Even at this late date, the emphasis in musical pedagogy remains directed towards the great works of the 19th and 18th centuries; 20th century music is often ignored or given lesser status. Even the extension of instrumental techniques is often viewed as a novelty item for budding virtuosi, or for humorous effects. 

This book attempts to help remedy this unfortunate failing in musical pedagogy by compiling graded lists of some of the most important literature available for young students of string instruments. Under each listing, there are thoughtful and informative comments, describing the works and giving insights into their value to the student, as well as valuable advice to teachers. The listings are in alphabetical order, and there are works by over 200 composers included. There are also short biographical sketches of the composers in the last section of the book. 

This reviewer, once a student of the double bass, was gratified to see "Contemporary Etudes for the Contrabass," edited by Bertram Turetsky, characterized in the following manner: "Those who associate the term etudes with densely written pages of repetitive exercises will be astonished at the sight of these pieces. Plainly designed for public performance, they exploit a variety of techniques -- harmonics, glissandi, pizzicati, and diverse percussive effects." Ms. Farish has done a great service to students and teachers of string instruments, by putting together this informative and varied compilation.

No one right now appears to be better equipped than Donald Rosenberg to bring the history of the Cleveland Orchestra up to date. Currently classical music critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, he is one of the most respected members of the music press, evidenced among other things by his position as vice-president of the Music Critics Association of North America. As the book jacket tells us, he is himself an “accomplished French horn player” and a graduate of both Mannes and Yale, so no one can ever be label him a critical dilettante.

Rosenberg has not thwarted our expectations. His 700-page book makes for absorbing reading, not merely a reference piece. Nor is it a lazy view of the subject from the rear of the balcony. We learn much about the backstage manipulations that are generally unknown to the public at the time such intrigues, squabbles, private displays of emotion occur. Along with the thoroughly documented press reports and critiques we get an in-depth chronicle of events, even touching on esoteric detail as to, e.g., how the mystery of the “Blossom Boom” was solved (a loud noise during summer concerts caused by the cooling contractions of steel beams at night). Or humorous trivia, e.g., the orchestra’s setting of an in-flight record between Hawaii and Wellington, NZ for beer consumption. Or the examples of Queeg-like paranoia that Szell was noted for, such as his memo to the orchestra chastizing some members for wearing socks that were too short.

But Rosenberg does not scrimp on the macro elements in his report, and we learn much about the great figures in this body’s development--founder Adella Prentiss Hughes (first woman impresario), conductors Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodzinski, George Szell (inarguably the C.O.’s greatest organizational architect), Lorin Maazel (controversial at first but destined to change the orchestra in important ways), and the elegant Christoph von Dohnanyi. For any serious record collector, there is a discography (1924 on), Other valuable appendices cover the orchestra’s world and U.S. premieres, a roster of personnel (from 1918 on), a bibliography, and footnotes galore, not to mention 70 photographs of historic interest. We find the general index somewhat inconsistent in that musicians mentioned in several places throughout the book may have only one index page reference or none at all. Composers are entirely omitted from the index. Important to us is that there is no easy way to search quickly for mentions of our own subject--contemporary music--other than the aforementioned list of premieres and the occasional comment on the repertoires and programming policies of the C.O.’s conductors.

Rosenberg’s remarks on programming are scrupulously limited to those of other critics, from Virgil Thomson to Anon, and sometimes these emanate from places outside of the TransAtlantic sphere of activity. From the chronicles of Maazel’s 1973 Australian tour, he quotes a critic as carping over the C.O.’s bearing "the European memories of yesterday [and a program] that hardly warrants the airfare from the USA." The typically unidentified critic added, "Perhaps there is no national pride left, no rejoicing in one’s own abilities, no more adventure but only a nostalgic day-dream in the mausoleums of European history. Oh Benjamin Franklin, America is in need of thee." 

Rosenberg, for once, argues that the “American tally … wasn’t so terrible … Barber’s Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, William Schuman’s Symphony #7.” The Aussie critic may have simply discounted these works as not modern enough for him, spoke in general rhetorical terms, or simply missed some or all of those specific concerts. Whatever the case, we note that this was one of the very few attacks on the C.O.’s “modern” repertoire (or lack thereof) documented, and surely there were many more. Also, Rosenberg may have betrayed his own feelings in his defense here. Elsewhere, he seems to find a certain charm in Maazel’s early boast that “I could conduct 20 years of concerts in Cleveland and never open another score because I have a repertoire of over 1,000 works.” Not a very reassuring case for the cause of music’s future.

Which brings us to the next point. What does the author have to say about the state of music from the perspective of Cleveland, Ohio? Where does a great symphony orchestra stand today in music education, in terms of the cultural taste of the average American, in the matter of the outlook for serious music. He says little. He seems to have kept subjectivity, and therefore the seeds of controversy, out of the discussion quite deliberately. Yet one would have hoped for at least a final chapter that tries to paint a pic-ture of the future, perhaps as Mark Grant did in his Maestros of the Pen, in quite a dour fashion, to be sure. Rosenberg acknowledges only that classical recordings are no longer making money except for historic issues (which are readily gobbled up by connoisseurs). We would have welcomed a fuller outlook, not necessarily as either a pessimist (as Mark Grant) or as an optimist, but simply as an observer. For one of the ideas we pull from these pages is the increased interest in 20th century music shown first by Maazel and then even more so by Maestro Dohnanyi, a turn-around vis-à-vis other world-class or-chestras. Is this significant?

We think this is more than likely a statistical accident, as when a period of drought is followed by normal rainfall, the “rain-fall” in this case coming during the orchestra’s more recent his-tory. Considered a passionate Eurocentric, George Szell in his 24 years at the helm could not successfully hide the fact that he cared little for contemporary music. True, at first he showed some real feeling for new music, such as his high regard for Copland’s Third Symphony when it was still a fresh piece. But whatever interest he may have had--especially in the Second Viennese School--it waned by the late ‘50s, some 15 years into his tenure.  In regard to a very late work by his one-time protege Igor Stravinsky, he once reported to A. Beverly Barksdale, associate manager,  “I saw al-ready two of the movements. It is written in the post-Webernian small-fart-burp- belch-hiccup-technique with the fitting rhythmical quirks.” From then on Szell, who always had trouble with shifting meters and other modern techniques, gave lip service to 20th cen-tury compositions by generally passing them on to assistant conductor Louis Lane.

This is not to say that Szell was anything but a great conductor, and we have always enjoyed his recordings of the standard repertoire of which we have many. Rosenberg makes certain that we never forget that, despite all of the criticism he did get during his long tenure. But that’s not the issue. Admittedly we have an ax to grind, and we believe we owe it to our readers to call attention to the plight of the living composer whenever his existence may appear to be glossed over or totally ignored by the press. We could be wrong in our observations as to the weight the author gives contemporary music—we received the book but a few days prior to this writing and did not have the luxury of reading the book fully from cover to cover. We could have missed something;  we should not fault the index for that. We can and will, however, commit ourselves to this much and rate The Cleveland Orchestra Story irresistible, tremendously informative and a just plain good read. And, yes, it should be in the library of every lover of sym-phonic music and certainly every collector of books on music. Period!