Dissertation Information for Donald W. Krummel NAME: - Donald W. Krummel
- (Alias) D.W. Krummel - (Alias) D. W. Krummel - (Alias) Don Krummel - (Alias) Donald William Krummel
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science
SCHOOL:
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA) (1958)
ADVISORS: - Rudolph H. Gjelsness
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Howard H. Peckham - Allen Perdue Britton - Glenn D. McGeoch - Raymond L. Kilgour
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: Philadelphia music engraving and publishing, 1800-1820: A study in bibliography and cultural history
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to reconstruct the catalogues of Philadelphia publishers of engraved music between 1800 and 1820, and to relate their music to the cultural environment they served.
Prerequisite to such a study is the location of as many publications as possible. The appendix lists approximately 1200 of these in a dozen collections. While this may not be more than two thirds of the total output, it is a reasonable sampling for the evaluation of the catalogues. The immediate problem regarding each item is the establishment of its publication date, for the evolution of a publisher's catalogue becomes apparent only when individual items can be located in time.
Equally important is a knowledge of the cultural environment. The first chapter of this study recalls that musical activities in Philadelphia at this time. This information has been drawn largely from contemporary newspapers. Trends in taste are discussed, together with important details concerning the popularity of individual compositions; for unless contradictory evidence is found, a publication must be assumed to date from the years when its music was most popular. In dating publications, such information, together with newspaper notices, copyright registrations, and similar indirect references, constitutes what is called cultural evidence.
Bibliographical evidence, on the other hand, is drawn from the publication itself. Most important are the various punches used to impress individual signs into the plates from which the music was printed. Each engraver had a distinctive set of these punches, for musical notes, clefs, accidentals, intensity signs, brackets, and for numerals and the alphabet. Since most publishers at this time did their own printing, we can usually establish who issued a work simple by identifying these signs.
Publishers also frequently changed one or several of their punches. We can often established with some certainty when this took place, and date individual items accordingly. Bibliographical evidence useful in dating includes also such matters as dealers' seals and the style of engraving.
From this evidence can be reconstructed the evolution of the publisher's catalogue. The catalogue of george E. Blake, for example, can be divided into bibliographical groups to which mutually exclusive dates can be assigned. Between 1803 and 1805, and only then, Blake used a particular set of punches and arrangement for the title; between 1806 and 1808 his imprint citation was engraved in a distinctive style' between 1810 and 1813 he used one particular bass clef punch. The catalogue of the second publisher, George Willig, could not be divided into such groups, however, nor could many of his publications be dated at all. Many of the same punches and characteristics seen in 1800 were still present in 1820. A third publisher, John Aitken, was an inferior workman who usually pirated blake editions. His failure as a music published is reflected in his catalogue. The fourth publisher, Allyn Bacon, assigned plate numbers chronologically to each of his issues. These numbers, several newspaper notices of new publications, and a study of punches, reveal an eccentric pattern which warns the bibliographer against assigning dates to exactly.
Once the chronology of a publisher's catalogue is comprehended, the historical significance becomes apparent. Around 1807, for instance, Blake molded popular taste and fostered the career of a significant and controversial singer. After 1815, Willig and Bacon were influential in promoting a vogue for short piano pieces. Of greater bibliographic significance, meanwhile, is the study of the various types of evidence which make it possible to deduce imprint information which does not appear on the publication.
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MPACT Scores for Donald W. Krummel A = 10
C = 12
A+C = 22
T = 11
G = 2
W = 10
TD = 10.5
TA = 1
calculated 2014-07-02 17:43:50
Advisors and Advisees Graph
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