Irvine's Writing about Music, and: A Short Guide to Writing about Music (review)

Irvine's Writing about Music. By Demar Irvine. 3d ed., revised and enlarged by Mark A. Radice. Portland, Ore.: Amadeus Press, 1999. [xv, 257 p. ISBN 1-57467-049-2. $17.95 (pbk.).]

A Short Guide to Writing about Music. By Jonathan Bellman. (The Short Guide Series.) New York: Longman, 2000. [xv, 174 p. ISBN 0-321-01577-0. $22.26 (pbk.).]

Writing about music is not that different from writing about other topics, for a writer's goals are always the same: to write with clarity, accuracy, authority, and style. Dozens of books have been published to help authors improve their craft, and while these books can cover any number of topics--grammar, punctuation, rhetoric, research methods, documentation of sources--the focus is usually on style.

Simply put, "style" is the manner in which we do something, and style as it applies to writing usually comprises two broad areas: first, the mechanics of writing --the rules (when to use a comma, when to capitalize, when to italicize, how to cite a journal article); and, second, literary style --how to write pleasing and effective prose, a skill that cannot easily be taught or learned, one that requires facility with tone, word choice, syntax, and organization.

The stylistic issues peculiar to writing about music fall into two similar categories: the rules for describing the materials of music (for example, pitches, keys, chords, the names of compositions and movements), and literary style, both in genres unique to music (concert reviews, program notes, music analysis, etc.) and in traditional genres as they are applied to musical topics (research papers, book reviews, essays, etc.).

When writing about music, writers inevitably encounter stylistic questions that are outside the scope of general style manuals. Fortunately, several books are available to cover issues specific to music. Among the earliest self-described guides to writing about music was the first edition of the book under review by Demar Irvine (Writing about Music [n.p.: distributed by University of Washington Press, 1956]), which was issued in a greatly expanded second edition in 1968 (Seattle: University of Washington Press). For the new third edition, Mark Radice has remained faithful to the organization and spirit of Irvine's second edition while eliminating anachronisms, expanding the text where needed, and giving a careful nip and tuck to Irvine's prose. Although some sections are shuffled to improve the flow of ideas, Irvine's overall scheme is left intact. In his preface, Radice stresses that the book "remains fundamentally a style manual, not an introduction to music research and bibliography" (p. xii) and that it is intended for students preparing "a typed or word-processed report, term paper, or thesis not being prepared for immediate publication" (p. 3).

Irvine's original two parts--the first covering the mechanics of style and manuscript preparation, the second on the "vehicle of communication itself, namely, literary style" (p. 131)--are complemented by a third, "Combining Words and Music" (pp. 197-226), which addresses stylistic matters specific to music (pitch designation; terminology for scales, modes, note values, instruments, scores, and primary sources; movement names and tempo indications; and music notation). This new part compensates for one of the weaknesses of the earlier editions of Irvine's book: although the title was Writing about Music, Irvine dealt mainly with general writing style, leaving unanswered most of the stylistic questions confronting a writer on music. Radice also offers a new sample research paper and adds an appendix on copyright.

Radice's revisions strengthen the text, but because he retains much of the content and structure of the 1968 edition, the book feels a bit old-fashioned. Further cuts would help: Irvine's sections on grammar and rhetoric, for example, could easily be omitted. (Perhaps there was a time when authors knew about metonymy and synecdoche [p. 176] or litotes [p. 177-78] and prosopopoeia [p. 179], but can we say they were better writers for it...