Get into the Grove

By Andy Hughes

MUSIC enthusiasts across the globe are desperate to get their hands on the latest edition of the New Grove Dictionary Of Music and Musicians, Second Edition. They have been waiting over 20 years for this publication to be updated.

Sir George Grove published the original dictionary in four volumes between 1879 ands 1889. There were three more updates, ending in 1954, before the New Grove Dictionary was published in 20 volumes in 1980.

For the 2001 edition, the volume length has increased to 29, with nearly 6,000 of the 29,500 articles being new additions. The 20,000 composer and performer biographies include 2,000 new entries, along with 10,000 cross-references and 5,000 illustrations.

Groves is a work of staggering complexity and range, but it is aimed fairly and squarely at the 'classical' market. An object search for The Spice Girls will yield 500 different categories, none of which refer to the girl-power specialists themselves. And, asking for a definition of 'rap' is likely to be a little wide, encompassing as it does, Pat Boone and Pink Floyd.

If you are still interested, all this information doesn't come cheap, at 2,950. Also, cash is not the only requirement needed to get your hands on a copy: you will also need 1.45m of shelf space and your shelves will need to supoort 68kgs (that's about 10 stone).

To make things easier the publication is available online for a slightly more manageable 900 per year for three concurrent subscribers, and the added and indispensable bonus of quarterly updates.

As time passes, the gap between the static printed version and the online version will inevitably widen, and Grove is not expected to publish another print version.