. A detailed
chronology sets the stage, beginning in 1890 with Satie and Debussy
and ending in 2010 with Tyranny’s Scriabin’s Chord—surely a broad
swath—encompassing works by Sun Ra, Frank Zappa, and the Beatles.
The more than 400 alphabetically organized entries are brief but
informative, running from a paragraph for lesser-known composers
(e.g., Ursula Oppens) to two pages for movements (e.g.,
Postmodernism). The writing style is smooth and engaging,
informative without being belabored. Cross-references are noted
within entries by bold type, and see also references end the
entries. The organizational structure and cross-referencing work
well in lieu of an index. A long bibliography is extensive enough
to need its own table of contents and is organized by categories
covering print works of general interest, histories, individual and
multiple composers, and interviews. There are separate sections for
journals and reviews as well as websites. Virtually alone in its
field, where many competing works are more specialized or narrowly
focused, the Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Music
provides a good starting point for those seeking to understand a
somewhat esoteric field. A sound purchase for large public and
academic libraries.
*Booklist*
Primarily biographical, this concise dictionary for music of the
20th and early 21st centuries describes 350 composers and
performers; the author contributes 400 dictionary entries, many of
which present styles or instruments. Composers known at the turn of
the 20th century are covered only if their music and ideas were
futuristic; also included are composers of jazz and popular songs
who overlapped into concert music (e.g., Ornette Coleman). Gagné
(independent scholar) presents a wide array of international
musicians, including those that are exclusively performers
(orchestras, singers, instrumentalists). A chronology from 1890 to
2010 lists major works. The introduction presents a concise history
of modern music, and identifies several composers and titles of the
various styles (harmonic, rhythmic, timbral) that became
20th-century music. This dictionary introduces many terms not
present in previous works, such as "Extended Performance
Techniques." It also divides terms into multiple entries with more
details; e.g., "Aleatory" music is supplemented by "Chance," "Open
Form," "Indeterminacy," and "Elastic Form." Extensive
bibliographies conclude the dictionary. Boldface font for
references helps users relate various composers to each other,
their styles, and their genres. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and
upper-level undergraduates.
*CHOICE*
This book is a handy reference tool for students and researchers
who need basic information about modern and contemporary classical
music and musicians, both famous and obscure....Gagné’s Historical
Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music is
recommended for research libraries or libraries that serve
ambitious undergraduates. It is an extensive, easy-to-use
dictionary that provides quick reference to numerous topics and can
serve as a spring- board for further investigation.
*Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association*
The dictionary provides basic information about each topic (e.g.,
methods, styles, and techniques), with bolded cross-references in
each entry. The emphasis on biographical fact, not music criticism,
provides in a nutshell the essence of the contribution of the
composer to the development of twentieth-century music. The entries
do not include a complete work list, rather just those works that
the compiler deemed the most representative, important, or
well-known. Some entries are also followed by a list of
cross-references. The 57-page bibliography is comprehensive and
well organized; it is particularly outstanding in the number and
quality of print and Web resources for individual composers. The
dictionary is preceded by an introduction that sets the framework
for the historical development of the period and by a useful
chronology, which even includes occasionally premiere dates for the
works tracked. The work is commendable for its coverage of women,
minority, and international figures as well as the inclusion of
performers in the related fields of jazz, pop, and rock, like Duke
Ellington and the Beatles, whose influence impacted the realm of
classical music. This dictionary is an appropriate addition to both
public and academic music reference collections as an introduction
to the composers and movements for the general public and
undergraduates as well as a jumping-off resource for further
investigation.
*American Reference Books Annual*
Such a well-produced and authoritative book is the newly-published
Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music by
Nicole Gagné from Scarecrow Press. It is indeed far more than an
excellent dictionary of modern composers and music – although it is
those too. It amounts to a perceptive and ultimately very creative
assessment not only of how "classical" music (with all its many
influences) has developed since the 1890's; of who has played which
roles; where have been the developments, major and minor; in which
contexts; but – significantly also – why music has developed as it
has. How it has happened that music has made the progress which it
has; how the slices of these changes fit and clash, bend and
sprint.
*Classical Net*
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