Notes: a sixtieth birthday retrospective.

Krummel, D.W.

Forty years ago, the late Frank Campbell, editor of Notes, needed an essay celebrating the journal's first twenty years. These were dark days for both the association and its journal: funds were short, and the vision was strong but not confident. Implicit in my assignment was the case for the journal to continue. (1) My sequel twenty years later reflected a happier time: (2) the journal was still highly respected, but the crisis that lay behind the 1962 essay had passed. For the present third essay, the news is still good: if there is a crisis at all, it is partly caused by success. (3) The editorial practices have been worked out, and special features have been added, removed, revised, or deleted in orderly and convincing fashion. The turnover in editorial staff has been continuous and inconspicuous (editorial staff are recognized in table 1 (4)). The page count put on weight, then went on a diet. Advertisers, knowing that Notes readers come to remember their names and look for their new titles, have remained steady in their support. While other timely features (as listed in table 2) have served the special needs of many readers, it is the articles and reviews that have characterized the journal.

Back in 1962 I proposed that the setting in the music world, which makes up the community of readers in the music library, was solid; but that the setting in the library world, which provides the administrative context for the music library, needed attention. In 1982 I thought the reverse was true. For this third retrospective, are there problems? Reviewing the contents of the last twenty years, and in the light of changes in the music world of today, there probably are, although they are hard to define, let alone address. Music librarians are well aware of them, and Notes is part of the answer, at least to the extent that the problem has a solution. Few of us expect things twenty years from now to be propitious in quite the same way as they are now.

Both the music world and the library world continue to spin out of control. (So what is new?) The one has seen a proliferation of writings, kinds of interests, and communities of knowledgeable readers. The other has seen a proliferation of practices for addressing technical library practices. (The music library was such a safe and happy place in the 1950s: say this to the old-timers and watch them laugh!)

Other professional organizations have also proliferated, and caught the eyes of music librarians. In music, the American Musicological Society (AMS) is still the next-door neighbor, partly because its members are our most numerous and supportive readers and contributors. But the Society for American Music (SAM), formerly the Sonneck Society, reflects a long-standing special interest of music libraries. Other music groups--the College Music Society (CMS), the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), and International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) most notably, and many other delimited groups--are in the wings. In the library world, the American Library Association (ALA, as well as its components like ACRL and PLA) has been the obvious counterpart to AMS, but its primacy is being shared with the American Society for Information Science (ASIS). Music librarians today, furthermore, often find their kindred spirits in the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAML), or the Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG), the Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), or even the Art Library Association of North America (ARLIS-NA). The litany of acronyms makes it clear: while Notes has many good neighbors, it lives in its own home.

The articles in Notes--in the beginning usually two per issue, averaging about ten pages each--have been the most conspicuous section of the journal. (5) A survey of the essays, arranged by broad topics to provide a scanning list of sorts, will suggest the content of the journal:

MLA Activities. The parent organization reported on its activities in a Supplement for Members between 1947 and 1964; these reports resumed in 1969 in a newsletter, which continues publication today in electronic form. (6) The association's activities often stand to benefit from the larger audience of Notes itself. Thus the most important general reports have been published in Notes, among them the final report from the association's Ad Hoc Task Force on Plan 2001 Implementation (58, no. 2 [December 2001]: 272-90), Mary Wallace Davidson's report from the Self-Study Steering Committee (53, no. 4 [June 1997]: 1092-1105), and David Lesniaski's profile of the membership (56, no. 4 [June 2000]: 894-906).

Music Librarianship in General. Other essays have addressed the music library as an institution in general. Mary Wallace Davidson wrote on the challenges of American music libraries in the nineties (50, no. 1 [September 1993]: 13-22). To celebrate the new millennium, Notes editor Richard Griscom, assisted by Amanda Maple, prepared a special issue, Music Librarianship at the Turn of the Century (56, no. 3 [March 2000]), with essays by Daniel Zager ("Collection Development and Management"), John Shepard ("Preservation"), A. Ralph Papakhian ("Cataloging"), H. Stephen Wright ("Technology"), Mary Wallace Davidson ("Copyright"), David Lasocki ("Reference"), John E. Druesedow ("Reference Sources"), Leslie Troutman ("User Education"), George Sturm ("Music Publishing"), Tom Moore ("Sound Recordings"), John and Jude Lubrano ("The Antiquarian Music Market"), R. Wayne Shoaf ("Archives"), and Jean Morrow ("Education for Music Librarianship"). (The issue was also published separately as a book by Scarecrow Press in 2000.) Diane Parr Walker further updated the plausible future in "Music in the Academic Library of Tomorrow" (59, no. 4 [June 2003]: 817-27).

History of the American Music Library Community. Carol June Bradley recalled America's early music librarians (43, no. 2 [December 1986]: 272-91), and two leaders in particular: Edward N. Waters (50, no. 2 [December 1993]: 485-501), long at the Library of Congress and eventually chief of the Music Division, also briefly an editor of Notes; and William J. Weichlein (51, no. 4 [June 1995]: 1254-59), longtime factotum of MLA. Patricia Elliott and Mark Roosa prepared a bibliography of Vincent Duckles (44, no. 2 [December 1987]: 252-58), while Danette Cook Adamson and Mimi Tashiro celebrated the early leaders in the California music library world (48, no. 3 [March 1992]: 806-35), and John Anderies discussed the work of Ethel Louise Lyman at Indiana University (59, no. 2 [December 2002]: 264-87). (7)

Major Music Libraries. Libraries have many great stories to go with their collections, and it is always a pleasure to learn about them. Thus we now have important histories by J. Rigbie Turner on the Pierpont Morgan Library (55, no. 2 [December 1998]: 283-326, and no. 3 [March 1999]: 547-82), by Jane Gottlieb on the Juilliard School library (56, no. 1 [September 1999]: 11-26), by Carol June Bradley and James Coover on the State University of New York at Buffalo (57, no. 1 [September 2000]: 21-45), and by Mary Wallace Davidson on Indiana University (59, no. 2 [December 2002]: 251-63). Kathleen McMorrow ingeniously tells the story of music at the University of Toronto through two scores acquired for the collection there (59, no. 1 [September 2002]: 9-19).

Interesting discoveries abroad continue to fascinate. A few involve displacements that are still being discovered from World War II, among them Christoph Wolff's reports on two Berlin libraries, one the Spitta collection in Lodz (46, no. 2 [December 1989]: 311-27), the other in Kiev (58, no. 2 [December 2001]: 259-71), and Brian Mann's on Italian partbooks from Berlin now in Cracow (49, no. 1 [September 1992]: 11-27). Other essays described important materials for scholars, among them David A. Day's on manuscript scores at Covent Garden (44, no. 3 [March 1988]: 456-62), Jeanice Brooks's on Nadia Boulanger's Nachlass (51, no. 4 [June 1995]: 1227-37), and Richard G. King's on Victor Schoelcher's Handel library, also in Paris (53, no. 3 [March 1997]: 697-721). Tom Moore has reported on the major collection of Brazilian piano music in the Biblioteca Alberto Nepomuceno in Rio de Janeiro (57, no. 1 [September 2000]: 59-87). Albert Cohen discusses a French singer's library, ca. 1740 (59, no. 1 [September 2002]: 20-37); and Bruce Gustafson the music of Madame Brillon, from Benjamin Franklin's circle during his sojourn in France (43, no. 3 [March 1987]: 522-43).

Special Holdings in Music Libraries. The holdings of American libraries are still often not as well known as they should be, and Notes is obviously the appropriate site for the reports, for instance, by Joan Evans on the Hans Rosbaud Library at Washington State University (41, no. 1 [September 1984]: 26-40); David L. Sills on the Ernest Bloch manuscripts at Berkeley (42, no. 1 [September 1985]: 7-21) and at the Library of Congress (42, no. 4 [June 1986]: 727-53); Mark Evan Bonds on the Albert Schatz Collection of Opera Librettos at the Library of Congress (44, no. 4 [June 1988]: 655-95); Samuel F. Pogue on unpublished letters of Leopold Stokowski (46, no. 1 [September 1989]: 25-36); Richard Jackson on Gottschalk sources (46, no. 2 [December 1989]: 352-75); David Demsey on the Alec Wilder Archive at the Eastman School of Music (46, no. 4 [June 1990]: 919-27); Brian Mann on the collection of Venezuelan pianist and composer Teresa Carreno at Vassar (47, no. 4 [June 1991]: 1064-83); Peter G. Laki on a newly discovered early Kodaly manuscript (49, no. 2 [December 1992]: 28-38); Ross W. Duffin on a Jacobean catch manuscript at Case Western Reserve University (49, no. 3 [March 1993]: 911-24); Christopher Hailey on the Paul Bekker Collection at Yale (51, no. 1 [September 1994]: 13-21); the late Calvin Elliker on a Liszt autograph at the University of Michigan (51, no. 4 [June 1995]: 1238-53); Stephen McClatchie on the Gustav Mahler-Alfred Rose Collection at the University of Western Ontario (52, no. 2 [December 1985]: 385-406); Richard Charteris on Purcell manuscripts in the Clark Memorial Library at UCLA (52, no. 2 [December 1995]: 407-21); James Grymes on the Ernst von Dohnanyi Collection at Florida State University (55, no. 2 [December 1998]: 327-40); John Koegel on musical sources from Spain and colonial Mexico in the Sutro Branch of the California State Library in San Francisco (55, no. 3 [March 1999]: 583-613); Paul Corneilson on a Grieg autograph in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin (56, no. 4 [June 2000]: 907-14); George Boziwick on the Henry Cowell materials at the New York Public Library (57, no. 1 [September 2000]: 46-58); Calvin Elliker on the Thomas A. Edison Collection of Early American Sheet Music at the University of Michigan (57, no. 3 [March 2001]: 555-73); and Robert Shay on a Purcell manuscript at Yale (57, no. 4 [June 2001]: 819-33). In "Marking the Way," John Bewley discussed the significance of the annotations in Eugene Ormandy's scores at the University of Pennsylvania (59, no. 4 [June 2003]: 828-53), while Peter Bergquist uncovered and described Johann Eccard's tribute to Orlando di Lasso at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis (60, no. 3 [March 2004]: 601-12).

Music Centers. Among the recent happy events has been the attention paid to special research institutes, mostly on American music topics and with major collections. Essays describe the activity at the Popular Culture Library and Sound Recordings Archive at Bowling Green State University, by Bonna J. Boettcher and William L. Schurk (54, no. 4 [June 1998]: 849-59); at the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University, by Paul F. Wells (54, no. 4 [June 1998]: 860-72); at the John Philip Sousa Archives for Band Research at the University of Illinois, by the late Phyllis Danner (55, no. 1 [September 1998]: 9-25); and at the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago, by Suzanne Flandreau (55, no. 1 [September 1998]: 26-36).

New Activities in the Music Library. Among the new areas are computers, and Robert Skinner's piece on microcomputers in the music library (45, no. 1 [September 1988]: 7-14) has good points in it (surprisingly, in that it predates the Internet!). Lenore Coral and others had a bit earlier discussed the automation requirements for music information (43, no. 1 [September 1986]: 14-18), (8) while Deborah Campana, in the early days of the association's electronic mailing list, MLA-L, wrote on the written information flow among music librarians (47, no. 3 [March 1991]: 686-707). The delivery of digitized sound over the Internet was surveyed by Richard Griscom (59, no. 3 [March 2003]: 521-41), and Yale Fineman discussed the electronic publishing of dissertations (60, no. 4 [June 2004]: 893-907). Such articles may soon be obsolete (although they will surely be studied someday as part of the history of music library technology), but this makes them all the more important now.

Collection development also emerged as a formal activity in music libraries. (In earlier times, we bought the scores, books, and records that we thought we might need; now we do things--when we have money--that fit within the conditions spelled out in policy statements.) Institutional cooperation led to a report on describing and assessing the national music collection by Joan Kunselman, Peggy Daub, and Marion Taylor (43, no. 1 [September 1986]: 7-13). Preservation has also become more formal. (In earlier times, we worried and used scotch tape, Gaylord binders, or Gamble hinges; now we do things--when we have money--that reflect scientifically tested practices.) In Notes, Sion M. Honea described preservation at the Sibley Music Library (53, no. 2 [December 1996]: 381-402); Brenda Nelson-Strauss discussed preserving collections of recorded sound (48, no. 2 [December 1991]: 425-36); while Jim Farrington wrote on preventive maintenance for audio tapes and discs (48, no. 2 [December 1991]: 437-45).

Music Cataloging and Classification. The main internal activity in libraries has always been the control of its collections, and music cataloging--legendarily awkward in our book-oriented settings--has been much discussed. David H. Thomas and Richard P. Smiraglia examined definitions of the "musical work," and the relationship of the work to its physical "instantiations" in cataloging (54, no. 3 [March 1998]: 649-66); Smiraglia also discussed these implications in the broad terms of information retrieval (58, no. 4 [June 2002]: 747-64). The MLA Music Thesaurus Project Working Group reported on its work to develop a thesaurus for music (45, no. 4 [June 1989]: 714-21), and five years further on Harriette Hemmasi elaborated on the thesaurus concept (50, no. 3 [March 1995]: 875-82). In a study of classification systems of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Calvin Elliker used a Schenkerian approach to look at how they tend to organize scores (50, no. 4 [June 1994]: 1269-1320). In a study of music metadata and authority control (57, no. 3 [March 2001]: 541-54), Sherry L. Vellucci introduced another new important concept in systems planning.

Music Reference Services. Work with readers has always been a joy, partly because the readers themselves will justify the importance of music libraries, partly because they are interested so passionately in so many widely different musical things. The late Leslie Troutman was among the first to discuss Internet sources for music librarians (51, no. 1 [September 1994]: 22-41), which David Lasocki later developed (56, no. 4 [June 2000]: 879-93). Public libraries have not supported Notes and MLA as well as their academic counterparts have, but in reference work it is understandably the ideal of the public library that has always prevailed.

Within academia, however, the support for study and writing has been greater, and Notes has thus been the beneficiary of studies like that by Amanda Maple, Beth Christensen, and Kathleen A. Abromeit on undergraduate information literacy in music, followed in the same issue by Mark Germer's discussion of the benefits of collaboration between applied faculty, librarians, and students in a course of study (52, no. 3 [March 1996]: 744-53, 754-60). Beth Christensen, Mary Du Mont, and Alan Green discussed the assessment of reference service in academic music libraries (58, no. 1 [September 2001]: 39-54). Deborah Pierce introduced two essays on music information literacy in volume 60, no. 3 (March 2004): 613-15: Beth Christensen on weaving the practice into an undergraduate music curriculum, ("Warp, Weft, and Waffle," 616-31), and Kathleen A. Abromeit and Victoria Vaughan on their work with the Oberlin Opera Theater ("Info Lit and the Diva," 632-52).

Reference Sources. A range of compilations and evaluative essays have served the needs of reference librarians and scholars. Robin A. Leaver addressed the genre of hymnals and hymnal companions with a view to library collection development (47, no. 2 [December 1990]: 331-54). David Littlejohn surveyed opera reference sources (51, no. 3 [March 1995]: 843-64), while Barry Kernfeld and Howard Rye discussed recent discographies of jazz, blues, and gospel (51, no. 2 [December 1994]: 501-47, and no. 3 [March 1995]: 865-91). Marc-Andre Roberge discussed piano reductions by major composers of orchestral music written by others (49, no. 3 [March 1993]: 925-36), while Thomas F. Heck helped us all celebrate the quincentenary operas on the Columbus story (49, no. 2 [December 1992]: 474-97). Less important as a list than as a splendid help in using lists, and in understanding jazz musicians in general, was Rick McRae's lexicographic exploration of jazz slang (57, no. 3 [March 2001]: 574-84). To help compilers and publishers, MLA proposed guidelines for preparing music reference works (50, no. 4 [June 1994]: 1329-38).

In the new world of electronic sources, Michael Colby evaluated the music coverage in general periodical databases (54, no. 1 [September 1997]: 27-37), while Martin D. Jenkins examined the music subject indexing in Music Index Online, International Index of Music Periodicals, and RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (57, no. 4 [June 2001]: 834-63). Kerala J. Snyder presented a case for the publication of music scholarship in electronic journals (58, no. 1 [September 2001]: 34-38), and Yale Fineman for the need for music Internet megasites (58, no. 3 [March 2002]: 504-10).

Landmark Reference Works. Separate from the book reviews, a few major sources have been the subject of special essays, often by their main editors. Thus, the preparations for publication of the New Grove Dictionary of American Music were described by H. Wiley Hitchcock (41, no. 3 [March 1985]: 467-70), and Stanley Sadie presented a history of the Grove dictionaries, with emphasis on the second edition of the New Grove (57, no. 1 [September 2000]: 11-20). In an essay entitled "Defining Music" (43, no. 4 [June 1987]: 751-66), Don Michael Randel discussed his 1986 edition of the New Harvard Dictionary of Music. The first volume of the Sachteil of the new edition of Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart was reviewed by Mark Germer (52, no. 1 [September 1995]: 39-44), and among major scholarly editions, Wolfgang Rehm discussed various editorial aspects of the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (48, no. 1 [September 1991]: 11-19).

Other reference projects led to bibliographical lists. Marita P. McClymonds and Diane Parr Walker described the U.S. RISM libretto program (43, no. 1 [September 1986]: 19-35), and Raoul F. Camus discussed his compilation Early American Wind & Ceremonial Music, 1636-1836, phase two of The National Tune Index (52, no. 3 [March 1996]: 723-43). The vast torso of "The Mysterious WPA Music Periodical Index" was explored by Dena J. Epstein (45, no. 3 [September 1989]: 463-82).

Musicians and Musical Life. Work in music libraries often leads to essays in which the sources need to stand out in their own right. A number of pieces have thus appeared on musical topics, several being on composers: Michael Beckerman interviewed Jarmil Burghauser on Janacek and editorial practices in that composer's collected edition (41, no. 2 [December 1984]: 249-58); Karl Kroeger wrote on early-twentieth-century American composer and pianist Daniel Jones (41, no. 3 [March 1985]: 471-82) and, with Joan R. Callahan, on early American Nathaniel Billings (60, no. 2 [December 2003]: 377-92); Austin Clarkson gave us a brief catalog of Stefan Wolpe's works (41, no. 4 [June 1985]: 667-82); H. Wiley Hitchock on the original and revised versions of Ives's The Unanswered Question (44, no. 3 [March 1988]: 437-43); Albert Cohen, Carl B. Schmidt, and Bruce Gustafson on the complex relationships among the works of Lully, and resulting misattributions in Schneider's Lully thematic catalog (44, no. 1 [September 1987]: 5-39); Sabina T. Ratner on Saint-Saens's Suite for Cello and Piano, op. 16 (48, no. 1 [September 1991]: 20-25); Alain Frogley on Ralph Vaughan Williams in America (48, no. 4 [June 1992]: 1175-92); Albert Cohen on music at the French court in the baroque era (48, no. 3 [March 1992]: 767-805, and 49, no. 4 [June 1993]: 1390-94); Michael Beckerman on Henry Edward Krehbiel and Dvorak's symphony "From the New World" (49, no. 2 [December 1992]: 447-73); JoAnn Taricani on the Herwarts, early Augsburg patrons (49, no. 4 [June 1993]: 1357-89); John Mangan on Ukrainian composer and conductor Thomas de Hartmann (53, no. 1 [September 1996]: 18-29); George S. Bozarth on "The Origins of Brahms's 'In stiller Nacht'" (53, no. 2 [December 1996]: 363-80); a whole issue on Kurt Weill (56, no. 2 [December 1999]), including Giselher Schubert and Edward Harsh on the editorial priciples of The Kurt Weill Edition (pp. 340-43), Stephen Hinton on editing Die Dreigroschenoper (pp. 319-30), and Joel Galand on reconstructing the Broadway operetta The Firebrand of Florence (pp. 331-43); Ned Quist on the legacy of Joseph Schillinger (58, no. 4 [June 2002]: 765-86); H. Colin Slim on a Stravinsky photograph-autograph at the University of British Columbia (59, no. 3 [March 2003]: 542-55); and Vassilis Vavoulis on seventeenth-century Venetian musical life as preserved in the Massi correspondence in Hannover (59, no. 3 [March 2003]: 556-609).

Music Bibliography in General. Bibliography means many things: it may be a dumping ground, but it is an immensely important and useful dumping ground. David Hunter surveyed achievements in music bibliography in the preceding fifty years, and made suggestions for the next fifty on the occasion of Notes' fiftieth birthday (50, no. 1 [September 1993]: 23-38). My tribute to Otto Albrecht, in the form of a brief discourse on degressive music bibliography, brings out the differences between catalogs and bibliographies (56, no. 4 [June 2000]: 867-78). Among the specialized essays were Michael Ochs on the wit and wisdom of nineteenth-century German musicologist Robert Eitner (48, no. 4 [June 1992]: 1216-24); Frances Barulich and James J. Fuld on his exhibition of music graphics by famous artists (43, no. 2 [December 1986]: 259-71), and Mary Prendergast on the University of Virginia's Lifting Every Voice exhibition (60, no. 2 [December 2003]: 393-406); Jan LaRue, with Jeanette B. Holland, on "Biblioprotocol," including a glossary of German terms useful in music libraries (42, no. 1 [September 1985]: 29-35), and with David Cannata on the need for incipits to identify musical works (50, no. 2 [December 1993]: 502-18), and with Amy Daken on the 1859 thematic catalog of Thaddaus Freiherr von Durniz (50, no. 4 [June 1994]: 1321-28); and John Lubrano on music antiquarian dealers and librarians (47, no. 1 [September 1990]: 21-27). An MLA group headed by Kent Underwood prepared archival guidelines for music publishers (52, no. 4 [June 1996]: 1112-18), and Edward J. Hathaway on state archives of local music (45, no. 3 [March 1989]: 483-94). Michael Ochs further reflected on his experience as editor for a major American book publisher by discussing "What Music Scholars Should Know About Publishers" (59, no. 2 [December 2002]: 288-300).

Early Music Printing and Publishing. The topic was long central to the focus of academic musicology, and hence the presentations in Notes have been of distinguished scholarship. These include Mary S. Lewis on Zarlino's theories of text underlay (42, no. 2 [December 1985]: 239-67) and on the contexts of sixteenth-century Italian music books (46, no. 4 [June 1990]: 899-918); Jane A. Bernstein on early Scotto editions (42, no. 3 [March 1986]: 483-501); Donna T. Cardamone and David L. Jackson on the printing of the Susato first edition of Lassus's opus 1 (46, no. 1 [September 1989]: 7-24); Michele Fromson on sources for the sixteenth-century motet (52, no. 1 [September 1995]: 45-54); Jeremy L. Smith on "The Hidden Editions of Thomas East" (53, no. 4 [June 1997]: 1059-91); and Richard Charteris on an Adam Gumpelzhaimer collection (58, no. 3 [March 2002]: 511-35).

Later Music Printing and Publishing. In generally chronological order, the articles have been by David Hunter on the printing of English opera and song books, 1703-26 (46, no. 2 [December 1989]: 328-51), and on their publishing (47, no. 3 [March 1991]: 647-85), and with Rose Mason on Handel subscription lists (56, no. 1 [September 1999]: 27-93); James J. Fuld on songs from Messiah published during Handel's lifetime (45, no. 2 [December 1988]: 253-57); Patricia Stroh on the Artaria edition of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, op. 2 (57, no. 2 [December 2000]: 289-329, and 60, no. 1 [September 2003]: 46-129); Calvin Elliker on an early-nineteenth-century French guitar method (58, no. 3 [March 2002]: 491-503); and Erik Stenstadvold on a French periodical of the 1820s with music for voice and guitar (58, no. 1 [September 2001]: 11-33); Hans Lenneberg on early-nineteenth-century music printing (41, no. 2 [December 1984]: 239-48) and on the early history of the miniature score (45, no. 2 [December 1988]: 258-61); Philip Olleson on Samuel Wesley and the European Magazine (52, no. 4 [June 1996]: 1097-1111); Leanne Langley, James B. Coover, and me on Victorian music periodicals in general (46, no. 3 [March 1990]: 583-92); Philip Gossett on the 1857 Ricordi numerical catalog (42, no. 1 [September 1985]: 22-28); Victoria Cooper-Deathridge on the Novello stockbook of 1858-69 (44, no. 2 [December 1987]: 240-51); and James Deaville on the C. F. Kahnt archives in Leipzig (42, no. 3 [March 1986]: 502-17).

American Music Printing and Publishing. Americana has been a continuing interest of both Notes and MLA, and the array of essays has extended from the first music books to the present, beginning with my tercentenary piece on the Bay Psalm Book (55, no. 2 [December 1998]: 281-87) and J. Terry Gates on eighteenth-century publisher and bookseller Samuel Gerrish (45, no. 1 [September 1988]: 15-22). The spicy but sad spectacle of the recent Hopkinson manuscript "discovery" is exposed by a gaggle of music library types (Gillian Anderson, Kathryn Miller Haines, Deane Root, Kate Van Winkle Keller, Jean Wolf, and Brad Young) in "Forgery in the Music Library: A Cautionary Tale" (60, no. 4 [June 2004]: 865-92). From the nineteenth century, Harry Eskew wrote on an 1847 Tennessee tunebook (58, no. 2 [December 2001]: 291-301) and Steven Saunders on the publication history of Stephen Foster's "Massa's in de Cold Ground" (43, no. 3 [March 1987]: 499-521). Music periodicals of the period were discussed by Mary Wallace Davidson (54, no. 2 [December 1997]: 371-87), while Bonny H. Miller called attention to the music that was published in general periodicals (50, no. 3 [March 1994]: 883-901). Other special genres include music issued in newspapers, as in the New York Journal, discussed by John Graziano (48, no. 2 [December 1991]: 383-424), and American circus songsters, discussed by Jean M. Bonin (45, no. 4 [June 1989]: 699-713). Bonlyn G. Hall wrote about the Luther Whiting Mason-Osborne McConathy Collection of songsters at the Library of Congress (41, no. 3 [March 1985]: 482-91), Amy Stillman about early Hawaiian songbooks (44, no. 2 [December 1987]: 221-39). For the twentieth century, Notes featured Carol J. Oja's essay on the Cos Cob Press (45, no. 2 [December 1988]: 227-52), and E. Douglas Bomberger's study of the relationship between the composer Edward MacDowell and the publisher A. P. Schmidt (54, no. 1 [September 1997]: 11-26). Calvin Elliker discussed the genre of sheet music in general (53, no. 1 [September 1996]: 9-17, and 55, no. 4 [June 1999]: 835-59).

Related Topics. Finally, some articles are a privilege to see in Notes mostly because their scope is as broad and unpredictable as, well, a good music library ought to be. Jessie Ann Owens discussed "Music Historiography and the Definition of 'Renaissance'" (47, no. 2 [December 1990]: 305-30); Erik D. Gooding described Plains Indian music (55, no. 1 [September 1998]: 37-67); Nicholas Temperley spoke to the work in editing facsimiles for performance (41, no. 4 [June 1985]: 683-88); Peter Jeffery introduced the new Solesmes chant books (47, no. 4 [June 1991]: 1039-64); Anne E. Feldman identified women composers and patrons at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exhibition (47, no. 1 [September 1990]: 7-20); Irene Heskes introduced the participation of Jewish women in liturgical music (48, no. 4 [June 1992]: 1193-1202); J. Peter Burkholder presented an overview of music borrowing as a field (50, no. 3 [March 1994]: 851-70), with a bibliography on music borrowing by Andreas Giger (pp. 871-74); and Stephen Miles explored new ways of thinking about music in "Critics of Disenchantment" (52, no. 1 [September 1995]: 11-38) and "Critical Musicology and the Problem of Mediation" (53, no. 3 [March 1997]: 722-50). In "Jamming the Reception," Steven F. Pond discussed "Ken Burns, Jazz, and the problem of 'America's Music'" (60, no. 1 [September 2003]: 11-45). No doubt these are for the most part articles that their authors likely prepared for Notes in preference to other journals. For all their scholarship, they are written in a missionary spirit appropriate to the unpretentious setting of the music library. The breathing (if such exists at all) is conspicuously less heavy in Bonna J. Boettcher's bibliography of 137 mystery novels in "Music and Musicians in Mystery" (59, no. 4 [June 2003]: 854-60).

Respected scholars (many of them proud to be MLA members) opted to publish in Notes because of its emphasis on the artifacts of music libraries, and also as a setting for essays that could be both thoughtful and unpretentious. The supply of publishable articles for a small but catholic audience (i.e., general but serious) has remained fairly steady. No less important to readers are the journal's other features: the reviews, lists, indexes, even (but most certainly) the advertisements. Editors have agonized over the proportions for these other features, much as the MLA Board has agonized over the funding. The agony is needed if Notes is to celebrate and serve America's music libraries--both their large world as social and cultural institutions, and (insofar as this can be separated) the small world of the music library profession as reflected in the programs of the MLA.

The reviews continue to be a problem: there is too much to cover, and many authors, publishers, and readers suffer from the neglect. The review sections are still the most extensive in any music journal today. (9) Publishers issue several times more titles than Notes has room to review, and it has not been easy to find reviewers (for new music editions especially) who can do work that is authoritative, readable, brief, and prompt. As for the regular lists, from the earliest issues the music list has cited titles received for review. The book list, in contrast, covers the world's publishing output as received and cataloged by the Library of Congress, excepting only reprints and minor efforts, when this can be determined. Many titles are in languages that few Notes readers can manage, but more important, the list is a testimony to the cause of world music, and to our increasingly urgent need to know as much of the world as possible. As for the vast and venerable "Index to Record Reviews," its departure is a mixed blessing. It was much used and respected, but it was also prohibitively costly, both to edit well and to print. Other factors are at work as well, notably the changes in the recording industry, so as to call on music libraries to find new ways to provide listening material. Neverthless, the introduction of the "Sounds Recording Reviews" column in the March 2002 issue assists music librarians in staying abreast of new releases. As a reflection of changing times, volume 45 saw the introduction of the "Music Software" column, which became the "Interactive Multimedia and Software Reviews" column in volume 50, and evolved into "Digital Media Reviews" in volume 56. "Video Reviews," however, had a limited life span between volumes 50 and 54.

The balance of responsibilities of the music library in providing materials for readers, performers, and listeners, is but one of the many ecologies of a changing profession. Other balances are no less important: between local and world music (this is now no longer a distinction between what is well known and unknown); between "serious" and "popular" (whatever the difference may be, and whatever it may matter); between the personal and the social experience of music. These are part of the world that Notes has reflected, and will continue to affect as well. Few of us expect things twenty years from now to be happy in quite the same way as now, but there is a strong faith that Notes needs to and will play a major role in contributing to its quality.

TABLE 1: Notes Editorial Staff, 1983-2003

Editorial staff are credited for their continuous contributions to
editorial policy, stylistic decisions, and procedural processes involved
in producing Notes, in addition to their responsibilities as assistant
or column editors. Volume/issue numbers indicate periods of editorial
service.

Editors:
Susan T. Sommer, 40/1-43/4
Michael Ochs, 44/1-48/4
Daniel Zager, 49/1-54/1
Richard Griscom, 54/2-57/1
Linda Solow Blotner, 57/2-61/1

Assistant Editors:
Richard Koprowski, 40/1-40/3
Frances Barulich, 40/2-43/4
Nym Cooke, 44/1-46/1
Lise Foss, 46/1-48/2
Ruth Tucker, 46/4-48/4
Carl Leaftstedt, 48/3-48/4
Paula Hickner, 49/1-54/3
David Knapp, 49/1-54/3
Mark McKnight, 54/4-58/1
Amanda Maple, 54/4-58/2
R. Michael Fling, 58/2-
Charles Turner, 58/1-60/2
Keith Cochran, 60/2-

Book Review Editors:
Paula M. Morgan, 40/1-42/3
Richard Koprowski, 42/3-43/4
Marion Gushee, 44/1-47/1
Ann P. Basart, 47/2-48/1
Mark Germer & Marjorie Hassen, 48/2-51/1
David Hunter, 51/2-54/4
Eunice Schroeder, 55/1-58/2
David Gilbert, 58/3-

Books Recently Published:
David Sommerfield, 40/1-41/1
William C. Parsons, 41/2-42/4
Stephen Yusko, 43/1-
Rebecca Littman, 53/1-58/1
Karen R. Little, 58/2-

New (Music) Periodicals:
Stephen M. Fry, 40/2-44/2
Deborah Coclanis, 44/3-49/2
Suzanne Eggleston, 49/3-54/3
Karen R. Little, 54/4-58/1
Margaret D. Ericson, 58/2-59/1
Tracey Rudnick, 59/2-

Music Review Editors:
Nina Davis-Millis, 40/1-45/2
Frances Barulich, 40/2-53/2
Darwin F. Scott, 53/1-

Music Received:
Ruth Watanabe, 40/1-53/1
Laura M. Snyder, 53/2-57/2
Linda Blair, 53/2-55/2
Sion M. Honea, 53/2-55/1
David Knapp, 57/3-

Music Publishers' Catalogs:
George R. Hill, 40/1-

Music Price Index:
George R. Hill and Joseph Boonin, 40/3-43/3
Calvin Elliker, 52/3-57/3
Brad Short, 58/2-60/2

Record Reviews Index (since 44/1, "CD Reviews Index"):
Kurtz Myers, 40/1-43/4
Richard LeSueur, 44/1-48/4
Paul Cauthen and Mark Palkovic, 49/1-54/1

Sound Recording Reviews:
Rick Anderson, 58/3-

Audio and Video Equipment Reviews Index:
Arne Jon Arneson & Stuart Milligan, 41-48
Bonna J. Boettcher & Shelley L. Rogers, 49-51

Music Software:
Robert Skinner, 45/3-49/4

Interactive Multimedia and Software Reviews:
Charlotte Crockett, 50/1-55/2
Stephen Davison, 55/3-56/3

Digital Media Reviews:
Stephen Davison, 56/4-59/2
Alec McLane, 59/3-

Video Reviews:
Charles Croissant, 50/1-50/3
James Cassaro, 50/4-54/4

Obituary/Necrology Index (June issues):
Karen M. Nagy, 40-48/4
Mimi Tashiro, 49/4-54/3
Nathan Eakin, 54/4-57/2
Paul Hahn, 57/3-

Index:
Diane Parr Walker, 40-43
Karen R. Little, 44-50
Bonna Boettcher, 51-55
Martin D. Jenkins, 56-

Advertising:
Christine Hoffman, 40/1-44/4
Susan C. Dearborn, 45/1-

TABLE 2: The Changing Content of Notes

Total numbers and pages*

 5 15 25
Vol. (1947-48) (1957-58) (1968-69)

Total pages 590 680 912
Articles (number) 14 4 12
Articles (pages) 266 45 67
Notes for Notes 7 19 15
Book reviews (number) 93 78 104
Book reviews (pages) 78 70 114
Book list (pages) 13 88 96
New periodicals 0 0 0
Music reviews (number) 63 52 70
Music reviews (pages) 51 75 138
Music list (pages) 30 62 47
Music publishers' 0 0 17
 catalogs[double dagger]
Music price index 0 0 0
Forthcoming editions and reprints 0 0 17
Record reviews index (pages) 40 196 146
Equipment reviews index 0 0 0
Music Software
Interactive Multimedia and Software 0 0 0
 Reviews[dagger]
Digital Media Reviews[dagger]
Music Obituary/Necrology Index 0 0 5
Volume Index 0 0 13
Advertising 93 120 187
Miscellaneous (pages) 12 5 50

 35 45 55
Vol. (1978-79) (1988-89) (1998-99)

Total pages 1075 936 1096
Articles (number) 14 9 9
Articles (pages) 226 106 211
Notes for Notes 16 12 14
Book reviews (number) 86 52 150
Book reviews (pages) 114 100 271
Book list (pages) 57 56 116
New periodicals 13 8 5
Music reviews (number) 83 75 39
Music reviews (pages) 106 110 124
Music list (pages) 64 58 58
Music publishers' 40 24 24
 catalogs[double dagger]
Music price index 0 0 13
Forthcoming editions and reprints 0 0 0
Record reviews index (pages) 160 224 0
Equipment reviews index 0 23 0
Music Software
Interactive Multimedia and Software 0 0 14
 Reviews[dagger]
Digital Media Reviews[dagger]
Music Obituary/Necrology Index 9 10 13
Volume Index 12 12 17
Advertising 167 142 165
Miscellaneous (pages) 91 51 51

* To compare these totals closely one needs to consult the copies,
where the differences will come into context. The "Music reviews
(number)" totals, for instance, often cover a number of titles in a
single review. The articles in vol. 5 take up an unusual number of pages
because of Alfred Einstein's addenda to Vogel's Bibliographie des
gedruckten Vokalmusik italiens (87 pp.) and the landmark "Bibliography
of East Asiatic Musics" (46 pp.). both spread over several issues; and
the "Audio-Visual Matters" sections by Philip L. Miller and Kurtz Myers
(15 pp.). "Miscellaneous (pages)" includes administrative matter such as
MLA financial statements, preliminary pages, and letters to the editor.
[double dagger] Vol. 25 included also dealers catalogs. In earlier
volumes, new publishers' and dealers' catalogs were listed in the "Notes
for Notes" column.
[dagger] "Interactive Multimedia and Software Reviews" became "Digital
Media Reviews" with vol. 56 no. 4.

1. D. W. Krummel, "Twenty Years of Notes: A Retrospect," Notes 21, no. 1-2 (Winter-Spring 1963-64): 56-82.

2. Ibid., "The Second Twenty Volumes of Notes: A Retrospective Re-Cast," Notes 41, no. 1 (September 1984): 7-25.

3. The parallel with John Updike's "Rabbit" tetralogy is curious. The spirit of the first twenty years is not unlike that in Rabbit, Run (1960); the second twenty years in Rabbit Redux (1971); the most recent decades in Rabbit Is Rich (1981). As for Rabbit at Rest (1990), I may not be around, for it is the next sequel; but then again, I have never thought of Notes as Rabbit Angstrom to begin with.

4. This list is derived from both the mastheads on the verso of the title pages and also from the headings themselves. In many ways, the most serious problem Notes faces is in finding staff members who know the fields and have the time to do the work. The support of enlightened institutions is invaluable, institutions that know how the efforts of their employees nationally contribute to the quality of their service locally. The names speak to major commitments of personal time and erudite thought. Two contributors in particular, however, need to be singled out for commitments over many years: Susan C. Dearborn, who has handled the complex and essential dealings with advertisers since 1989, and George R. Hill, who has compiled the "Music Publishers' Catalogs" column over the entire twenty-year period (and in fact extending back to 1977, and before that he compiled the "Forthcoming Books about Music" column in 1976!).

5. These are covered by major indexing and abstracting services, as recorded on the page preceding the table of contents of each issue. Since December 2000, the articles (and other features, depending on the vendors) are available electronically at sources listed there as well.

6. Issues beginning with no. 120 (March-April 2000) are available on the MLA Web site, http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/ (accessed 25 May 2004).

7. This is a fine article, but I am sorry that the author did not mention the legend by which Miss Lyman was lovingly remembered by the music library community for so many years. At an MLA meeting (never specifically identified), during a long and heavy discussion, many of those present woke up suddenly when she said, "When our Bach Gesellschaft edition went down on the submarine...." Nobody to my knowledge ever dared ask her for more details, and the archives in Bloomington have yielded no clues. The zany event is in itself sufficiently imaginative to have long delighted music librarians, and deserves to be memorialized, if not as part of Miss Lyman's biography, at least in the lore of MLA.

8. This report has been updated (rev. 29 February 2000) by the Integrated Library Systems Subcommittee of the MLA Administration Committee, and is now available at http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/ at Committees > Administration (accessed 25 May 2004).

9. Mention here should be made of the Eva Judd O'Meara Award, honoring the journal's first editor. The award has been given each year since 1979 to what the MLA Publications Awards Committee sees as the best review in Notes. The recipients are listed in the MLA Membership Handbook.

D. W. Krummel has been professor of library and information science, and of music at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Cornelius Pereira has provided invaluable assistance in preparing this essay.