Dictionary of Composers and Their Music

Rating:
Summary: Helpful reference but imcomplete and flawed
Review: For a serious music listener, the knowledge of when and where a piece of music was composed is pretty useful because it helps the listener understand deeper the relationship between the music and its composer and the impact of the environment on the composer. However, there were not many works dealing with this issue. The efforts of the author did help bridge this appreciation gap. In the first part, the author listed the composers alphabetically, and under each composer his music was listed chronologically. Part two surveys the major pieces of music composed in the same year, thus giving the reader an impression of the contemporaries of the music. Timelines of the composers's lifetimes are displayed in part three to give an overview of the contemporaries of the composers.

Each part of the book is well designed and useful. However, there are some flaws in this book. As previous reviews pointed out, many composers were not fairly covered and no reason or criterion was given. Moreover, I feel the need that the author should make another listing for each composer that shows the chronological order of the compositions in the same style, for example symphonies, concertos, etc. Anyway, this book is still a valuable reference for every music lover.

Rating:
Summary: Biassed and no clear criteria for coverage of composers
Review: It is not only the exclusion of composers but the fact that there is no indication of the criteria used for including or excluding them or for the depth of coverage given. There is no way to infer why are ,for example , Don Gillis or the author himself given more than twice the coverage given to Mauro Giuliani, just to mention something that can be found from page 143 to 146. There are plenty of examples like this. There are 8 works by Mr Gilder, and less than a dozen works by George Philippe Teleman, none by Tartini, Giusepe Torelli or Johann Pachelbel...! I really felt disappointed with the recomendation of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Leaves out famous WOMEN composers
Review: When I discovered that at one point the LA Weekly was using this as their major music reference, I was shocked! I have the 1993 revised edition, and have SEARCHED for two names I would assume to be in the most basic biographical music dictionary written after 1965: Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn. And yes, I looked for Clara Wieck and Fanny Hensel--no luck. Oddly enough, Mr. Gilder did include Amy Beach and Thea Musgrave, both of whom definitely deserve this inclusion. Although I have not done a thorough survey, these are the only two women composers I found in the book.
We can only assume, from Mr. Gilder's apologetic preface, that he considers both Clara and Fanny's contributions to the "world's musical treasury...too inconsiderable to make them worthy of special mention." Given the ommission of these two composers, I was not surprised to see neither Hildegard von Bingen nor Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre. Mr. Gilder has, however, seen fit to include his own compositions.
I am not an ardent feminist out to make sure every woman composer who ever lived has representation in biographical dictionaries. I do think it irresponsible to NOT include two of the most famous, especially when both Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn are covered. Unlike Thea and Amy, the contributions of Clara and Fanny were always overshadowed by the music of their husband and brother, respectively. If this book garners any reputation as a reputable and reliable reference, that will continue to be the case. I see it is now out of print. I hope if another edition is published, these tremendous oversights will be remedied, amongst other issues already mentioned in other reviews.