Afro-American Singers; An Index and Preliminary Discography of Opera, Choral Music andSong by Patricia TurnerReview by: Doris Evans McGintyFontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 25, No. 4 (1978 Oktober-Dezember), pp. 416-417Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23505240 .

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416

Comptes-Rendus / Besprechungen / Reviews

Patricia Turner: Afro-American Singers; An Index and Preliminary Discography of Opera, Choral Music and Song. (Minneapolis: Challenge Productions, 1977). xvi, 255 p.

Patricia Turner, faculty member and librarian at the University of Minnesota, has combined her

interest in Afro-American singers with insight into the need for ready information on the subject to produce a highly useful volume. In the intro

duction motivation and purpose are clearly pre sented in the statement: "The fact is that the

American singer is not well-represented in book

discography. It is work that begs to be done be

fore many of the printed scores, persons know

ledgeable about what happened at the recording studio, and even the recordings themselves are

permanently lost." Given the lack of attention

focused on the black classical musician - even

in the recent upsurge of interest in Afro-Ameri cana - her decision to start in this area is laudable.

The author began with a list of over 100 vocal ists and ended with 73 for whom she could locate

long playing records. The final result represents extensive search through record catalogues, books,

periodicals and, I presume, through private collec

tions, for data on the recordings and for biographi cal information. This is a second printing and includes in its back pages a lengthy addenda which adds to the lists of singers and records included in the original printing. I understand that a

supplement is planned which will keep the disco

graphy current.

Chapters I (Singers and Recordings) and II

(Choral Groups) together constitute the main

corpus of the volume. Chapter I is an alphabetical list of vocalists, giving for each: identification of the voice range; date and place of birth; brief

quotations taken mainly from record reviews; a list of 45 & 33 1/3 RPM LP recordings identified

(as far as possible) by label, record matrix number and date of release; and a selected list of biographi cal sources. The same information is furnished in

Chapter II for the choral groups omitting, of

course, voice range and date and place of birth. The format provides much useful information.

The singers range chronologically from Abbie Mitchell (b. 1884) to Carmen Balthrop (b. 1950); the recordings range in date from 1948 to 1977

including, of course, some reissues of earlier re

cordings. By far the largest number of entries for a singer appears under the name of Leontyne Price, although pioneers Marian Anderson, Roland

Hayes, and Paul Robeson axe surprisingly well

represented, when one considers that their careers

were well advanced when the long playing record

came into existence. The main biographical sources are standard works but there are also

references to less well-known books, periodicals, and programs, all of which make this volume a

good starting point for those interested in the often elusive biographical data on these per formers. Of special interest to the reference

librarian are such features as the identification of roles portrayed by singers in opera, oratorio, and musical comedy, the identification of black

composers, and indications as to which records axe out-of-print.

The remaining chapters are organized so as to make accessible different types of information

about the listings of chapters I and II. Chapters IV (Arias) and V (Songs) are significant because

they make it possible to locate individual selec tions which, as part of a composite recording, would otherwise have been difficult or impossible to find. The division of Chapter V into smaller

categories increases the number of points of ready reference especially with such categories as reli

gious songs, spirituals, Christmas songs, and folk

songs. Some question, however, might be raised

concerning the guidelines used for inclusions in the art song category.

Useful though Chapters III to V are, the user must approach them with full awareness of how the material is arranged. For example, he must know that some composers (those represented as

part of a collection) will not appear in the Com

posers list but must be found in Chapters IV and

V; in the same way, an art song cycle such as Barber's Hermit Songs (not a part of a collection) will not be listed under art songs. On this point the index, divided under the headings of singers, choral groups, and composers, will provide some

answers, for all names, including those of the

addenda, are listed here. The usefulness of Chap ter V would have been heightened by the inclu sion of names of arrangers and identification in more instances of nationalities associated with traditional songs.

Unfortunately, mechanical imperfections such as typographical errors, missing umlauts and accent marks, and irregularities of typesetting (especially in the addenda) do occur; although these should not be emphasized unduly, they are not consistent with the author's workmanlike

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Comptes-Rendus/Besprechungen/Reviews 417

effort. What she has done is to present a unique discography,, providing in one place much infor mation which formerly had to be sought from various sources. The librarian, student of Afro

Americana, and the music lover should welcome this book and look forward to the volume on the 78 RPM recordings which Patricia Turner has

promised. Doris Evans McGinty

Hakon Sivertsen: Det Trondhjemske Musikalske Selskab av 1786 (Trondheim, 1975). 104 p. (Ringve Museums Skrifter, I.)

This brief monograph, submitted to the Musi

cological Institute of the University of Trondheim, is not a doctoral dissertation, but a. Hausarbeit. Its

scope is therefore quite properly limited. The author gives us not the history of, but merely materials toward, a history of the Trondheim Music Society.

The first of the four chapters documents the

founding (1786) and subsequent activities of the

Society, which existed until 1815. The second

gives information about the music performed, among which the most-frequently encountered names are those of the organist-composer Johan Henrik Berlin, as well as such more familiar names as Haydn,Filtz,Davaux,Wanhall, Pichl, Lachnith, Stamitz and Sarti. The third chapter enumerates the concert subscribers and tabulates them by profession and age. The fourth chapter contains

biographical sketches of the three central figures in the life of the Society: the earliest, a German Kantor from Saxony; the second and third, Norwegians: a Stadsmusikant and a town judge. Musically, it appears, the initiator and at least at the beginning, the center of it all, was Berlin, who remains here a background figure; quite properly again within the author's limited scope, since we are referred to a fuller treatment of his life and work in K. Dahlback's Rokokkomusik i tr^ndersk miljd■ Johan Henrich Berlin (1741-1807), et

bidrag til Trondheims musikkhistorie 1750-1800, in: Norsk musikkgranskning arbok 1954-1955 (Oslo 1956), p. 137-143.

The Bibliography lists a number of other use ful printed sources, as well as fourteen groups of documents from the State Archive in Trondheim, and two from the Royal Norwegian Scientific

Society: the Notesamlingen, and papers and docu ments of the Trondheim Musical Society. This is a welcome addition to the literature on less-known centers of musical activity. It is to be hoped that the future will bring an expansion of the account of Trondheim's musical background, based on the

documents indicated. Desirable too, would be pub lication in a language accessible to more readers.

Leola Nelson Bergmann

Joan M. Megget: Music Periodical Litera ture: An Annotated Bibliography of Indexes and

Bibliographies (Metuchen, N.J. & London: The Scarecrow Press, 1978). ix, 116 p. $ 6.00.

This handy small volume, thoroughly indexed by author, subject and title, lists a total of 335 en tries (including a few repetitions) under: I) History of Music Periodicals (General); and II) in the U.S.; Ill) Music Periodical Literature in General Non Music Indexes and Bibliographies; and IV) in Special Non-Music Indexes and Bibliographies; and V) in Music Indexes and Bibliographies; finally, VI) Bibliography of Listsof Music Periodi cals. Part I should more accurately be subtitled "General and non-U.S.", since it encompasses such broad surveys as those in Grove's Dictionary 5th ed. (by AJH. King, whose name is not men tioned here) and in MGG (by I. Fellinger), along with studies restricted to a single country (e.g., F. Kidson, "English Magazines Containing Music..." and J.-G. Prod'homme, "Essai de bibliographie des périodiques musicaux de langue française"). The latter title and the few others in Romance

languages are printed with disturbing lack of attention to correct orthographic practice.

The bibliography is in fact heavily weighted toward U.S. topics and publications, and second arily toward works in English, although its title and preface mention no restrictions. German publications are fairly well represented, but other important items, even when listed by Duckies, are omitted (e.g., H. Kallmann "A Century of Musical Periodicals in Canada," (Duckies 624). The Jour nal of the International Folk Music Council (Duck ies 590) is entered by both authors without men tion of its 5-year cumulated indexes. The Svensk Tidskrift för Musikforskning (Duckies 609), which does not appear in the bibliography, has a 50-year (1919-1968) author, classified subject and book review index. Other unfortunate omissions include the 50-year author-subject index (1917-1966) to the French musicological society's Revue de musicologie and two extremely valuable retro

spective periodical indexes of the type sought so

eagerly by scholars: M. Tilmouth, "A Calendar of References to Music in Newspapers published in London and the Provinces (1660-1719)," in: R.MA. Research Chronicle no. 1 (1961), 107 pp. and A. Chastel, L'édition musicale à Paris sous Louis XVI à travers la presse (Paris, Diplôme de

musicologie, Conservatoire de musique, 1969),

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