Dictionary of the Performing Arts - Hardcover

Frank Ledlie Moore; Mary Varchaver

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809230097 ISBN 13: 9780809230099

Publisher: Contemporary Books, 1999

Synopsis

This unique dictionary defines the words used on the stage by those that perform and work on and around it. --More than 6,700 terms drawn from eight disciplines --Cross-disciplinary, user-friendly definitions --Foreign phrases complete with pronunciation guides --Slang, jargon and anachronisms to illustrate the vitality of performing arts' language --Cross-references, direct citation of related terms and explanatory notes put each term in its proper context

About this title

Review

Music, dance, acting, film, television, and other creative endeavors--each develops its own jargon to communicate within the field. There's plenty of overlap in this terminology, and this often creates a confusing mess when artists try to work together. The Dictionary of the Performing Arts aims to help professionals, students, and critics understand each other by providing comprehensive, cross-discipline definitions of thousands of performance-related terms. Each word is followed by short or medium-length explanations of its meaning as used by different performers and technicians. "Fade," for example, has related but different meanings to people working in audio, lighting, and motion pictures, while a "stage manager" is the same to any variety of live performance. Including terms from circus, vaudeville, opera, classical Greek and Asian theater, the Dictionary covers vast tracts of artistic territory--not many reference works contain extensive definitions of both pas de deux and heavy metal (though the latter curiously refers to Jimi Hendrix as one of its "greatest exponents"). Whether you're a scholar or a showboat, the Dictionary of the Performing Arts will come in handy when you need to make sense of the language of creation. --Rob Lightner

From Library Journal

Many books focus on the terminology of a particular field in the arts, but this dictionary covers the gamut from acoustics to vaudeville, including stagecraft, circus, film, and broadcasting. Moore, a composer and author (Crowell's Handbook of World Opera), and Varchaver, a musician and editor for the Hudson Group, exude both experience and love of the arts. The definitions, which cover slang and technical terms, are succinct and informative, often detailing the derivations of words. Guides for pronunciation are provided for non-English words. Variant spellings, cross references, and See references have been meticulously noted. An entertaining feature is the juxtaposition of very different meanings from different fields for the same word. The appendix, which lists 350 influential artists with only three or four words of description each, is the one disappointment. The emphasis here is definitely on Western European tradition, but the impressive array of information so artfully arranged makes this book a gem. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.
-Vivian Reed, Long Beach P.L., CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Contemporary Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0809230097
• ISBN 13: 9780809230099
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 576