Review by Booklist Review
Eighteen years after its first release, the editors have produced a new edition of Women in Music, which is five times as large. Again the focus is not on those involved in contemporary popular music; instead one will find classical composers and performers such as Sarah Caldwell, Jessye Norman, Shulamit Ran, and Wilhelmina Sophie Fredrike, as well as such jazz musicians as Billie Holiday and Marian McPartland. The book serves as an index to biographical sources. Biographical data in the book are limited to birth and death date and place, fields of musical specialization, and an occasional husband's name. This is followed by codes that refer to various encyclopedias, dictionaries, and collections of biographies and, for some musicians, references to newspaper obituaries. The indexed sources have grown in number from 48 to 167. They are mainly in English, but a handful are in European languages. The works range from such standards as the New Grove and Baker's to less common works such as Organ and Harpsichord Music by Women Composers. Besides the main access by name, an index by more than 120 specializations appends the set. These are taken from the biographical entries and vary from Flageolet Player to Light Opera Composers to Piano Teachers. The larger specialization lists may be broken down by century and country. This new edition of Women in Music offers far more information than the previous one. It is, however, a specialized work best suited to music libraries or large libraries with a strong music-biography reference collection. (Reviewed May 15, 1994)
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
