A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/PrefaceInd
PREFACE.
Lest a Dictionary of articles arranged in alphabetical order should be thought to require no Index, it is necessary to remind readers of the Dictionary of Music and Musicians, not only that it makes mention of very many persons and things to which no separate articles are devoted, but also that with regard to names and subjects which have their own articles further information and illustration are supplied in other articles. Articles also occasionally occur out of the order of strict alphabetical sequence. The object, therefore, of the present Index is to enable readers to find with ease all the information which the Dictionary affords upon any specific point of inquiry or study.
A few remarks explanatory of details in the arrangement of the Index will facilitate its use.
1. When a heading in the Index is immediately followed by a reference to volume and page (as Aaron, P., i. 1a), the reader will understand that the heading has an article to itself in the Dictionary. Succeeding entries under the heading indicate other articles where it is spoken of; and "etc." appended to a reference signifies that the article contains further allusions to the heading. If, on the other hand, a heading is not immediately followed by a reference to volume and page (as Aalst J. A. van; Hist. of Mus., iv. 674b), the subject has no article of its own, but information about it may be gathered from the articles to which the entries point.
2. So many musicians have borne the same surnames, and there is so much uncertainty about their Christian names and initials that it is often impossible to identify them with precision, and thus perfect accuracy cannot be ensured in the indexing of names. But,—subject to the condition of invariably making the headings in the Index identical with headings of articles in all cases where there is a separate notice of a musician,—the rule observed in the present Index is to state Christian names or initials, whenever known, in the headings. In the entries Christian names and initials are not stated, except to avoid confusion when the same surname has been borne by more than one musician mentioned in the Dictionary. Where, however, one musician has been indisputably more eminent than all others of the same name, it has not been deemed necessary to insert his initials in the entries. Again, in cases where musicians are known under different names (as Genet, alias Il Carpentrasso), or their names are spelt in different ways (as Escobedo and Scobedo), cross-references are given in the Index, but the entries will be found under the most usual form of the name, subject, of course, to the above-mentioned condition of securing correspondence of headings in the Index with headings of articles. And this last observation equally applies to names with prefixes (as De Muris or Muris) and to double names (as Bourgault-Ducoudray).
3. With respect to the various Forms of music, it would be impossible to refer to all the composers who have employed them, without uselessly swelling the bulk of the Index. For instance, Beethoven wrote an Oratorio, but he made no special mark on the Oratorio form of music, and the article on Beethoven contains nothing of interest in regard to that form. Thus no good purpose would be served by a reference to Beethoven under the heading of Oratorio; but the names of Animuccia and Mendelssohn will be found under that heading, because the former wrote the first Oratorio, and in the article on the latter this form is instructively noticed. In short, as to Forms of music, references are only given in the Index to such articles as contain matter of interest respecting them.
4. It is hoped that the catalogue of articles contributed by the various writers will be of service.
To these explanatory remarks the undersigned would only add that she, is very sensible of the imperfections of the Index, but ventures to hope that it may be of some use in rendering the valuable information contained in the Dictionary more readily and fully accessible to students of music.
June, 1890.