Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians

Edition history

Leading up to the initial publication of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Baker had compiled and edited three editions of A Dictionary of Musical Terms — published 1895, 1896, and 1897, respectively, by G. Schirmer.

1st edition

The 1^st edition, published in 1900, has 647 pages plus an Appendix of 5 pages The first edition includes 300 vignette portraits drawn in ink, from portraits or photographs, by Russian artist Alexander Gribayédoff (possibly a pseudonym for Valerian Gribayédoff).

4th edition

The 4^th edition, published in 1940, has 1,234 pages. American and Latin-American musicians were more fully represented in this issue than in any English work of the kind in its day.

The 5^th edition of 1958, 8^th edition of 1992, and 9^th edition of 2001 were major rewrites and expansions.

5th edition

The 5^th edition was rewritten by new editor Nicolas Slonimsky, who would remain editor for several decades (through the 8^th edition in 1992) and have a considerable influence on the style and content of the dictionary. In preparing the 5^th edition, Slonimsky expanded the size of the work (to 1,855 pages), and undertook a thorough review of the existing entries, expending considerable effort verifying and correcting biographical details such as birth and death dates by reference to archival sources.

8th edition

The 8^th edition of 1992 revised 1,300 entries and added 1,100 new ones, coming to 2,115 pages, with an emphasis on expanding coverage of female and Asian musicians, multimedia composers, performance artists, and ethnomusicologists. The 7^th and 8^th editions were pre-titled The Concise Edition.

9th edition

The 9^th edition of 2001, billed the "Centennial Edition", was the first not to be a single-volume work, taking up six volumes, partly due to expanded coverage and partly due to somewhat more generous formatting to improve readability. The 9^th edition included a focus on increasing coverage of popular and jazz music.

History of its publishers

G. Schirmer Inc., publisher of Baker's since the first edition, was sold to Macmillan Inc. in 1969.

Macmillan sold G. Schirmer, except for its reference holdings, to Music Sales Corporation of London in 1986. The Schirmer Reference is currently owned by Gale, a division of Cengage Learning.

Editions

Edited by Theodore Baker (1851–1934)

First edition (1900); OCLC 883343, 62173978

Second edition (1905); OCLC 28877528

Edited by Theodore Baker and Alfred Remy

Third edition (1919); OCLC 752566

Edited by Nicolas Slonimsky (1894–1995)

Fourth edition (revised & enlarged) (1940); OCLC 557935018, 780647631, 926808623

Fifth edition (1958); OCLC 598288, 756726565

Sixth edition (1978); OCLC 4426869, 723489824

Seventh edition (1984); OCLC 894666159, 52719848, ISBN 0-02-872411-9, ISBN 9780028724119

Eighth edition (1992); OCLC 24246972, ISBN 0-02-872415-1, ISBN 9780028724157

Edited by Laura Diane Kuhn, PhD (born 1953)

Ninth edition (2001); OCLC 44972043, ISBN 0-02-865525-7, ISBN 9780028655253

Vol. 1: Aalt–Cone; OCLC 313884911Vol. 2: Conf–Gysi; OCLC 313884977Vol. 3: Haar–Levi; OCLC 313884997Vol. 4: Levy–Pisa; OCLC 313885028Vol. 5: Pisc–Stra; OCLC 313885106Vol. 6: Stre–Zyli; Indexes (genre, nationality, women); OCLC 313885131

Other editions

The Portable Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1988); OCLC 32968695

Other works of similar nature

Earlier works

1844: Complete Encyclopedia of Music, Elementary, Technical, Historical, Biographical, Vocal, and Instrumental, by John Weeks Moore, Boston; OCLC 46595261879: A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, George Grove (ed.), London; OCLC 313377471, 717493999

Later, contemporaneous American works

1939: International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, Oscar Lee Thompson (1887–1945) (ed.), Dodd, Mead and Company, New York; OCLC 518786