Scan 6
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1911
8 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1PREFACE
3The project of this volume, when proposed by The Macmillan Company to the Editor whom they had selected, was finally taken up by him only with great hesitation, not because an American Supplement to the existing five volumes of Grove's famous Dictionary of Music and Musicians was not most desirable, but because of the inherent difficulties in the problem of making it satisfactory. After prolonged consultation the working-plan adopted was recognized as not so much a 'counsel of perfection' as a frank adjustment of ideals to what was practical within the limits of time, space and scope proposed.
5In view of the fact that a work of this sort is essentially historical, an unusual arrangement of the material was at length devised as useful in this particular case. The volume is laid out in two distinct divisions, the one interlocking more or less with the other. The first division consists of a compact Historical Introduction, surveying the unique environment of music in America and certain peculiarities in its development, combined period by period with a Chronological Register, indicating those workers who seem representative of the spirit and effort of the successive stages of progress. The second division, which is much larger, consists of specific descriptive articles about leading individuals, organizations, institutions and interests, arranged in the customary alphabetical order. In this division, also, a great number of the names mentioned elsewhere are catalogued for ease of reference.
7It is believed that this twofold presentation, though involving some duplication, has definite advantages. The Introduction is not in any sense a formal history of American music as such, yet it provides a sketch of the historic framework, of both external circumstances and of internal tendencies, upon which alone such a history can properly be modeled. In connection with this the Register affords opportunity for brief reference to some 1700 persons, representing a variety of interests, some of whom have not often been remembered or even catalogued. The descriptive articles in the main body of the Dictionary then take up about 700 of these persons for more particular treatment, often with extensive lists of their works, and also give a vast amount of information about numerous enterprises of a general or corporate nature. The aim throughout the entire volume is to present as many facts as possible in the clearest manner, so as to make them accessible for reference, but to avoid the expression of critical opinions except in general terms or in quoted form.
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