trols or financial limitations imposed The book is intended as a companion to Opera, but not currently active profes-
by major recording companies. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and sionally to the degree necessary for
Although that is not new information, the articles on the opera singers selected inclusion in the additional 100 articles.
what is helpful is Gordon’s thorough come largely from Grove Music Online Names that come to mind include
explanation of the international, 24/7 (now Oxford Music Online) and by the Delores Ziegler, Dominic Cossa,
reach of the Internet, the legal ramifi- same authors. The Grove Dictionary of Francois Loup and Denyce Graves.
cations of distributing music online, Opera supplies extensive information Perusal of the past rosters of major
and the numerous digital avenues the about the singers who premiered various opera houses in the world might pro-
independent musician can explore. works and the Book of Opera Singers vide enough names for a subsequent
Gordon explains the basics of webcast- began with that list. Since fewer operas book or an enlarged second edition.
ing, digital cable, satellite radio, blog- have been written since 1900, thus ––Reviewed by Martha Randall,
ging, podcasts, downloading, fewer premieres, she compiled a list of University of Maryland
interactive streaming, personal web prominent singers included in Grove
pages, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, Music Online, and with the help of
files on mobile phones, social network- Richard Wigmore, chose 100 to feature
ing, ringtones, video games and virtual in new articles, many written by Collaborative
reality sites. Wigmore.
Unique to this book are This book is the Sonata for Flute and Piano, by
Gordon’s insightful interviews first, to my knowl- Frederic Glesser. Distributed by Theodore
with important musicians and edge, to offer such a Presser Company, 2008.
entrepreneurs. I found two great number of www.presser.com; published by Falls
particularly intriguing, one short biographies of House Press, www.fallshousepress.com;
with the president of CD singers, largely score: 26 pp., flute: 16 pp.; $33.95.
Baby, a company that handles omitted in Baker’s This is a three-movement sonata,
Internet sales of CDs pro- Biographical utilizing the standard fast-slow-fast
duced by independent musi- Dictionary. The structure. However, the first and third
cians, and another with a articles are short movements are “fast” only because of
musician who performs regu- and factual, but not the number of notes in a beat, rather
larly on a virtual reality site dry, and include the than a fast metronome marking.
with more than 1 million “res- author’s assessment The first movement makes extensive
idents.” of the singers’ vocal and dramatic gifts. use of quarter-tones and harmonics in
I appreciate Gordon’s inclusion of Some of the authors of the articles the flute part, with the composer offer-
key legal issues affecting music, such as have also written books on singers: J.B. ing quarter-tone alternate fingerings.
the proposal for a statutory license Steane’s Singers of the Century (three He does not state his preference for the
legalizing file sharing or concern over volumes) is more personal and a com- harmonic fingerings, so the choice is
Digital Rights Management, and mentary on the times, but have one left up to the performer. There are a
recent legal cases that have impacted tenth the number of singers included few meter changes, for example 4/4,
the industry. Although the book con- in this volume. I was not surprised, 3/4, 7/8, 6/8, but they are not exten-
tains specialized information, it is not though gratified nonetheless, to see sive and should not cause much stress.
difficult to read. Gordon promises to that Marian Anderson a