Publications

With the collaboration of more than 200 European, and American musicologists, in 1970 the French musicologist Marc Honegger (1926–2003) assembled the first edition of his comprehensive biographical encyclopedia. This new edition includes 5,500 entries over two volumes. The entries cover a diverse range of musical personalities, from composers and performers to musicologists, music theorists, instrument makers, and music editors. The composer entries include a list of works; most entries feature a bibliography. French musical life is a particular strength of this encyclopedia, which contains entries on French figures who are not included in Grove or MGG. Some 20th-century figures, such as the composer Olivier Messiaen, wrote autobiographical entries for the Dictionnaire de la musique, an uncommon feature that reveal how these composers wished to be remembered. In addition to these unique perspectives, the entries on standard subjects such as Beethoven, Mozart, or Schumann contain original insights that one might not expect to find in an encyclopedia of this length. This makes the Dictionnaire an essential reference tool for any researcher of French musical culture.