New Dictionary

Waldo Selden Pratt, musical editor of the Century Dictionary, has brought out a 1,000-page New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians*. This book was originally planned as a one-volume abridgment of Grove's famed six-volume Dictionary of Music and Musicians. But to condense 6,000 pages into 1,000 was found to be impracticable. Therefore, a fresh scheme was worked out. The result is fortunate. The new encyclopedia is divided into: Part One, technical definitions and descriptions ; Part Two, biographies of persons connected with music since the year 1770--with an appendix including persons before 1770; Part Three, places, musical institutions and organizations.

Parts One and Two are necessarily brief and compact. But Part Three is a unique and happy experiment. Here are listed about 235 places, together with the various musical enterprises connected with them--a sort of musical geography wherein is to be found much matter not available in any other single place.

The book, well printed, is supplied with 16 plates by way of illustration. But one is unable to discover just why, out of all musicians who might have been honored by the inclusion of their portraits, just these six should have been shown: Leopold Auer, Percy Goetschius, d'lndy, Hugo Reimann, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams. But this is a minor criticism, and does not affect the undoubted value of the work as a whole.

*Macmillan ($6.00).