So often, in the orchestra, I have faced confusion. Having a dictionary at hand, is an immediate aid, if not the remedy itself. For example, so often the differences in names can throw one down a loop: "The American nomenclature of whole-note, quarter-note, eighth-note, measure, etc. has been preferred to the English semibreve, crotchet, quaver, bar, etc. as being more logical and of greater help to the student." Nice to know!

The entries are professional, avoiding controversy, which is always controversial. The Beatles, we recall, broke up in 1967. It's wonderful to flip through the memories; so many improbable things keep occurring.

"Wagner" is lionized as one of few who transformed the art, while also pointing out that he is himself a "musical dead-end". I think the Dictionary misses the point of the womanizing, and the outright theft of property from Jewish musicians. While Wagner was dead fifty years before Hitler's puppet-Reich, the fascist plutocrats who subsidized both remain some of the wealthiest families of Europe. Based on theft.

The dictionary mentions the outright theft and cooperation of Carl Orf, who was happy to steal from Mendelsohnn and rewrite-re-compose the work of oppressed genius to make it Judenfrei. The professionalism of the dictionariat comes through with the entries on Wagner's grandsons and Schoenberg. Why does lieder bring us to tears? Here is a Reference tool thick enough to absorb the salt.

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