Writings on music in N.Z.

Press, 19 April 1986, Page 20

Writings on music in N.Z.

A Bibliography of Writings about New Zealand Music. Compiled by D. R. Harvey. Victoria University Press, 1985. 222 pp. $24.95.

This valuable bibliography which covers material published “to the end of 1983” will serve scholars, researchers, and teachers well. Performers, writers of programme annotations, reviewers, and a host of music-lovers with historical leanings, as well as historians and librarians, will find such a sensibly compiled publication a valuable resource to have close by. From an Author and a Subject Index the reader may trace over 2000

entries. These entries themselves are arranged under headings as follows: Histories and Surveys, Composition and Composers, Performance and

Performing Groups, Performers, Education, Administration, Organs and Church Music, Bands and Bandsmen. There are also more specific activities listed. The author is to be congratulated on transforming what might appear to be a routine, technical job into something of quite absorbing interest. Harvey, the local branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, and various sponsors have cause for satisfaction. — J. A. Ritchie.