Musical Achievement Research Articles

Effects of Practice Schedule on Wind Instrument Performance: A Preliminary Application of a Motor Learning Principle

The effects of three practice schedules on beginning instrumental achievement were explored. A total of 19 seventh-grade clarinet and saxophone students completed one 18-minute practice session using either a blocked schedule causing a low level of cognitive (contextual) interference, a hybrid schedule causing a moderate level of interference, or a serial schedule causing a high level of interference. No main effects were found at immediate acquisition testing or 24-hr delayed retention testing for technical accuracy, attitude toward practice, or musicality. A significant practice Condition × Trial interaction was found for musicality. The discussion examines the discrepancy between technical and musical achievement. Recommendations are given for future research applying motor learning principles to instrumental music contexts.

Perceived effects of the Master of Music in music education on P—12 teaching practice

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher perceptions ( N = 9) of the effect of the Master of Music (MM) in Music Education degree on teaching practice and student (P—12) achievement. Research questions included: (1) How do graduates discuss the connections between their teaching practices and their coursework? (2) What changes in P—12 musical achievement do they perceive may be effects of graduate education? Data sources included: an online survey, participant journals, and individual interviews. All data sets were reviewed and coded for common themes. Findings suggest that participants discussed music performance, connecting research with practice, and a ‘re-interaction’ with undergraduate content as they drew connections between their MM studies and teaching practice. Participants did believe there was a relationship between the graduate degree and student achievement; however, they were unable to pinpoint a direct link. We also discuss: (1) the thesis or exam as a powerful connection between coursework and teaching practice; (2) the value of the community of learners in a MM program; and (3) questions regarding the development of an identity as a teacher/scholar.

Commentary: The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking already overcome many of the perceived weaknesses that Silvia et al.'s (2008) methods are intended to correct.

Silvia et al.’s (2008) primary motivations for exploring and proposing their subjective scoring method are their perceived deficiencies of current divergent thinking tests. First, scores on divergent thinking tests frequently correlate highly with general intelligence. Second, the scoring of divergent thinking tests has changed little since the 1960s. Third, the necessity of instructing people to be creative prior to taking divergent thinking tests is integral to obtaining useful responses and needs to be reaffirmed. Fourth, and finally, the problems posed by uniqueness scoring— confounding with fluency, ambiguity of rarity, and the seeming “penalty” imposed on large samples—that need to be addressed. First, Kim’s (2005) meta-analysis indicated that the relationship between divergent thinking test scores and IQ (r .17) is negligible, which supports the underlying belief that creativity and intelligence are separate constructs. According to Kim’s (in press) meta-analysis, divergent thinking test scores predict creative achievement (r .22) better than IQ (r .17). Further, 51.8% of the 274 correlation coefficients incorporated in the study used the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT; Torrance, 1996), and the TTCT predicted (r .33, p .0001) creative achievement better than other measures of creative potential (e.g., Wallach & Kogan Divergent Thinking Tasks [Wallach & Kogan, 1965], Guilford Divergent Thinking Tasks [Guilford, 1967], Sounds and Images [Torrance, Khatena, & Cunnington, 1973], Word Association Tests [Gough, 1976], etc.). In this meta-analysis, art, music, writing, science (including mathematics, medicine, and engineering), leadership, and social skills were used to measure creative achievement. Among these different types of creative achievement, musical achievement was predicted better by IQ than by measures of creative potential, whereas art, science, writing, and social skills were predicted by measures of creative potential better than by IQ. This finding suggests that creativity test scores account for more

Serbian music criticism in the first half of the twentieth century: Its canon, its method and its educational role

Serbian music criticism became a subject of professional music critics at the beginning of the twentieth century, after being developed by music amateurs throughout the whole previous century. The Serbian Literary Magazine (1901- 1914, 1920-1941), the forum of the Serbian modernist writers in the early 1900s, had a crucial role in shaping the Serbian music criticism and essayistics of the modern era. The Serbian elite musicians wrote for the SLM and therefore it reflects the most important issues of the early twentieth century Serbian music. The SLM undertook the mission of educating its readers. The music culture of the Serbian public was only recently developed. The public needed an introduction into the most important features of the European music, as well as developing its own taste in music. This paper deals with two aspects of the music criticism in the SLM, in view of its educational role: the problem of virtuosity and the method used by music critics in this magazine. The aesthetic canon of the SLM was marked by decisively negative attitude towards the virtuosity. Mainly concerned by educating the Serbian music public in the spirit of the highest music achievements in Europe, the music writers of the SLM criticized both domestic and foreign performers who favoured virtuosity over the 'essence' of music. Therefore, Niccol? Paganini, Franz Liszt, and even Peter Tchaikowsky with his Violin concerto became the subject of the magazine's criticism. However their attitude towards the interpreters with both musicality and virtuoso technique was always positive. That was evident in the writings on Jan Kubel?k. This educational mission also had its effect on the structure of critique writings in the SLM. In their wish to inform the Serbian public on the European music (which they did very professionally), the critics gave much more information on biographies, bibliographies and style of the European composers, than they valued the interpretation itself. That was by far the weakest aspect of music criticism in the SLM. Although the music criticism in the SLM was professional and analytic one, it often used the literary style and sometimes even profane expressions in describing the artistic value and performance, more than it was necessary for the genre of music criticism. The music critics of the SLM set high aesthetic standards before the Serbian music public, and therefore the virtuosity was rejected by them. At the same time, these highly professional critics did not possess a certain level of introspection that would allow them to abstain from using sometimes empty and unconvincing phrases instead of exact formulations suitable for the professional music criticism. In that respect, music critics in the SLM did not match the standards they themselves set before both the performers and the public in Serbia.

MISC-MUSIC: a music program to enhance cognitive processing among children with learning difficulties

Research findings confirm positive links between music education, scholastic achievement, and social adaptability, especially among at-risk and special needs children. However, few studies explain how this process occurs. This article presents a didactic approach, which suggests practical ways of enhancing general learning skills while teaching music. Conducted with young children with severe learning difficulties aged 4—10, the MISC-MUSIC (More Intelligent and Sensitive, or Socially Compliant Children) program (Klein, 1996) interconnects the following three components: (1) the content of the music lessons; (2) the creation of educational frameworks that nurture quality, active teacher—child interactions (mediated learning environments), and (3) the choice of relevant, general learning skills (cognitive functions) to be fostered during the music lesson. The article explains the theoretic premises of MISC-MUSIC, cites examples of how this approach was implemented, and reflects on the effectiveness of the program.

Establishing Continuity of the NAEP Arts Education Assessments: Implications of the NAEP 1978 Music Assessment

Currently, a wide variety of assessment instruments are utilized in education; some focus on specific individuals, others consider large populations. National Assessment of Educational Progress (hereafter referred as NAEP) represents latter. Since its inception in 1969 NAEP has assessed many subject areas, including music on three different occasions: 1971 and 1978 NAEP Music Assessments, and 1997 NAEP Arts Education Assessment. (1) Research literature and studies exist for all three assessments, including a variety of publications generated by NAEP itself. Literature pertaining 1971 Music Assessment (also referred as first assessment) includes assessment instrument formation and design, (2) procedures and methods, (3) and assessment results. (4) Literature germane 1978 assessment (also referred as second assessment) is extremely sparse, which also reflects a decline in number of NAEP-produced reports. In one of few sources not produced by NAEP, Bass provided a summary account in 1982 of second assessment, along with some general results. (5) Numerous sources relate NAEP 1997 Arts Education Assessment (also referred as third assessment). Some offer descriptions of NAEP's importance for arts educators, and how arts educators can interpret and utilize results. (6) In several articles Lehman discusses NAEP's design aspects, contribution assessment methodology, and offers suggestions on how music education profession should respond results of third assessment.7Some authors have expressed concern and perceived problems with design and/or methodology of third assessment, (8) while others concentrated only on results. (9) Few sources discuss more than one of assessments. However, Mark offered a comparison of first two assessments by summarizing methodologies, listing objectives, and discussing results. He also provided insight into utilization of NAEP reports, saying: The information in National Assessment reports was of great potential value music education profession, but actually had little influence on practices.... There was less publicity about second assessment and relatively little public feedback. (10) Sims suggested music educators pay closer attention NAEP, since it can be a vehicle for implementing local assessments, measuring progress toward National Standards, and increasing public awareness and advocacy. (11) During its formative years, NAEP's authors hoped it would serve as a model for other types of assessment, not just in large-scale settings, but also in local classrooms. Haertel and Mullis believed it was natural for educators look toward NAEP as a model for their own assessment programs. However, they maintained that exercises should be modified before they are used for local purposes. (12) Inspired by creation and adoption of National Standards and impending third NAEP Assessment, Niebur compared implementation and utilization of standards and assessment practices in four general music classrooms. (13) Perhaps best application of NAEP assessment design and result data actual classrooms is research of Sietsema, who took released exercises from second music assessment and replicated them on a local population. When compared NAEP results, students in Sietsema's study scored slightly higher in several cognitive areas. (14) Since primary purpose of NAEP is to reflect current educational and assessment practices, and measure change reliably over time, (15) existence of three NAEP Music Assessments would seem provide a unique opportunity compare educational practice and change in music achievement across a twenty-six--year span. However, comparison potential among three assessments is limited at best, especially given restricted scope of 1978 Music Assessment and, the considerable changes in nature of 1997 assessment, based on . …

The Life Space: A Framework and Method to Describe the Individual's External Traits

A revised measure of the Life Space with a large sample ( N = 1021) of university undergraduates was developed. The Life Space divides the external environment into four domains, which broadly encompass a person's bio-logical foundations, owned possessions, daily interactions and activities, and group memberships. Factor analysis of over 1000 items divided among each domain resulted in 96 factor-based scales that provided a rich description of college students' personal surroundings and everyday behavior. A 2nd-order factor analysis of the primary scales resulted in seven global dimensions that replicate and expand upon prior research in the area: Positive and Social Orientation, Sports Orientation, Drug Culture Environment, Music and Arts Achievement, Media Consumer, Negative and Unhealthy Lifestyle, and Intellectual Pursuits. The Life Space scales also were examined for gender differences and associations with social desirability response bias. The discussion focuses on the value of a more detailed and comprehensive approach to studying personality within the context of the external systems that surround the person.

Self-evaluation, creativity, and musical achievement

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between students’ self-assessments of their musical compositions and experts’ assessments. College students ( N = 54) who were enrolled in a music fundamentals course for elementary education students participated in this study. Each student completed three composition-performance assignments using a soprano recorder. Upon completing each assignment, students were asked to self-administer controlling and informational feedback. The third set of compositions was used as a measure of the students’ compositional creativity. Independent judges reached acceptable levels of agreement in assessing compositional creativity and other dimensions allowing students to be placed into high-, middle-, and low-creativity groups. The students’ informational feedback was analyzed and classified. Chi-square analyses of the students’ informational feedback yielded statistically significant differences among the three creativity groups. Students in the high- and middle-creativity groups were more likely to cite experimentation and express optimism than students in the low creativity group ( p < .05); the high- and middle-creativity groups were also more likely to cite eight or more factors in their self-assessments ( p < .001). Students in the high-creativity group were more likely to employ an expressive intent in their title and engage in critical analyses than students in the middle- and low-creativity groups ( p < .05). There was no significant correlation between the judges’ evaluations and the students’ controlling feedback.

Quantifying Tone Deafness in the General Population

Many people reach adulthood without acquiring significant music performance skills (singing or instrumental playing). A substantial proportion of these adults consider that this has come about because they are "not musical." Some of these people may be "true" congenital amusics, characterized by specific and substantial anomalies in the processing of musical pitch and rhythm sequences, while at the same time displaying normal processing of speech and language. It is likely, however, that many adults who believe that they are unmusical are neurologically normal. We could call these adults "false" amusics. Acquisition of musical competence has multiple personal, social, and environmental precursors. Deficiencies in these areas may lead to lack of musical achievement, despite the fact that an individual possesses the necessary underlying capacities. Adults may therefore self-define as "unmusical" or "tone-deaf" for reasons unconnected to any underlying anomaly. This paper reports on two linked research studies. The first is an interview study with adults defining themselves as tone-deaf or unmusical. The interview schedule was designed to discover what criteria are being used in their self-definitions. Preliminary results suggest that performance criteria (e.g., judging oneself as unable to sing) play a major role, even for people who claim and demonstrate no perceptual deficits. The second study reports progress on the development of new subtests for a revised version of the Montreal Battery for the Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA, Peretz et al., 2003). This currently contains six tests that allow for the assessment of melodic perception: contour, intervals, scale, rhythm, meter, and recognition memory. The MBEA does not assess two capacities that are generally accepted as central to normal music cognition: harmony and emotion. The development and norming of the emotion subtest will be described. When completed, the MBEA(R) will form a robust screening device for use with the general population, whose purpose is to discriminate "true" from "false" amusics. Such discrimination is essential to achieve a better understanding of the variety of causes of low musical achievement.

Musical Aptitude Versus Academic Ability as a Predictor of Beginning Instrumental Music Achievement and Retention: Research and Implications

Musical Aptitude Versus Academic Ability as a Predictor of Beginning Instrumental Music Achievement and Retention: Research and Implications

The Development of Talent in Young Adults with Williams Syndrome: An Exploratory Study of Ecological Influences

This mixed methods study employed comparative, case‐study methodology to explore influences affecting the development of musical interests and achievements in eight female and eight male young adults with Williams Syndrome. Components of the “Schoolwide Enrichment Model” (Renzulli & Reis, 1997b) were used to guide the study. Caregivers completed telephone interviews and checklists from their homes and participants completed a range of interviews and questionnaires while attending a 10‐day, music, talent development program. Results indicated influences, identified through the ecological model, constructivism and behaviourism that influenced the development of supportive, inclusive school communities that may have affected the development of the participants and their musical potential.

Chinese and American Music Majors: Cross-Cultural Comparisons in Motivation and Strategies for Learning and Studying

North American, European and Australian music schools, departments and conservatories actively recruit talented music students from Asia. Stereotyped by some music faculties as "model international students", Asian students are typically viewed as highly talented, incredibly diligent, and extremely hard working. However, another image, as reported in surveys of University faculty, depicts the Asian learner as a rote learner. Utilising Bigg's (1987) Study Process Questiontnaire (SPQ), this study examines these assumptions by comparing motives for learning and cognitive strategies of 335 American and Chinese music students. The SPQ, a 42-item, self-report questionnaire, is often used in cross-cultural comparisons of university students' approaches to learning. While it was found that on most aspects of the SPQ, American and Asian music students are similar in terms of their depth of involvement and dedication to music study and musical achievement, findings reveal that the American students show a greater tendency to rely on extrinsic motivation and greater reliance on rote learning approach as compared to Chinese music students.

The Factors Affecting Musical Learning of Undergraduate Non-music Majors

This study is an attempt to understand the relationship between musical achievement and learning-relevant variables in the young adult beginner in learning how to play the piano as a basis towards improving college-level beginning piano teaching. To examine the factors affecting the musical development of the young adult beginner, 20 undergraduate non-music majors (18-22 years) were observed. The 10-week instructional period consisted of two 40-minute lessons per week, taught by the researcher, on a one-to-one basis. The researcher designed the instructional programme and measurement tool used to teach and observe each type of three musical achievements (keyboard fluency, music reading, and interpretation) independently. No evidence was found in support of stereotypical assumptions in the beginning piano study-related literature that the young adults have problems related to physical capacity in the acquisition of technique. It was found that learning-related characteristics in the class (motivation to learn, learning attitude and emotional factors) played an important role in the development of keyboard fluency compared with selection variables (physical capacity, intelligence and musical background). In addition, it appears that intelligence was significantly correlated with music reading, and musical background was substantially associated with interpretation. These findings indicate that the teacher should provide mixed materials, cognitive and affective experience according to the nature of learning.

The Measurement of Student Achievement in Music Using a Rasch Measurement Model

This paper explains the making of an objective measure of music achievement for students in Western Australian government schools. Forty-five music achievement tasks were developed to reflect exemplary classroom practice for three levels of music achievement. The tasks included analysis and process type questions relating to listening and appreciating, identifying music aspects and performance, with some linked tasks across levels, to enable the tasks (items) for the three levels to be calibrated on the same continuum. The sample consisted of students from Years 3, 7, and 10. The tasks were placed onto a continuum of student achievement which was matched to a standards framework based on Student outcome statements: The Arts. A Rasch measurement model was used to create a music achievement scale and transform student raw scores into achievement estimates and item difficulties on the same scale, with a computer program called RUMM.

Music Teachers' Role in Preparing Students for Live Symphonic Experiences

This study investigated the effect of varying the extent of music teacher involvement and training with concert-related instructional materials on student achievement and interest in music following live symphonic experiences. Three hundred and ninety-two middle school students were randomly assigned to one of six music teachers for the purposes of receiving pre-concert instruction. These six music teachers were randomly assigned to one of three different levels of involvement and training relative to the development and use of pre-concert instructional materials. Steps were taken to minimize teacher differences confounding with teacher involvement and training. There were no significant differences in music achievement or interest scores among middle school subjects based on the extent of their music teacher's involvement and training with pre-concert instructional materials. Based on this study, there are no benefits, specifically in terms of student achievement or interest, in music teachers having a high degree of involvement or training with concert-related instructional materials. Future researchers may wish to examine possible affective benefits when music teachers are involved in the design of and training with concert-related instructional materials.

The Delights and Dilemmas of the Musically Talented Teenager

The profiles of musically talented teenagers include the self-taught jazz or pop musicians who easily compose and perform in professional-like settings, as well as the deftly trained classical performers who have experienced numerous competitions and study with a master teacher. Effective identification and programming for these musically talented students presents a healthy challenge to gifted education. The gifted field's renewed focus on artistic talent development will require an examination of differentiated curricular choices that can uniquely serve the needs of musically talented students. This article presents an overview of the different phases of musical talent development, focusing on the intermediate to advanced phases which usually coincide with secondary school. Aspects of talent development that occur beyond the school walls need to be understood and considered in developing differentiated curriculum for these students. This includes the essential role of parent, private teacher, and practice in the development of musical talent. Dilemmas facing the musical teenager may include competition-oriented instruction that does not allow interpretive exploration; the problem of time management for both advanced musical study and academic achievement; and the difficulty of finding challenging experiences to nurture their talent within the school curriculum. Recommended ways to differentiate curriculum include: student designed independent study contracts connecting the school with community resources such as private music teachers; interdisciplinary options linking music with academics or other arts; and musical coursework that extends beyond performance.

Cathy's homecoming and the Other world: Kate Bush's ‘Wuthering Heights’

Curiosity value quite possibly accounted for the success of Kate Bush's first single in 1978. Those who have continued to admire her more particularly for her later musical achievements, which have surely consolidated her position as one of the most individual and innovative artists of the 1980s and 1990s, do so possibly in spite of (rather than because of) the impact of ‘Wuthering Heights’. No other song of hers has had the same public appeal – it stayed in the British charts for seventy-five weeks (Rice 1991) – and perhaps the smaller group of admirers who remain loyal engage more with the intensely personal visions into which her lyrics have matured, as opposed to that first, more musically zany, original hit.

BOOK REVIEW: Bernard Benoliel.PARRY BEFOREJERUSALEM: STUDIES OF HIS LIFE AND MUSIC WITH EXCERPTS FROM HIS PUBLISHED WRITINGS.Aldershot and Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1997.

Reviewed by: Parry Before Jerusalem: Studies of His Life and Music with Excerpts from His Published Writings Nigel Burton (bio) Parry Before Jerusalem: Studies of His Life and Music with Excerpts from His Published Writings, by Bernard Benoliel; pp. x + 233. Aldershot and Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1997, £49.95, $84.95. E. J. Dent once wrote of Sir Hubert Parry: “He differs from all other historians of music in that he approached musical history as a composer” (qtd. 177). Herein precisely lies the strength of the present volume: Bernard Benoliel has consistently adopted the composer’s standpoint in assessing Parry’s musical achievements. Thus one ignores the tiny flaws (the missed full stops, quotes without footnotes, and musical examples without tempo markings) as one is swept along in the maelstrom of the author’s passionate enthusiasm for his eponymous hero, and buoyed up by his shrewd and perceptive critical judgements. Parry was an artistic polymath, and to estimate his stature in the history of British music is no easy task. Benoliel makes the point that he was a Victorian through and through, despite his distrust of the upper classes (of which he was a member), his radical politics, and his “avid agnosticism” (4). As a man, he really was the near-saint that his pupils at the Royal College of Music made him out to be; yet “for all [his] many-faceted gifts—his warmth, generosity, [and] exalted nobility of feeling—he lacked the heart of darkness necessary to create tragic art” (68). Therein lies the root of the problem, for Benoliel is right in saying that if Parry now has any claim to immortality, it is on account of his compositions. Here, though, the author is in something of a cleft stick: he objectively and unsparingly identifies the causes of Parry’s limited powers, but subjectively cannot always accept them. Lavish praise is sometimes bestowed on music which is, frankly, ordinary; this is particularly true of the opening theme of the Piano Quartet in A flat (1879): the author calls it “a great tune” (43), adding that, with it “we hear for the first time since Purcell an authentic English voice” (41). This will not do, on two counts: firstly, the “great tune” turns out to be bowdlerized Robert Schumann, to which a coat of brown varnish from Johannes Brahms’s workshop has been applied; secondly, it takes no account of the many authentic native voices which existed in English music between 1695 and 1879. Benoliel takes this stance because he believes in the old shibboleth of the “English Musical Renaissance,” of which he calls Parry “the seminal creator” (116). This view—that Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford, and their followers were responsible for a sudden rebirth of British music from the 1880s onwards—is one that the perspective of time is failing to endorse. Evolution, not revolution, has been continual; it was this process which Parry enhanced (both as composer and musical historian), so that to claim he endowed British music with “a new vitality” (74) is just. Parry believed that the composer should be a public servant and moral instructor (Parry never needed to compose for money). As the author says, this was “not a wholly positive role-model for later English composers” (4). He makes a convincing case for concluding that Parry (subconsciously) “lacked love” (14), as a result of which he equated being solitary with being lonely. Here Benoliel the composer makes a vital point: solitude, for the artist, is sine qua non, since a precondition for “the [creative] process is concentrated self-removal from everyday life” (39). Moreover, Parry’s multiple duties did not permit enough time for dedicated composition, and he was scrupulously careful financially. The outcome was “a life that never focused around composition” (30). [End Page 556] Considering all this, it is perhaps remarkable that Parry the composer achieved as much as he did. Benoliel suggests that he was “capable of composing an effective opera” (36), but this seems highly unlikely, since Parry had little sense of the theatrical. Poetry was another matter, however; it always acted as an effective stimulus to his musical imagination, even though he believed (correctly) that “it...

Musical Talent and Individual Differences in Musical Achievement: A Reply to Gagne (1999)

Musical Talent and Individual Differences in Musical Achievement: A Reply to Gagne (1999)

The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music (review)

Reviews 229 through the less spectacular historical data that is her greatest strength. Drawing often fascinating results from legal and medical records, Berkin reconstructs the material conditions of women's lives; in the New England chapter, she describes the ways in which inheritance laws codified the dependency of widows and extended the responsibilities of motherhood not only to fathers but to the community at large. While this collective women's history is only tenuously connected to Hannah Duston's individual one, Berkin's alternation between the two makes her work accessible both to mainstream audiences and to feminist scholars across the disciplines. More scholarly readers may be alienated, however, both by the sometimes gratuitous use of biographical hooks and by the timidity of Berkin's authorship. Some readers may also rightly object that by muting her own voice and trying somehow to write history without it, Berkin disregards the lessons of the theoretical traditions that explicitly inform her work. To look at history through the lenses of feminism and multiculturalism is to contest the idea that any history can be impartial. Yet Berkin paradoxically defends her prerogative to pursue a new version of the old objectivity, masking the partiality of her own position by pretending that she isn't taking one. As a result, she falls short of writing a compelling history and instead writes a competent one. Gloria Fisk Don Michael Randel, ed., The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 1996. 1,013 pp. $39.95 hardcover; ISBN 0-674-37299-9. The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (1986), edited by Don Randel, has been an invaluable reference work in many personal and public libraries for the last decade. Its six thousand concise, clearly worded articles on musical terms and subjects (many signed by the seventy scholars who contributed to the volume) have informed amateurs, students, and connoisseurs on subjects as complex as "música ficta" or "sonata form," or as diverse as the "rubäb" and "bitonality." And so, publication of Randel's companion volume The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music created pleasurable anticipation among the many who had found the earlier dictionary so indispensable. The new volume promises needed information on the lives and careers of "5,500 figures in the world of music—the major, the minor, the famous, the nearly forgotten, from Bach and Beethoven to Irving Berlin, Benny Goodman, and Bruce Springsteen," but focuses primarily on composers in the Western concert or art music tradition, with shorter pieces on performers (not to mention a few librettists and scholars) and numerous short biographies of jazz and popular musicians. There 230 Biography 21.2 (Spring 1998) are some notable omissions, like Whitney Houston and Antonio Carlos Jobim; still, 1,013 pages cannot include everyone. Specific criteria for inclusion or omission are not revealed; however, a welcome American emphasis, apparent in all categories, does emerge. A team of eighteen writers produced the biographies, but the articles are unsigned. Biographical dictionaries and encyclopedias customarily devote a greater amount of space to figures deemed central to the historical tradition. Using this measuring stick, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Handel, Haydn, Liszt, Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner take center stage— not surprising choices in view of the concert repertory and scholarly literature. In some of these essays (Mozart, for instance) biographical narrative is relatively short because of an extensive worklist and bibliography. Berlioz, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Schubert also rate substantial articles; among these, the Schoenberg article stands out for its particularly cogent discussion of his style and influence. In fact, many of the articles strongest in describing salient points of style and musical achievements are the moderate-length texts for masters of the twentieth century, like Charles Ives, Claude Debussy, Elliott Carter, and John Cage. All the major entries thoroughly survey the composer's life and career, but some shy away from a discussion of the musical style or historical influence. The preface does not explain why the two approaches appear, sometimes within articles of the same length or historical period; but since a general reader might well be someone unfamiliar with the styles and historical significance of any but the most central figures of...