Best music dictionary

[pianowelsh]

Hi Guys, think this one is important for us.  Which is the Best and which is the most affordable music dictionary for musicians. I know we'd all love the Grove complete but we'd all have to get bigger book shelves and remorgage the house! So some others maybe?? Im particularly interested to know which ones have the most accurate translations of foreign terms.

[Bob]

New Harvard Dictionary of Music    But it's a big thick book, $30-40.  It's not something you can carry around -- which makes it less useful even if it's great.

For quick portable reference, any of the little pocket music dictionaries.


Anywhere there's internet access -- ask.  The definitions in any dictionary don't really cover the true meaning of words.  Ask someone.  Here or live.

I think Piano Street has some kind of free download for a music dictionary.

[faulty_damper]

I have this dictionary and one of the most surprising things, and very ironic, is that there is no definition of "music".

The closest word is "musica".

[pianowelsh]

Indeed - very ironic. One of the first essays we had to write in Music college was a discourse on 'what is music and what is not music', perhaps thats why...noone really knows!  Does anyone know any FREE online ones which are good and reliable. I know you can subscribe to Grove but it is pretty expensive and Im looking for one I can recommend to students.  I loved studying with one of the french trained teachers in college because he would always ask - what does this word mean. You would give him the dictionary definition of the word and he would say NO what does it mean which was usually quite different in the nuance.