The Classical Score

TRUE COMPANION: For nearly seven decades, The Oxford Companion to Music has played an important role in the lives of countless students and music lovers worldwide. Created single-handedly in 1938 by British musicologist Percy A. Scholes, the project sought to provide a comprehensive overview of music that was intended primarily for the layman. Scholes offered entries on an expansive range of topics, occasionally touched by a quirky, irreverent wit. After many updates, in 1983 editor Denis Arnold introduced The New Oxford Companion to Music, a two-volume edition that used multiple contributors and included extensive entries on popular music and non-Western musical traditions.

This month, a new edition of the venerable tome reaches bookstores, combining aspects of both previous editions. Overseen by critic/editor Alison Latham, the new book reverts to the single-volume format (at 1,400 pages, a little more than 600 pages fewer than its predecessor). Like Arnold, Latham employed numerous contributors. In returning to the original scale, however, Latham had to redefine the book's mission for a new generation that enjoys access to a greater variety of resources, not to mention the Internet.

"Oxford wanted me to reuse and revise as much of the Arnold edition as possible," Latham says. "But Arnold's edition included an enormous amount of articles on non-Western music. I decided it would be better to give priority to Western art music. This book really could be called 'The Oxford Companion to Western Classical Music.' "

Latham was able to rein in the book's scope due to the availability of academic courses and the bodies of literature devoted specifically to ethnomusicology and popular music that have arisen since the last edition.

"I included those topics inasmuch as they impinged on the general music lover's experience and interest but gave them rather less coverage," she explains. "Instead of a lengthy overview of gamelan music that explains modes, scales, and the differences between Balinese and Javanese traditions in minute detail, for example, the new edition provides a concise entry that provides basic information and a bibliography for further investigation—considerably more useful to a reader who encounters a passing reference to gamelan while studying Debussy."

Latham introduced a handy index of significant figures (musical and otherwise) who were mentioned in the text but did not merit an entry of their own, from Shakespeare to Eminem. As an additional space-saving measure, illustrations were largely omitted. Even so, her version of the companion includes more than 8,000 entries covering composers, performers, musical styles and terminology, instruments, and significant compositions, some 70% of which are new or completely rewritten. More extensive articles are devoted to the most prominent composers and topics, such as Mozart and opera. Broader social and historical relationships are also investigated, including "Women in Music," "Politics and Music," and "Music on the Internet."

Like many classical music resources that hail from England, The Oxford Companion to Music occasionally reveals a British slant. Though most of her contributors were British, Latham employed American and Canadian specialists to balance coverage. The guide covers a wide range of American subjects, including a useful explanation of minimalism and entries for such contemporary artists as Bang on a Can composers David Lang and Michael Gordon (though curiously, third partner Julia Wolfe is omitted).

When it came to covering pop music, Latham didn't have to look far for guidance. "I went to people who currently teach those subjects and asked their advice about updating," she says. "But living in [my] house is a bit like a Charles Ives-ian experience, because I've got three sons who all listen to different things." Brief entries include basic working definitions of such genres as salsa, grunge, and rap.

Also among her priorities was downplaying technical jargon and emphasizing clarity in the writing, a goal Latham achieved admirably. "I was determined that this book should not be a dictionary as such," she says. "Although it obviously has a lexographical function, I wanted it to be extremely readable, to make it useful both for students who need a reference book and also families who go to concerts or have CD collections. The spirit and tradition of The Oxford Companion is that it has a wide appeal."