Donald Clarke wrote:

> I shudder to think how many composers represented on my shelves
>are not found in Ross's book.  He wasn't trying to achieve any sort
>of balance, but telling a dramatic story, and he couldn't put everybody
>in.  I don't know if his choices infer anything about his own preferences.

He tells lots of stories, and he tells them well.  Whether he is trying
to tell an overall story is what I would like to know.  It is not a
matter of fitting everyone in but more a matter of giving proportionate
representation to the styles he considers important and from that one
can make reasonable inferences.

>When I worked for five years in the 1980s on the Penguin Encyclopedia
>of Popular Music...  I put plenty of people in for whom I personally had
>no use, because they had sold lots of records, and therefore would have
>to be found in such a reference book.

One thing for sure: Ross is not giving space to composers in proportion
to their popularity, but according to other criteria of importance or
interest.

Jim Tobin

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