Musical Memorials for Musicians: A Guide to Selected Compositions (review)

Musical Memorials for Musicians: A Guide to Selected Compositions. By R. Michael Fling. (MLA Index and Bibliography Series, 29.) Lanham, Md., Scarecrow Press and the Music Library Association, 2001. [376 p. ISBN 0-8108-4013-8.$49.95.] Bibliography, indexes.

One could say that Musical Memorials for Musicians was a reference book waiting to be written, and that it was only a matter of time before it came into print. After all, who has not wanted an annotated list of those who have been memorialized in music? Ultimately this book has many uses that go beyond its morbid and curious content, and it is indeed good reading.

The volume's main section, arranged alphabetically by dedicatee, lists birth and death dates, profession, and nationality. Below the name of each dedicatee is a list of musical compositions dedicated to that individual, often including the text of the dedication. Each composition cited includes the composer's name (with birth and death dates), title of composition, instrumentation, and information regarding the work's publication and performance. Some citations list a recording if the compiler considered such a recording of interest. At the rear of the book is a composer index that effectively cross-references the dedicatees. The book is further enhanced by a "Calendar Year Index," a "Chronology Index," and a comprehensive list of publishers and sources. The basic layout of the book sounds simple enough but it does take time getting used to it. Many of the dedicatees are composers, and unless you are paying close attention to the typeface used to separate the dedicatee from the associated composer's works, you are likely to become either momentarily disoriented or happily lost.

The comprehensive composer index is a convenient reference source, as is the information given about each dedicatee, particularly those who are far removed from the usual composer/performer orbit. Examples include: "Walter Alfred Friedrich Maas, German-Dutch Music Administrator; b. July 18, 1909; d. Dec. 1, 1992"; or "David Huntley, American music publishing executive; b. June 16, 1947; d. July 1, 1994." The range of musical genres represented in this volume is refreshing. Besides the expected concert music fare, one finds references to American ballads and marches, rhythm and blues, rock music, and jazz. Composers and performers represented include Stephen Foster, Virgil Fox, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Johnny Ace, Buddy Holly, and Janis Joplin.

As one delves deeper into this volume, the issue of what defines a musical memorial keeps bobbing to the surface. The book's opening introduction gives a brief and concise history of the musical memorial, its forms, traditions, and nomenclature, as well as bibliographic practices. In compiling the entries for this work which covers centuries, Michael Fling has spent twenty years of consulting, absorbing, and indexing information from major reference print sources, as well as the currently available online databases. In his introduction, Fling acknowledges the difficulties and often-serendipitous means of compiling a thorough list of musical memorials, "the fact that many of these works are dedicated as memorials to deceased friends often can be discovered only with the scores in hand, or through chance references in the secondary literature" (p. xii). Without a doubt, there are bound to be both gaps and unexpected finds resulting from this kind of information gathering, in which the balance of inclusion and exclusion is constantly in play. For instance, the entry for Fryderyk Chopin, lists nearly thirty works dedicated to him. A commission in 1949 from UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organization) of ten works honoring the centennial of Chopin's death aids the size of this list, but one wonders about the historical context of the dedications and whether the ten commissioned entries could be considered a true memorial. But as Fling submits, inclusion of this entry supports a long tradition of memorials sponsored by organizations or publishers. Consider the entry under Serge Koussevitzky. One might be inclined to look here for a complete listing...