Music in Canada: A Research and Information Guide by Carl Morey (review)

152 LETTERS IN CANADA 1998 criticism,' she concludes, ~complements critical interpretation,' and this culturally aware approach is shared by most of the contributors in the volume_ In the following sections - IOn Intertextual Relations,' 'Semiotics, Painting, and Poetry/ 'On Monuments,' 'Cartoons and Caricature,' 'WordImage Interactions in Far-Eastern Practices,' and 'Beyond Conventional Boundaries' - the essays show the impact that specific cultural conditions have on the signifying practices and effects ofword and image interactions. The divergence of picture and word in nineteenth-century Japanese 'yellow-cover' fiction, for example, is shown to be a deliberately subversive strategy with a cultural critical message, while the literary monument that emerged in post-revolutionary France is shown to be part of a range of cultural products that venerated both writers and their work at the end of the nineteenth century. While there are no overt connections between essays, fascinating links do occur, as in the similar arguments made about calligraphy as part of a work's signifying structure in an essay on late Chinese poet-calligrapher painters and another on a twentieth-century cartoon-book version of Wilde's Salome. Such connections, however, are left to the reader. There is no introductory essay to the volume to provide an overview of the collection's issues, methodologies, and topics, or make links between pieces. Indeed, the book's origin as selected proceedings from the Third Annual International Conference on Word and Image, held in Ottawa in 1993, is all too evident throughout (though never acknowledged). Some essays remain very short, as suitable for oral presentation, and would have benefited from the extended and enriched analysis that written formats permit. In addition, the book as a whole would have been well served by a consistent, and standard , reference system used by all writers, and by a biographical list of contributors. While these technical quibbles cannot detract from the exciting contribution to the field of word and image studies made by the individual essays in The Pictured Word, the book would have been strengthenedbya more coherent editorial approach and integrated format. (LORRAINE JANZEN KOOISTRA) Carl Morey. Music in Canada: A Research and Information Guide Garland 1997. xiv, 284- us $60.00 The field of Canadian music studies has experienced something of a coming of age during the past several decades. Courses in Canadian music are now firmly established as an integral part of the curriculum in many of our university music departments, while a plethora of recently completed books, journal articles, dissertations, and theses on aspects of music in Canada have attracted long-overdue international attention. Carl Morey's Music in Canada: A Research and Information Guide is therefore a timely and welcome addition to this growing field. Morey, who HUMANITIES 153 has long been at the forefront of Canadian music research, has assembled a highly informative and well-organized compilation of a wide spectrum of Canadian music reference materials. The scope of subject matter is impressive , with928 annotated entries organizedinto thirteen main headings: (1) Reference, (2) Catalogues and Directories, (3) Bibliographies and Lists, (4) History and Criticism, (5) Musicians - Biographies and Individual Studies, (6) Native Music, (7) Folk and Ethnic Music, (8) Popular Music and Jazz, (9) Education, (10) Media, (11) Commerce, (12) Periodicals, and (13) Archives and Collections. Separate indexes by title, author, and subject are given at the end of the book, while useful references to pertinent electronic resources reflect the changing face of research in the internet age. The choice of materials included in the present volume is justifiably selective, as Morey outlines in the introduction to the book: 'Rather than aspire to a complete bibliographical study, the number of entries of which would far exceed those in the present volume, this Guide provides a broad spectrum of specialized studies that include information on most topics of research, and that open pathways to further research.' Thus while the book includes an excellent selection of both published and unpublished sources pertaining to Canadian music, it contains complete listings of neither. This is an exceptionally well organized reference work. Morey's subject headings and subheadings are clearly defined and follow a logical progression of ideas, while the annotations give concise snapshots of the contents, methodology, and...