Barlow/Morgenstern Dictionary of Musical Themes

[eschiss1]

Does anyone know this book (published 1948 or 1949)? There's a copy belonging to my parents, which I've often looked at and which recently (re-)raised the point for me of just how I take for granted that music I hadn't heard of was always equally unknown. Of about 150 composers (and, according to a website online that has each one-line snippet from the dictionary "MIDIfied" and searchable, about 90,000 themes), one found in the book openings to works of music by Bantock, Bloch, Casella, Myaskovsky, Cui, Juon, Lassen, Rubinstein, Schoenberg, and Zimbalist (, Malipiero, Harl McDonald,...) as well as Bach, Dvorak, Mozart, - etc. ... - (not opera (beyond separate overtures &c...) which was in a separate book.)

Have always thought well of that book...

[rosflute]

yes, I have a copy - although I've always thought it should be more useful than it is! nowadays it's superseded by apps

[mbhaub]

I have that in my library, along with a shipload of other, old music books. It's enlightening to read them and encounter so many names that have fallen by the wayside but who were once considered worthy of attention.

[Mark Thomas]

Eric refers to the web site which has MIDI-fied all Barlow and Morgenstern's thematic snippets. It's the Electronic Dictionary of Musical Themes.