Music
[The NEW " GROVE "] THE third edition of Grove's Dictionary will be published monthly up till next February. The first volume—" A to C," has already appeared, and gives us assurance that the four years of preparation and, careful supervision have been profit- ably employed. It is easy to be abundantly wise after such a prolonged event, as well as to point out minor errors, such as misprints (there are a number in this first volume) and omis- sions, and errors of judgment ; what is more difficult is to assess the precise' value of the renovated Grove and to foretell its period of usefulness.
The first edition had its being for twenty-five years ; the life of the second edition (of which Mr. J. A. Fuller Maitland was editor) extended to twenty-three years, of which the last four were nearly superfluous. Musical history is made far more rapidly at the present time, and in the immediate future will certainly be made even more rapidly ; so that if the life of the present dictionary extends to fifteen years, we shall be * Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Third Edition. Edited. by EL C. Colleo. - (Macmillan. 5 vols. Ms. each.)
able to look upon its attainment as a ripe and honourable old age. Certain articles, such as that by Mr. Fox-Strangways on Accent, that by the Editor on Chamber Music, and that by Dr. Percy Buck on Aesthetics, will still bear the stamp of authority even fifteen years hence ; others, such as those on Andre Caplet and Arthur Bliss for example, will doubtless stand in need of revision. This is not so much a reflection upon the authors as upon the subjects. It is good to see, however, that the articles upon contemporary composers (especially those by Edwin Evans and Eric Blom) have been written in a temperate frame of mind. The facts are set forth clearly, while the judgments are given with that reserve which is born of repeated experience. In the case of per- formers (especially living performers) the judgment is some- times too obviously coloured by social environment, and there are a number of appraisements which are by no means gener- ally accepted even now, and which will certainly fail to stand when the Dictionary is ten years old.
But where two hundred and fifty writers have been gathered together the achievement cannot be uniformly excellent. The surprise is that the average standard is so high, and that the Dictionary (the first volume, at least) is so homogeneous, without revealing the bias of any given school or movement. This is no less than what I should expect of Mr. Colles, who has influenced English musical criticism consistently and beneficially for a number of years. He is to be warmly congratulated upon his enlightened and fair-minded editor- ship, which has renewed the lease of this national institution and made it habitable once more, even to the extent of hanging twenty-four new coloured pictures upon the walls
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