The Pianist's Dictionary (review)

For more than 30 years the industrious Maurice Hinson, professor of music at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has produced a steady stream of reference books dealing with all aspects of the classical piano literature. All have appeared under the imprint of Indiana University Press. Some, notably his 1972 Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire, have undergone one or more revisions or expansions. Hinson's latest contribution is an attempt to compile a dictionary of names, terms, and titles pertaining to the entire field of pianism, embracing composers, compositions, performers, teachers, publishers, and piano makers. "This is information I have worked on while teaching piano for almost 60 years," Hinson states in his preface. (Disclosure: my name is included, once, in a list of former pupils of Hinson's colleague Margaret Saunders Ott.)

However laudable Hinson's aims may be, the published results quickly eliminate this volume from serious consideration. Its 220 pages, lacking illustrations and with only six small musical examples (and at a rather exorbitant hardcover price of $39.95), contain a nearly unbelievable profusion of factual errors, misspellings, and misleading statements—more, in fact, than I have ever encountered in a reference book. For example, a "sonata," according to Hinson, contains "two to five contrasting movements" (despite his references elsewhere to some of the numerous one-movement piano sonatas). The defining characteristic of "Zortzico," unmentioned by Hinson, is quintuple meter. Curiously, a definition is provided for "natural," but none for sharp, flat, or accidental. Any reader seeking the meaning of "atonality" will be told, incorrectly, that it is "an organizing harmonic system." "Habanera" and "Seguidilla" are defined, in both cases, with unspecific references to "the aria from Bizet's Carmen."

When we turn to the names of pianists, the errors begin to proliferate. Ania Dorfmann becomes "Dorfman," and her teacher Isidor Philipp's first name is misspelled "Isidore." Philipp is said to have written "books on the instrument" (not so), but no mention is made of his famous, nearly countless technical exercises. Vladimir Horowitz's year of birth (1903) is erroneously given as 1904, while Emil Sauer was really born in 1862, not 1863, and Artur Schnabel was born in 1882, not 1881. The year of death for Frederic Lamond is 1948, not 1945. Wanda Landowska was born in 1879, not 1877. A reference to "Christian Ortiz" (p. 182) should be to Cristina Ortiz. On page 202, Zadel "Sokolovsky" should be Skolovsky. The one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein was the brother, not the "cousin," of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. In four separate references, Hinson perpetuates the frequent misspelling of Leon Fleisher's last name as "Fleischer." The contemporary composer Lowell Liebermann has become "Liebeman." The teacher of Daniel Pollack was Ethel Leginska, not "Leginsky," and Hinson's entry for the latter (spelled correctly!) should have mentioned that her name was originally Liggins. Ossip Gabrilowitsch's first name is given here as "Osspi." The wife of pianist Eugene List was Carroll Glenn, not "Glen." Rudolf Serkin (born 1903) is described as a "Czech pianist," but Czechoslovakia did not exist then; Serkin was born in a German-speaking region of Bohemia.

The choices of front-rank pianists given brief, two- or three-sentence, biographical sketches seem arbitrary at best. Many famous performers are represented, but a few of the significant names excluded are Simon Barere, Gina Bachauer, Abram Chasins, Francis Planté, Marc-André Hamelin, Harriet Cohen, Tamás Vásáry, Emanuel Ax, Sergio Fiorentino, Moura Lympany, Jörg Demus, Georges Cziffra, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Julius Katchen, Robert Levin, Samuel Feinberg, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Maria Yudina, Géza Anda, and Stephen Hough. Occasionally personal value judgments intrude to a questionable extent for a supposedly objective reference book. One example is Hinson's claim that Ruth Laredo's playing "is a joy to hear." Another is a description of Louis Kentner's recordings as "delightful." Although we are duly informed that Johann Sebastian Bach was "one of the greatest composers," such diverse creative figures as William Bolcom, Nicolay...