The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary

Encyclopedic dictionary

An encyclopedic dictionary typically includes a large number of short listings, arranged alphabetically, and discussing a wide range of topics. Encyclopedic dictionaries can be general, containing articles on topics in many different fields; or they can specialize in a particular field...

 of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart

Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart

Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart is the largest and most comprehensive German music encyclopedia, and among Western music reference sources, only the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is comparable to it in size and scope...

, it is the largest single reference work on Western music. The dictionary has gone through several editions since the 19th century and is widely used. In recent years it has been made available as an electronic resource.
It was first published as A Dictionary of Music and Musicians in four volumes (1878, 1880, 1883, 1890) edited by Sir George Grove

George Grove

Sir George Grove, CB was an English writer on music, known as the founding editor of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians....

 with an Appendix edited by J. A. Fuller Maitland

John Alexander Fuller Maitland

John Alexander Fuller Maitland was an influential British music critic and scholar from the 1880s to the 1920s. He encouraged the rediscovery of English music of the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly Henry Purcell's music and English virginal music...

 and an Index edited by Mrs.