included in the English translation Edvard Grieg: A Celebration of American Music: Words and the Man and the Artist (Lincoln, Nebraska, & Music in Honor of H. Wiley Hitchcock. Ed. by London) in 1988 (p. 327), so Miss Foster's (p. 242) Richard Crawford, R. Allen Lott & Carol J. is not the coup it might otherwise appear. It Oja. pp. xi + 519. (University of Michigan might perhaps have been of interest to her Press, Ann Arbor, 1990, £40. 0-472-09400-9.) readers to have been told that, though the Grieg [Manchester University Press] connection was unsuspected and early, Miss Edwards was later by no means unknown in Unlike rather too many contemporary Scandinavian artistic circles. We are told (loc. Festschriften, A Celebration of American Music cit.) that she was a student at the Danish Music has a dedicatee worthy of the honour. H. Wiley Conservatory from January 1884 to December Hitchcock is a remarkable man by any standards. 1886, but nothing else. In fact, she became ac- His wide-ranging achievements include outstand- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/73/1/135/1220415 by guest on 29 September 2021 companist and lifelong friend to the English ing books and articles on Charpentier and Caccini violinist Eva Mudocci (Evangeline Muddock) and (plus editions of their music). Most important, he as such was known to Delius in Paris and immor- is the doyen of scholars in the field of American talized by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, music. His principal contributions have been as who did three lithographs of Eva Mudocci (with author of a seminal book on Ives (1977; reprinted whom he had a love affair in the period c. 1903-9), with addenda as Ives: a Survey of the Music, in one of which, The Violin Recital, Bella 1983) and of one of the most successful general Edwards is shown at the piano (see John Boulton texts on the subject (Music in the United States: a Smith, Frederick Delius & Edvard Munch: their Historical Introduction, 1969; rev. edns., 1974, Friendship and their Correspondence, Rickmans- 1988). He was co-editor of the New Grove Dic- worth, 1983, pp. 72-73, pictures reproduced on tionary of American Music (1986) and remains pp. 39-40). series editor of Recent Researches in American Music (1976-). Among other things, he has in ad- The shortcomings (as I see them) on which I dition taught at the University of Michigan, New have commented here are, for the most part, of York University, Brooklyn College, and the relatively minor importance and do not detract Graduate School of the City University of New measurably from the value of the book as a whole. York; he founded and has subsequently directed There is, however, the danger that they may the Institute for Studies in American Music at be repeated, cited by others, quoted on pro- Brooklyn College; and he has served as president grammes, or otherwise gain acceptance indivi- of the Music Library Association, the Charles Ives dually; inaccuracies are, after all, unsatisfactory Society and the American Musicological Society. and should not be perpetuated. It would be agreeable if the book were subjected to a careful Hitchcock's interests in all aspects of American revision and reissued, for it has much to offer. music have been amply demonstrated in the in- Miss Foster is a singer with profound experience clusive stance taken by Music in the United States of her subject, about which she writes perceptively and the New Grove Dictionary of American 'with performance firmly in mind' (p. viii). She is Music; the present generous volume follows this discriminating and critical, sometimes surprisingly lead admirably, covering the full range of harsh in her judgements, but one is not bound by American musical experience, from psalmody to the opinions of others in matters of taste — it is in- computer music and from Scott Joplin to Charles teresting to observe, for instance, that the late Ives. Perhaps the only surprise is that relatively songs to texts of Otto Benzon (Opp. 69 & 70), of few of the essays deal with popular music: the which she writes 'Were it not for Lys Nat, one balance between the study of vernacular and might well consider that Grieg would have been cultivated traditions so important to Hitchcock's better to end his song-writing career with the own work is thus rather compromised here. Haugtussa cycle [Op. 67]' (p. 256), are among the However, by way of compensation A Celebration songs most highly valued by Willi Kahl in his of American Music includes not only words but article on Grieg in MGG. music, the 29 essays being counterpointed by eleven original compositions. JOHN BERCSAGEL The latter category includes some of the volume's more disappointing contributions: while the pieces by Bruce Saylor, Peter Dickinson and

135 the late Virgil Thomson are suitably (and typically) often unnecessarily long footnotes. In one unfor- apposite, a number of others fail to meet the tunate case, this is due at least in part to the generally high standards set by their musico- writer's attempts to score brownie points by logical counterparts. Predictably, over a third of highlighting what he subjectively perceives as the the composers attempt to contrive their offerings failings of earlier scholarship. from musical ciphers derived from Hitchcock's But these are minor grumbles. The editors name, etc.; some manage this rather less suc- of A Celebration of American Music are to cessfully than others. The one outstanding be wholeheartedly congratulated for bringing musical contribution comes from Milton Babbitt, together a collection of essays and compositions whose Three Cultivated Choruses on Texts Set by which honour their dedicatee so generously, com- Caccini in 'Le Nuove Musiche' is substantial, well prehensively and readably. This book is far more wrought, intelligent and —given Hitchcock's substantial than many Festschriften and may well Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/73/1/135/1220415 by guest on 29 September 2021 scholarly interests—entirely appropriate. prove to be a major contribution to, and advocate Almost all the essays display exemplary schol- for, the further detailed study of American music arship. Most, in addition, are written in in all its forms. an unpedantic style — identified by Richard DAVID NICHOLLS Crawford in his introductory chapter as having been pioneered by Hans T. David (1902- 67) —which Hitchcock would no doubt approve Elgar in Manuscript. By Robert Anderson, pp. xii of. Perhaps surprisingly, given the great variety of + 204. (The British Library, London, 1990, subjects covered, several issues crop up more than £30. ISBN 0-7123-0203-4.) once. The most notable of these are the deifica- tion of German musical ideals, principally With the recent publication of Jerrold North- (though not exclusively) in the nineteenth cen- rop Moore's third collection of correspondence tury; the negative judgements made of African- (Edward Elgar: Letters of a Lifetime, Oxford, American musical achievements by earlier white 1990), one massive project of Elgar research has musicians; press corruption and its manipulation come to an end, with the composer's life now by promoters and other individuals; and the posi- perhaps as fully documented as that of any of his tion of women (including composers' wives) in musical contemporaries. It seems an opportune American music. time, then, for a new start, and this Robert Among the highlights of the collection are Anderson has instigated in the present study. Crawford's extended discussion of early That Elgar in Manuscript should constitute the nineteenth-century American psalmody; Minna first extended survey in print of the composer's Lederman's marvellous recollections of Stravin- surviving sketches (they have been discussed sky; Edward A. Berlin's scrupulously researched previously in articles and unpublished theses, essay on Joplin's lost opera A Guest of Honor; and notably by Christopher Kent) may seem Steven Ledbetter's comparison of two seduc- somewhat surprising, given that the material is no tresses: Saint-Saens's Delilah and George more difficult of access than the letters which Whitefield Chad wick's Judith. There are have been mined so profitably; but Elgar's music thought-provoking, and at times amusing, con- has generally taken a back seat to his life in the at- tributions by D. W. Krummel and Vivian Perlis; tention of scholars, and it is only relatively recent- and rich, complex, explorations of works by Ives ly that the sketches have become the subject of (Wayne Shirley) and Ruth Crawford (Judith systematic investigation (although the work of Tick). One regrets, though, that these last two Percy M. Young on The Spanish Lady should not essays are so short (fourteen and eighteen pages be overlooked). In the last few years, this work respectively, of which over a third are given over has been given added impetus and direction by to music examples, figures, footnotes etc.), since Novello's Elgar Complete Edition, and Dr Ander- each contains material of sufficient breadth and son, as co-ordinating editor and mainspring of depth to fill at least three times as many pages. that project, is thus well qualified to act as a Conversely, several of the longer essays in the guide through what he terms in his preface the earlier sections of the book are of rather marginal 'kaleidoscopic shiftings' of Elgar's musical mind. interest, even to American music specialists. They He begins with what amounts almost to a thus somewhat outstay their welcome. Further- disclaimer: 'To study Elgar's working methods is more, a number of authors, perhaps through an to do no more than that. Elgar has left behind over-zealous desire to emphasize their scholarly much evidence of his creative processes but tells credentials, make annoyingly frequent use of nothing about the spark of inspiration that finally

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