Sadie, Stanley 1930–2005

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Sadie, Stanley 1930–2005

(Stanley John Sadie)

PERSONAL:

Born October 30, 1930, in Wembley, Middlesex, England; died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) March 21, 2005, in Cossington, England; son of David (a textile merchant) and Deborah Sadie; married Adele Bloom, December 10, 1953 (died, 1978); married Julie Anne McCornack Vertrees, July 18, 1978; children: (first marriage) Graham Robert, Ursula Joan, Stephen Peter; (second marriage) Celia Kathryn, Matthew. Education: Cambridge University, B.A., 1953, Mus.B., 1953, M.A., 1957, Ph.D., 1958.

CAREER:

Trinity College of Music, London, England, lecturer, 1957-65; Times, London, music critic, 1964-81; Musical Times, London, associate editor, 1966-67, editor, 1967-87; Macmillan Publishers Ltd., London, editor, 1970-2000. Military service: Royal Air Force, 1948-49.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Named an honorary fellow of the London Royal College of Music, 1997; named Commander of the Order of British Empire, 1982; honorary D.Litt. from the University of Leicester.

WRITINGS:

Handel, J. Calder (London, England), 1962, Crowell (New York, NY), 1968.

(With Arthur Jacobs) Pan Book of Opera, Pan Books (London, England), 1964 (also published as The Opera Guide, Hamish Hamilton [London, England], 1964), published as Great Operas in Synopsis, Crowell (New York, NY), 1966, revised edition published as The Limelight Book of Opera, Limelight Editions (New York, NY), 1985, published as Great Opera Classics, Gramercy Publishing (New York, NY), 1987.

Mozart, J. Calder (London, England), 1966, Grossman (New York, NY), 1970.

Beethoven, Crowell (New York, NY), 1967.

Handel Concertos, University of Washington Press (Seattle, WA), 1972.

The New Grove Mozart (first published in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Macmillan [London, England], 1980), W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1983, new edition with Cliff Eisen published as The New Grove Mozart: The New Grove Composer Biographies, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2001.

(With wife, Julie Anne Sadie) Calling on the Composer: A Guide to European Composer Houses and Museums, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2005.

Mozart: The Early Years, 1756-1781, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2006.

EDITOR

(And contributor) The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (twenty volumes), Macmillan (London, England), 1980, 2nd edition, Grove (New York, NY), 2001.

The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1984.

(With H. Wiley Hitchcock) The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (four volumes), Grove's Dictionaries of Music (New York, NY), 1986.

Mozart Symphonies, Ariel Music (London, England), 1986.

(With Alison Latham) Stanley Sadie's Music Guide: An Introduction, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1986, condensed 3rd edition published as Stanley Sadie's Brief Guide to Music, 1993.

(With Anthony Hicks) Handel: Tercentenary Collection, UMI Research Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1987.

(With assistant editor Alison Latham) The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1988.

(With Howard Mayer Brown) Performance Practice: Music before 1600, Macmillan Press (London, England), 1989.

(With D.W. Krummel) Music Printing and Publishing, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1990.

(With Howard Mayer Brown) Performance Practice: Music after 1600, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1990.

History of Opera, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1990.

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (twenty-nine volumes), Grove's Dictionaries of Music (New York, NY), 1992.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Essays on His Life and His Music, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

The New Grove Book of Operas, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1997, 2nd edition revised by Laura Macy published as The Grove Book of Operas, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Mozart and His Operas, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Puccini and His Operas, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Verdi and His Operas, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Wagner and His Operas, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Classical Music, 2000.

The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Opera, Billboard Books (New York, NY), 2004.

The Billboard Encyclopedia of Classical Music, Billboard Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Editor, "Master Musicians" series, J.M. Dent (London, England), 1976—; general editor, "Man and Music" series, 1989-93. Contributor to Gramophone, Musical Times, Opera, and other music publications.

SIDELIGHTS:

Stanley Sadie was a music enthusiast who published many titles on classical music and opera. Speaking of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Sadie, Joseph McLellan in the Washington Post Book World called the work "a landmark, a dazzling achievement" and declared: "Its appearance is one of the major publishing events of our time." The twenty-volume, twenty-million-word compendium of articles on musical movements and genres, composers and performers, instruments and individual works is "a great achievement, a masterpiece," wrote Anthony Burgess in the Times Literary Supplement. Harold C. Schonberg in the New York Times Book Review called the dictionary "the most ambitious and comprehensive musical dictionary and encyclopedia ever attempted, and overall, it is a brilliant success."

Ten years in the making, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians contains thousands of entries examining not only larger aspects of musicology, but also the minutiae. Commented McLellan: "No music scholar, no matter how learned, can read [this dictionary] at random for any length of time without learning something new…. No reference library can claim to be adequately well-rounded unless it has a copy." Although some reviewers criticized the work for omissions and oversights, the dictionary's comprehensive coverage of non-Western, nonclassical music "amounts to a revolution," stated McLellan. "[This thoroughness is evidenced by] a remarkable fineness of perception," the critic continued. "There is a full page on the Beatles, for example, including some thoughtful musical analysis. There is an entry on Elvis Presley, but none on Dolly Parton—and in terms of their musical importance, this is precisely as it should be…. There are special articles on the musical culture of all the world's major cities and virtually every country." Critics also praised the work's style as well as its content. "The articles on Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner and the rest can hardly be overpraised," claimed Burgess. "They are not merely informative, they are sometimes thrilling in the manner of literature."

Yet some critics did call attention to flaws in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. In addition to mentioning the absence of several noteworthy composers, Burgess questioned the amount of space allotted to several entries. Schonberg found "a few articles are surprisingly perfunctory and weak," and McLellan pointed out several errors he attributed to typographical mistakes and careless copyediting. Burgess, Schonberg, and McLellan all mentioned the level of difficulty in the book, concurring that, in Schonberg's words, "there has been no attempt at popularization or easy writing…. Some of the articles—the one on Analysis is a good example—are written by experts for experts." The dictionary "does not provide a musical education from scratch. You have to be pretty far gone before you can use [it] at all," stated Burgess.

McLellan maintained that the shortcomings of the dictionary "are present and noticeable," yet he acknowledged that they "seem insignificant in relation to the massiveness of the undertaking." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, concluded Schonberg, is "a heroic effort that leaves its predecessor far behind. Whatever weakness[es] turn up in it will stem from the fallibilities of individual writers rather than from a lack of editorial effort and vision."

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, which Sadie also edited, received similarly high marks from reviewers. In twenty-nine volumes, the dictionary offers more than ten thousand entries, including 2,900 on composers, 2,000 on specific operas, 550 on librettists, and 2,500 on vocalists. "To those familiar with his twenty-volume The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which anyone with any sort of interest in music must be, the opera dictionary … is bound to be as exciting an arrival as a new novel by a favorite author to his most ardent fans," advised John Simon in the National Review. Opera News reviewer Patrick J. Smith described The New Grove Dictionary of Opera as "a monster work, with manifold entries of necessarily varying quality." He assured readers that, while they may notice that the dictionary has some weak spots, "the overall reaction is one of gratitude, both for the wealth of information it contains and for the realization that opera is of central importance to anyone who is interested in singing, in drama or finally in music."

The unique facets of American music are set forth in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, a four-volume collection highlighting everything from Native American tribal music to American political songs and hymns, musicals, and jazz. "There are illuminating historical accounts of the musical traditions and organizations of about sixty American cities, and of the parts played in American musical life by such genres as chamber music, choral music, opera, and orchestral music," reported William H. Youngren in the Atlantic. He felt that it was "impossible … to do justice to the comprehensiveness of this admirable work," which is "most obviously distinguished by its many long and helpful articles on individual composers," each including a complete list of works and a bibliography of literature about the composer.

Sadie's final, and magnificent, effort is Mozart: The Early Years, 1756-1781, which he wrote to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart. In this volume he writes of the talented child whose father Leopold, a Salzburg court composter and violinist, took the entire family, including his musically talented daughter Nannerl, on a three-year tour of Europe when Wolfgang was seven years old. The purpose of the trip was to promote his young son's genius, knowing that his career would advance only if he had royal or aristocratic sponsorship. The tour was a failure. The logistics were nearly impossible for Leopold to manage, no offers were forthcoming, debts mounted, and the mother, Anna, died while on the tour. These biographical facts set the stage for the rest of Mozart's short life. He died at thirty-five of causes never satisfactorily determined, a hired musician whose music was nearly all commissioned. Very little was composed for art's sake. In reviewing the biography in the Opera News, John W. Freeman wrote: "In all, this full-fledged study is an awesome piece of work, one that makes history come alive around an extraordinary family."

Sadie died in 2005 of Lou Gehrig's disease, which ended the life of an important and productive contributor to musicology. One of the most memorable tributes to Sadie was created on Grove Music Online. Several people wrote of Sadie, including Leanne Langley. Langley wrote that Sadie's most important role was as a "go-between, now pushing, now balancing, the enterprise of publishing managers with the vision of scholar-writers. No other career journalist, or career musicologist, could have come close to mediating both sides in this practical divide, steering the larger project—at times a stormy course—over 30 years, with everyone reaching new potential and the subject gaining so vastly as a result. Stanley was one of the linchpins of twentieth-century culture, as Grove was of the nineteenth—a servant of music and a hero of musical literacy. His loss is incalculable, and a deep personal sadness. I will never forget him."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Link, Dorothea, editor, with Judith Nagley, Words about Mozart: Essays in Honour of Stanley Sadie, Boydell Press (Woodbridge, Suffolk, England), 2005.

PERIODICALS

American Heritage, April, 1987, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 106.

American Libraries, May, 1986, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, p. 354.

American Music Theater, December, 1992, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 74; June, 1993, review of "Master Musician" series, p. 66.

American Quarterly, March, 1991, Kip Lornell, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 135.

American Record Guide, May-June, 1992, Stephen D. Chakwin, Jr., review of Performance Practice: Music before 1600 and Performance Practice: Music after 1600, p. 202; March-April, 1993, Kurt Moses, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 211.

American Reference Book Annual, 1994, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 555.

Atlantic, March, 1987, William H. Youngren, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 83.

Booklist, April 1, 1993, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 1452; June 1, 1998, Elizabeth L. Fraser, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 1794; May 15, 2001, Christine Bulson, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 1768; July, 2004, review of The Billboard Encyclopedia of Classical Music, p. 186; December 15, 2005, Ray Olson, review of Mozart: The Early Years, 1756-1781, p. 12; April 15, 2007, Steven York, review of The Grove Book of Operas, p. 68.

Chicago, April, 1981, Hans Lenneberg, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 106.

Choice, September, 1988, review of Handel: Tercentenary Collection, p. 137; July, 1993, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 1752; July-August, 2001, D. Ossenkop, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 1926.

Christian Science Monitor, February 26, 1999, review of The New Grove Book of Operas, p. 17.

Commentary, March, 1982, Samuel Lipman, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 49.

Contemporary Review, winter, 2006, review of Mozart, p. 539.

Current Musicology, January-June, 1989, Thomas Mace, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, p. 76.

Early Music, February, 1990, Bruce Wood, review of Handel, p. 125; November, 1990, Stanley Boorman, review of Performance Practice and Performance Practice, p. 641; November, 1998, Michael Burden, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 669.

Economist, December 15, 2000, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 122.

Guardian (London, England), January 21, 2006, Lucasta Miller, review of Mozart.

Harper's, June, 1981, Leon Botstein, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 72.

High Fidelity, February, 1981, Patrick J. Smith, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 52; March, 1985, Patrick J. Smith, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, p. MA28.

Independent, December 30, 2000, Michael Church, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. WR6.

Journal of American History, March, 1988, Frank Rossiter, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 1428.

Library Journal, April 15, 1985, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, p. 41; January, 1987, William Shank, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 82; April 15, 1987, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 36; January, 1989, William J. Waters, review of The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music, p. 80; February 15, 1993, Anthony J. Adam, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 160; April 15, 1993, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 61; November 15, 2000, Heather McCormack, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. S28; March 15, 2001, Bonnie Jo Dopp, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 72; November 15, 2004, Mirela Roncevic, review of The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Opera, p. 86; November, 2006, Barry Zaslow, review of The Grove Book of Operas, p. 108.

Los Angeles Times, January 27, 1985, Marc Shulgold, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, p. 6.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 17, 1993, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 2.

Musical America, April, 1982, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 153; May, 1987, Thomas Willis, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 24.

Musical Quarterly, spring, 1994, Neal Zaslaw, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 149.

Music & Letters, May, 1989, Peter Dickinson, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 233; August, 1989, David R.B. Kimbell, review of Handel, p. 404; August, 1991, Alec Hyatt King, review of Music Printing and Publishing, p. 413.

National Review, August 24, 1984, Terry Teachout, review of The New Grove Mozart, p. 61; April 26, 1993, John Simon, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 50.

New Statesman, February 27, 1981, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 18; December 19, 1986, Andrew Clements, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 62.

Newsweek, December 5, 1988, Peter S. Prescott, review of The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music, p. 57; December 7, 1992, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 71.

New Yorker, December 8, 1980, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 202; November 23, 1981, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 218; November 3, 1986, Andrew Porter, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 138; March 8, 1993, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 108.

New York Review of Books, April 22, 1993, Charles Rosen, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 10; June 21, 2001, Charles Rosen, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 29.

New York Times, December 21, 1980, Harold C. Schonberg, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 7; December 6, 1981, Harold C. Schonberg, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 9; January 2, 1993, Bernard Holland, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 8; January 31, 1993, Edward Rothstein, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. H23.

New York Times Book Review, December 21, 1980, Harold C. Schonberg, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 7; October 8, 1989, Harold C. Schonberg, review of The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music, p. 10; February 11, 2001, Bernard Holland, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 34.

Notes, March, 1991, Corey Field, review of Music Printing and Publishing, p. 725, Geraldine Ostove, review of The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music, p. 796; March, 1992, Richard LeSueur, review of History of Opera, p. 921; December, 1992, John Kmetz, reviews of Performance Practice: Music before 1600 and Performance Practice: Music after 1600, p. 626; March, 2007, Jane R. Stevens, review of Mozart, p. 588.

Observer (London, England), December 13, 1992, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 52; January 3, 1993, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 37; December 22, 1996, review of The New Grove Book of Operas, p. 16.

Opera News, October, 1988, review of Handel, p. 61; March 17, 1990, review of The New Grove Mozart, p. 32; March 16, 1991, review of The New Grove Mozart, p. 32; April 13, 1991, review of The New Grove Mozart, p. 38; December 7, 1991, review of The New Grove Mozart, p. 34; December 21, 1991, review of The New Grove Mozart, p. 36; March 13, 1993, review of The New Grove Mozart, p. 28; March 27, 1993, Patrick J. Smith, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 46; February 5, 1994, review of The New Grove Mozart, p. 32; winter, 1997, E. Thomas Glasow, review of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Essays on His Life and His Music, p. 119; August, 2001, William R. Braun, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, p. 72; March, 2006, John W. Freeman, review of Mozart, p. 89; February, 2007, Joanna B. Guinther, review of The Grove Book of Operas, p. 73.

Opera Quarterly, autumn, 1993, William Ashbrook, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 112.

Publishers Weekly, November 2, 1992, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 64; October 24, 2005, review of Mozart, p. 53.

Punch, April 13, 1990, review of History of Opera, p. 39.

School Library Journal, December, 1980, Kenneth F. Kister, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 19; February, 2007, Patricia Manning, review of The Grove Book of Operas, p. 80.

Scientific American, April, 1981, Philip Morrison, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 31.

Spectator, November 15, 1997, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 39; December 30, 2000, Philip Hensher, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 25.

TCI, March 27, 1993, Matthew Gurewitsch, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 52.

Teaching Music, December, 1995, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 49.

Times Educational Supplement, July 3, 1998, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 9.

Times Higher Education Supplement, May 18, 2001, Hugh Wood, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 1768.

Times Literary Supplement, February 20, 1981, Anthony Burgess, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians; April 13, 1990, review of History of Opera, p. 398; October 12, 1990, Oliver Neighbor, review of Music Printing and Publishing, p. 1103; April 23, 1993, Robert Craft, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 16.

Victorian Studies, autumn, 1989, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, p. 173.

Wall Street Journal, February 2, 1993, Manuela Hoelterhoff, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. A12.

Washington Post Book World, February 1, 1981, Joseph McLellan, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians; April 30, 2006, Michael Dirda, review of Mozart.

Wilson Library Bulletin, December, 1986, James Rettig, review of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 67; April, 1993, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 130; January, 1994, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 48.

Yale Review, January, 1994, Matthew Gurewitsch, review of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, p. 126.