The Oxford Dictionary of Music

An indispensable guide for all music lovers and performers, both amateur and professional, The Oxford Dictionary of Music brings together an unrivalled collection of entries - 12,500 in all - covering musical subjects of all kinds in an authoritative and accessible way. Included in this impressive work are entries on composers, performers, conductors, musical terms and forms, instruments, works, venues, and a host of other topics.

Containing 5,000 entries on composers, most of which include up-to-date worklists, The Oxford Dictionary of Music also provides entries on conductors, performers, directors, critics, producers and designers of international repute, writers and scholars. Entries also cover individual works, including operas and ballets, orchestras and companies from around the world, famous opera houses, concert-halls, and musical festivals. Musical terms and styles, as well as forms ranging from operatic, vocal, and film scores, to song cycles, chamber, hymns, barbershop, and oratorios are covered, as are general themes such as musicology, acoustics, and absolute pitch, and historical periods such as the Byzantine era. Entries also include a wide range of musical instruments, from the familiar - strings, wind, and brass - to the less familiar - aeolian harp, bamboula and sackbut.