Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire by Maurice Hinson, Wesley Roberts (review)

The sheer vastness and immensity of the solo piano repertoire has long been daunting to performers and scholars alike. Considering the tremendous quantity of keyboard music covering more than three centuries, not to mention all the diverse editions of standard works and the accumulation of historical and analytical literature dealing with the field, any sort of reliable guidance is welcome. For serious pianists, teachers, and researchers, Maurice Hinson’s Guide in its various guises has been a staple reference for many years.

The new, fourth edition of Hinson’s Guide is a successor to his original 1973 publication (done with the collaboration of Irwin Freundlich), which was followed in turn by a 1987 expansion and a still further revision from 2000. The focus in all these volumes is entirely on solo piano literature. To cover ancillary areas of his topic, the industrious Hinson also prepared one supplement (dated 1979), plus a compilation dealing with works for piano and orchestra (1981, revised 1993), another devoted to the piano in chamber ensembles (1978, revised 2006, both aided by current coauthor Roberts), yet another covering works for more than one piano (1983), and a further volume that lists piano transcriptions and arrangements (1990). All of these, as well as several other Hinson undertakings, appear under the imprint of Indiana University Press.

The latest edition is nearly 250 pages larger than its predecessor. In a generally uninformative preface, Hinson and Roberts provide few specifics about whatever additions, revisions, and changes have been made. They do not describe the modus operandi governing their discovery, acquisition, and examination of the publications included, nor anything about the division of labor between the coauthors. Also un-helpful, especially for less-experienced users of the volume, is the absence of any suggestions concerning how to obtain out-of-print scores, whether via the Internet or otherwise. Furthermore, the preface never defines the actual focus and scope of the new book (original solo works only, with minimal attention to purely pedagogical material), nor does it mention any of Hinson’s other contributions to the field except his survey of transcriptions! (The latter, incidentally, has been in urgent need of corrections, revisions, expansion, and reorganization ever since it appeared.)

As before, the format is alphabetical by composer, some given brief overviews of their outputs and style characteristics. Next comes a listing of works, with publishers (plus editors and dates where applicable), descriptions of those works, and a rating of technical difficulty (easy, intermediate, moderately difficult, difficult). In many instances the authors add pertinent bibliographic references (monographs, theses, dissertations, D.M.A. documents, and articles), but this element of the Guide, as we shall see, has its own share of problems. Following the main alphabetical section (occupying 1,038 pages) comes an extensive listing of anthologies and collections (85 pages), and a 14-page general bibliography. Also supplied is information on the addresses and agents of music publishers and a list of composers arranged by nationality.

By most standards, the coverage offered by the latest Guide is comprehensive, resulting from an impressive amount of cumulative labor going back four decades. The book’s cover claims that about 2,000 composers are represented, nearly 400 of whom are native or naturalized Americans. Bearing in mind, however, that any reference work is only as useful as what it contains about the topic the user is looking up at the moment, there remain many areas of concern. Perhaps paramount are the numerous omissions of significant composers and works. Of course the standard works of almost all major piano composers are usually given proper attention. But it is puzzling, for example, to discover that a significant number of Ludwig van Beethoven’s variation sets and Bagatelles are not described or included. Under Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s miscellaneous pieces (“of great importance”, p. 704) the Fantasy (Praeludium) and Fugue, K. 394...