Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
Encyclopedia
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians is a biographical dictionary
of musician
s.
The first edition of Baker's, under the title A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, was published in 1900 by Theodore Baker
; it has since gone through nine editions.
The 5th edition of 1958, 8th edition of 1992, and 9th edition of 2001 were major rewrites and expansions. The 5th edition was rewritten by new editor Nicolas Slonimsky
, who would remain editor for several decades (through the 8th edition in 1992) and have a considerable influence on the style and content of the dictionary. In preparing the 5th edition, Slonimsky expanded the size of the work (to 1,855 pages), and undertook a thorough review of the existing entries, expending considerable effort verifying and correcting biographical details such as birth and death dates by reference to archival sources.
The 8th edition of 1992 revised 1,300 entries and added 1,100 new ones, coming to 2,115 pages, with an emphasis on expanding coverage of female and Asian musicians, multimedia composers, performance artists
, and ethnomusicologists
. The 9th edition of 2001, billed the "Centennial Edition", was the first not to be a single-volume work, taking up six volumes, partly due to expanded coverage and partly due to somewhat more generous formatting to improve readability. The 9th edition included a focus on increasing coverage of popular
and jazz music.
Biographical dictionary
Biographical dictionaries – a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information – have been written in many languages. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country...
of musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s.
The first edition of Baker's, under the title A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, was published in 1900 by Theodore Baker
Theodore Baker
Theodore Baker was an American musicologist.Born in New York, Baker studied business but turned to music as a career, becoming an organist in Concord, Massachusetts. In 1874 he moved to Germany and obtained his doctorate at Leipzig in 1882...
; it has since gone through nine editions.
The 5th edition of 1958, 8th edition of 1992, and 9th edition of 2001 were major rewrites and expansions. The 5th edition was rewritten by new editor Nicolas Slonimsky
Nicolas Slonimsky
Nicolas Slonimsky was a Russian born American composer, conductor, musician, music critic, lexicographer and author. He described himself as a "diaskeuast" ; "a reviser or interpolator."- Life :...
, who would remain editor for several decades (through the 8th edition in 1992) and have a considerable influence on the style and content of the dictionary. In preparing the 5th edition, Slonimsky expanded the size of the work (to 1,855 pages), and undertook a thorough review of the existing entries, expending considerable effort verifying and correcting biographical details such as birth and death dates by reference to archival sources.
The 8th edition of 1992 revised 1,300 entries and added 1,100 new ones, coming to 2,115 pages, with an emphasis on expanding coverage of female and Asian musicians, multimedia composers, performance artists
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, and ethnomusicologists
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
. The 9th edition of 2001, billed the "Centennial Edition", was the first not to be a single-volume work, taking up six volumes, partly due to expanded coverage and partly due to somewhat more generous formatting to improve readability. The 9th edition included a focus on increasing coverage of popular
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
and jazz music.
External links
- Fifth edition (1958) at archive.org, ed. Nicolas Slonimsky (scan and full text)
- Third edition (1919) at Google Books, ed. Theodore Baker and Alfred RemyAlfred RemyAlfred Remy, M.A. was an American philologist and writer on music, born at Elberfeld, Germany. He emigrated to the United States when he was very young. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1890 and from Columbia . He taught languages in several schools and was musical...
(scan) - Second edition (1905) at Google Books, ed. Theodore Baker (scan)
- First edition (1900) at archive.org, ed. Theodore Baker (scan and full text)