Orchestral “Pops” Music: A Handbook (review)

Lucy Manning states that “[p]resenting pops concerts is a mainstay of virtually every orchestra in the United States” (p. ix). The degree to which the repertoire normally found in pops programming is familiar to conductors is variable, but certainly the standard symphonic “classical” works are better known. Inevitably, new and experienced conductors alike will find themselves looking for pops programming, and Lucy Manning’s handbook will help enormously.

A loose definition of pops is given in the preface: “[P]ops can mean different things to different people. Pops implies a great array of music genres: from country, rock, jazz and Broadway musicals to familiar classical music” (p. ix). Indeed, there is a wide range of musical style represented here. What has been included is more reflective of how Manning researched pops music, and less a specific definition of pops. Approximately 100 American Symphony Orchestra League member orchestras supplied her with their most recent five years’ worth of pops programs. Adding to a list created from those programs, Manning combed through catalogs of major, small, and independent publishers. She contacted individual composers, and followed leads suggested to her by conductors. Ultimately, she created a list of approximately 4,000 titles. What she retained for inclusion in her book are those works where she could verify their availability and provide performance information. Since a large portion of the entries here is derived from performances of actual pops concerts, the resulting implied definition of pops is in part music that has been performed in pops concerts. It’s a bit of a circular definition, but rather than have a difficult and ultimately inadequate definition of pops, Manning offers a way to think about pops music that is based on actual programming. Those developing music programming will find this quite useful as it represents the creativity of their colleagues across the spectrum of working orchestras.

Following the format of David Daniels’ volume on orchestral repertoire, Orchestral Music (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005), Manning’s single volume work is immediately recognizable. It provides much of the same kind of information found in Daniels’ work. Roughly 2,000 orchestral works are described in short entries listed alphabetically by composer. Readers will find information regarding duration, instrumentation, and publisher. Woodwind instrumentation is treated especially well, showing all doublings needed. Composer birth and death dates are included, and this will help save time for those putting concert programs together. Spot-checking dates suggests that they are accurate. For this kind of reference work, duration is always problematic. But, like other sources of this kind, such as the Daniels book and Solomon Aronowsky’s Performing Times of Orchestral Works (London: E. Benn, 1959), Manning lets readers know these are approximations based on information provided by publishers and composers. Among reference sources of this kind, there is a high degree of uniformity in listed durations.

The five appendices in Orchestral Pops Music: A Handbook provide good access points. Durations, instrumentation, title, and publisher are each given an appendix. This will help the concert programmer fit appropriate music according to individual needs. What is more interesting, if problematic, is the theme index. By “theme” Manning means broad, musically expressed subject, or topic. For example Copland’s Billy the Kid is listed in “Americana.” She identifies twenty-five such themes. In the preface, she notes that providing themes is important because many times pops concerts themselves are themed. However, she does not say how this list of twenty-five themes was developed. For most entries, theme categories can be understood on a minimal level. We can see why she applied “Americana” to Billy the Kid, to continue that example. But in some cases, the theme category is misleading. Elliott Carter’s Holiday Overture is given an ambiguous and poorly chosen theme category of “Holidays.” Manning provides subcategories such as Christmas and Halloween, suggesting that what she has in mind are religious and other observed holidays. For Carter’s work, then, “holiday” as a theme is irrelevant...