Item Detail
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Barlow, Harold
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Morgenstern, Sam
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A dictionary of opera and song themes : including cantatas, oratorios, lieder, and art songs = originally published as A dictionary of vocal themes
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Book
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New York, N.Y.
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c1976
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Crown Publishers
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547 p. : music ; 25 cm.
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English
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Rev. ed.
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0517525038; 9780517525036
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Vocal music--Thematic catalogs.
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Vocal Music; Operas; Cantatas; Oratorios; Lieder; Art Songs; Song Themes
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ML 128 .V7 B3 1976
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Barlow, Harold, and Sam Morgenstern, comps. A Dictionary of Opera and Song Themes, rev.ed. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1976.
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Dictionary designed to aid those searching for the most prominent and memorable opera and song themes.
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The dictionary consists mainly of vocal themes, including, but not limited to, the most popular themes from operas, cantatas, oratorios, Lieder, and art songs as well as many miscellaneous vocal pieces not belonging to any of the previous categories. The contents of the book are confined mainly to those works recorded in the U.S. and Europe. Because of volume, folk song themes are limited to those composers immersed in their own national folk idiom like Bartók, Kodaly, Vaughan Williams, Warlock, and Weckerlin, whose recordings have become international heritages. The compilers also tried to include popular tunes that have been recorded several times by well-known concert artists, thereby achieving a kind of classical status. Operas such as Pélleas and Mélisande, Electra and Salome are omitted as every vocal line could be thematic depending on the listener's choice and quoting them could have meant copying the entire score. Songs themes from works by Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Strauss and other Lieder composers were chosen based on an examination of scores of recital programs as well as record catalogues.
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This dictionary is arranged alphabetically by the composer's last name. The themes for each composer are then catalogued alphabetically under the general categories of cantata, Lieder, operas, oratorios, and songs. An exception to this is made for certain prolific composers whose themes are arranged by opus number (i.e. Mozart's incipits are listed chronologically by Köchel number). It also contains a notation index and an index for first line and title of each theme.
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Due to the sheer volume of the topic only a limited number of song themes could be used. While the compilers have been very specific about what they did and didn't include, unless the reader is aware of their parameters by referring to the Introduction, one might spend a lot of time looking for what isn't there.
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Spivacke, Harold. Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 8 (March 1951): 334-35.http://www.jstor.org/stable/889997
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BYU Mus Ref
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2180