60:. Their aim, as set out in the preface to the first edition in 1951, was "to try to supply a guide-book to the vast available repertory of the gramophone". The book ran to 763 pages, but nevertheless confined its coverage to records available in Britain in the domestic catalogues up to and including December, 1950. A reviewer wrote of the first edition: "It is not an encyclopaedia … for the principle of it is selective rather than comprehensive. We cannot, therefore, fairly charge the authors with omissions other than those which are inadvertent. The point is made with subtlety in the introduction. 'Inadvertent omissions there are bound to be, in spite of every effort to avoid them but it should not be assumed by the reader that an unquoted record has been simply overlooked. It is much more likely to have been excluded deliberately.'"
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The book considers recordings in alphabetical order of composer. Each composer section begins with an introduction assessing and describing the composer's works, after which the recordings are described and evaluated, using a star system, with two stars as the top rating. Of the introductions, the
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wrote, "these paragraphs vary from a few lines to a couple of pages (the length being unrelated to the importance of the composer) and anyone unfamiliar with the authors would not have to read far before realising that two exceptionally intelligent musical minds had been at work."
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was being introduced, but records were also being issued in the old 78 r.p.m. format. By 1955 the number of new releases threatened to overwhelm the authors, who recruited two younger colleagues to help them,
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To the keep the guide current, Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor produced interim updates,
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recordings of classical music in the 1950s. It was a precursor to modern guides such as
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was an
English reference work that listed, described, and evaluated
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was published, three young musical writers emulated its layout and
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in 1955, running to 957 pages, and a final supplement in 1956.
91:. Between them they produced a full new edition of
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113:The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music
41:The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music
98:Four years after the last in the series of
16:English reference guide of classical music
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52:The guide was conceived and written by
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78:in 1952 and 1953. At this time the
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25:Dust-jacket of the 1955 edition
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1:
184:Classical music discographies
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10:
200:
135:Review of The Record Guide
174:English non-fiction books
110:, which has evolved into
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141:, September 1951, p. 11
108:The Stereo Record Guide
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158:, January 1956, p. 23
56:and the music critic
54:Edward Sackville-West
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58:Desmond Shawe-Taylor
80:long playing record
48:Publication history
150:Robertson, Alec,
133:Robertson, Alec,
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100:The Record Guide
93:The Record Guide
31:The Record Guide
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76:The Record Year
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156:The Gramophone
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139:The Gramophone
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104:modus operandi
67:The Gramophone
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85:Andrew Porter
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179:Music guides
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89:William Mann
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64:reviewer of
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168:Categories
36:gramophone
152:Review
119:Notes
87:and
106:in
170::
154:,
137:,
126:^
44:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
