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Schubert and His World: A Biographical Dictionary. Peter Clive. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. xxvi, 310 p. 24 cm. ISBN 0-19-816582-X: £29.95, $45.00

The Schubert-Lexikon contains over 800 signed articles on Schubert's life, work, and world, and on the history of Schubert reception. Each article includes a bibliography, some of which are quite comprehensive-a necessity, according to the editor, dictated by the absence of a good Schubert bibliography since the 1938 publication of Willi Kahl's Verzeichnis des Schirfttums über Franz Schubert: 1828-1929. (Even so, the bibliographies appended to the large music encyclopedias such as Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, New Grove, etc. have served scholars very well.) The intention of the Lexikon is to provide the contextual background to Schubert's music rather than to analyze it. Thus there are numerous entries under friends and acquaintances, publishers, performers and musicologists (giving preference to those who are already dead), locations, musical concepts, organizations, and libraries, as well as articles on such topics as Congress of Vienna, exhumation, and wine. The volume closes with a concordance of opus numbers and Deutsch numbers, a list of contributors and a table of abbreviations.

Schubert and His World, by contrast, is a biographical dictionary, containing information about some 300 individuals somehow relevant to Schubert (librettists, musicians, publishers, etc.). Modern performers are omitted. Bibliographies are not appended to the individual articles, although there is a bibliography of sources at the end of the volume. The chronology is excellent and extends beyond Schubert's death (e.g., to the erecting of a Schubert statue in 1868).

For the individuals listed in them, it is worth acquiring both works. [mr/sl]

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Katalog der Sammlung Anthony van Hoboken in der Musiksammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek: musikalische Erst- und Frühdrucke [Catalog of the Collection of Anthony van Hoboken in the Music Collection of the Austrian National Library: First and Early Editions]. Published for the Institut für Österreichische Musikdokumentation. Tutzing: Schneider. 28 cm

Vol. 13. Franz Schubert: Werke Opus 1-106. Ed. Karin Breitner. 1996. xii, 182 p. ill. ISBN 3-7952-0846-7: DM 180.00

Vol. 14. Franz Schubert: Werke op. post. 107-173 und Werke ohne Opuszahl [Posthumous Works and Works without Opus Number]. Ed. Karin Breitner. 1996. xii, 179 p. ill. ISBN 3-7952-0859-9: DM 180.00

In 1974 the Austrian National Library acquired the Hoboken Collection, the largest collection of musicalia assembled by a private party in the twentieth century. Cataloging this collection proceeds apace, with the two Schubert volumes appearing in 1996. A total of 749 imprints are described. Numbers 1 through 425 are assigned to works with an opus number; numbers 426 through 749 are allotted to the Nachgelassene Dichtungen für Gesang und Pianoforte edited by Diabelli and to those works without opus numbers.

Entry of titles follows the familiar formula found in previous volumes of the set: title, pagination, format, watermarks, printing techniques, gathering numbers, notes about specific characteristics of the edition in hand (e.g., indications of previous ownership), etc. Finally, information is provided about the dating of the piece (with sources cited). Organization is by opus number; the first edition is listed first, followed by subsequent printings and editions under a new title. The running header for each work described consists of the opus number plus the Deutsch number, the listing number, and the call number. A concordance at the end of each volume refers the user from the Deutsch number to the catalog number. There are indices of names, publishers, and places of imprint. [sh/jbr]

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Musikit Italy: A Complete Catalogue of All the Classical Music Scores Available for Sale in ... Published by the Italian Music Publishing Houses. Ed. Francesco Gorio. Brescia: MKT Musikit. 30 cm. (MKT Musikit S.r.l., Via Corsica 305, I-25125 Brescia, fax: [39 30] 222 067)

1997 ed. lvi, 733 p. Lit. 120,000

Musikit Italy is an Italian listing of music in print limited to classical music scores. This, the first edition, covers items published before December 31,1996. The main body of the work is proceeded by a listing of publishing houses, which, lacking many addresses, is rather superfluous. There is a list of composers, often with birth and death dates and a list of abbreviated names of the instruments for which each piece is set (in English, Italian, French, and German). Arrangement of the entries is alphabetical by name of composer. Information about the pieces is supplied by the publisher and includes: (1) the composer's name, (2) name of the arranger, (3) title of the composition, (4) instrumentation (in the case of arrangements, instrumentation of the arrangement, not of the original), and (5) the order number and name of the publisher. Editions of Bach by Busoni, say, can be found only under Bach. Anthologies can be found within the alphabetical arrangement under "Autori vari." The listing of the pieces under each composer's name is computer-generated, with a result that is not always sensible or practical.

Musikit Italy is a useful and necessary tool and should be seen as a supplement to the Verzeichnis lieferebarer Musikalien, the German Music in Print. It should not be too difficult to remedy its various faults, and it is to be hoped that an improved version will be published. [mr/jbr]