Perusing the music and cleaning up my mess in there – lots of strewn pieces from various books and copied church hymns – my eyes lit upon this wonderful book, “Harvard Dictionary of Music.”
This tome has been sitting on the floor for a year. It was booted off of the end table when I rearranged things in January of last year. It never had a proper home. Perhaps the donation bin would work?
I opened the book to the page with, “Freistimmigkeit.” ‘Tis a modern German term, (surprise!) sometimes translated as “free voice-leading,” for a pseudocontrapuntal style in which there is no strict adherence to a given number of parts. Who doesn’t know that?
The publication is 51 years old, previously owned by JoAnn O’Neill, who proudly inscribed her name in the front. Free to a good home.