I received a promotional announcement over the weekend from MacMillan
press announcing the upcoming release of the New Grove, Second Edition
(aka TNG2).  Now, us oldtimers may find this rather amusing.  You see,
the "New" Grove was really the sixth edition of the Grove Dictionary of
Music & Musicians.  Apparently, then, the seventh edition will now also be
known as the New Grove, Second Edition.  This could be a little confusing
in the long run.  MacMillan seems to be taking a lesson from Microsoft
marketing.  I'm a little surprised that they didn't decide to name it
"Grove 2000".

In any case, the print edition is due out in hardback (no current plans
for paperback, obviously - look for this in 10-15 years if it happens at
all) in September 2000, with a subsequent release of the "on-line" Grove
in December 2000.  Yes, folks, you read right, they are going to do an
electronic edition.  However, for the time being at least, the electronic
edition will be on-line only.  That is, you buy the rights to access the
Grove web site with the Internet.  They may consider releasing a CD-ROM
version, but they currently have no concrete plans.  One of the major
advantages of the on-line version is that continuous updates will be made
available at the site.  This may be the first step to a paperless Grove
that is in a state of continual flux (my speculation).  In fact, based on
the info at their web site, the paper version will immediately be out of
date (and out of synch) compared with the on-line version the moment it
is sent to the printer.

The Newest Grove is reported to be:  28 volumes (up from 20 volumes
for the New Grove) with a 29th volume for the index; 20 million words
(up 6 million); and 29,000 articles (up 6,500) with another 2,500 existing
articles revised or rewritten.  They are also offering the first
comprehensive index to the dictionary since the first edition over a
century ago.  The electronic version is intriguing, and will be offered
for weekly or monthly access as well.  They are promising a powerful search
capability, dynamic cross-references, and links out to web resources.  I
just hope they price it reasonably enough for us amateurs.  It's a guess on
my part, but I'm expecting the hardback edition to sell in the $3,500-4,500
range.  It will be interesting to see if the on-line version is similarly
pricey.

If you are not familiar with the New Grove Dictionary, it is simply the
most comprehensive and authoritative (as a whole) reference work in music.
Check out your local library copy (in the reference section) and/or check
out the web site:

   http://www.grovereference.com/

Dave
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http://www.classical.net/