WFU professors contribute to ‘New Grove, Second Edition’

Two Wake Forest University music professors have contributed to the second edition of the “New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians.” The reference has long been regarded as the standard encyclopedia of music in the English language.

David B. Levy, professor of music at Wake Forest, wrote the article on Thomas Massa Alsager and revised the article on Wolfgang Robert Griepenkerl. Stewart Carter, professor of music at Wake Forest, wrote the article on Isabella Leonarda and revised articles on Jean-Georges Kastner, “Improvisation” (part II, section 3, sub-sections i and ii: Seventeenth Century in Italy and England), “and “Ornaments” (part IV, Italy 1600-1650).

The dictionary is named for Sir George Grove (1820-1900), a British engineer and scholar who edited and contributed many articles to the first edition (1879-89). Grove set a high standard for music scholarship, which has been maintained throughout subsequent editions of the encyclopedia. Since its inception, the encyclopedia has included biographies of composers (with extensive lists of works for major figures), articles on musical terms and forms, and overviews of music in major cities and virtually every nation of the world. Although initially considered a prime resource for the history of Western music, “Grove’s” has expanded in recent years to cover music of all types— popular, jazz, and ethnic, as well as music in the Western classical tradition.

“The New Grove Dictionary, Second Edition” has 29 volumes, with online and CD-ROM versions also available.

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