This book has benefited from the efforts and talents of many people. The author is indebted to all these collaborators—musicologists, librarians, historians, musical amateurs, friends, and other contributors—whose assistance, counsel, and encouragement have helped bring this work to completion.
Recognition is due, first of all, to Professors Donald Grout and John Kirkpatrick, inspired musicians and teachers, whose memorable duet performances many years ago at Cornell University first opened the author’s ears to the sounds and delights of four-hand music.
Special appreciation is also due to the late Ernest Lubin, teacher, composer, and author of The Piano Duet, for his gracious support and warm interest.
For their invaluable help and practical suggestions, grateful acknowledgment is made to Douglas Townsend, musicologist and piano duet expert; Harold Samuel, Yale University School of Music librarian; Robert Dumm, Catholic University; Richard Stevens, San Francisco; Helene Hoffmann and Paul Strickler, Philadelphia; and to the late Rita Benton, University of Iowa, for her kindness in making available a quantity of material on Pleyel’s four-hand music.
I would like to thank the following for their assistance in locating or providing music and special bibliographical data: Naomi Donaldson, Ann Arbor; John Diercks, Hollins College; Jack Gottlieb, Hebrew Union College; Harold Moore, Cornell University; Gretchen Buehler, Devon, Pennsylvania; Milton Salkind, San Francisco; the late Léon Leduc, Asnières, France; Ruth Zimmerman, Leipzig; David Lloyd, Philadelphia; the staff of the Music Library of the British Museum; Sam Dennison, Frederick Kent, and John Angell, librarians at the Free Library of Philadelphia; Ruth Bleecker and her staff at the Boston Public Library; the staff of the Music Division, Library of the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, New York; the staff of the Music Library of the University of Pennsylvania; the staff of the Music Division of the Library of Congress; R. E. Baré and Brian Martin of Allens Music, Melbourne; Kenzo Ito of Kawai Gakufu Co., Tokyo; and Shimpei Matsuoka, Zen-On Music Publishers, Tokyo.
Thanks are owed to the following national music information centers and their staffs for their generous contributions of catalogues and/or copies of works by their native composers: Liv Lindberg, Society of Norwegian Composers; Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Iceland Music InforNorwegian Composers; Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Iceland Music Information Centre; Per Olof Lundahl, Swedish Music Information Centre (STIM); H. A. Mutsaers, Canadian Music Centre (Toronto); Harald Goertz, Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musik; M. M. de Azarêdo Goertz, Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musik; M. M. de Azarêdo Perdigão, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; Hans Steinbeck Swiss Music Archives; Anna Van Steenberge, Centre Belge de Documentation Musicale; H. Barbu and A. Popa, Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor din R.S.R., Bucharest; and Jan Hanuš, Guild of Czechoslovak Composers.
A special word of thanks and appreciation is due to Philip Buehler, Drexel University, for his devoted interest and counsel, for reading the manuscript and making beneficial and practical suggestions, for providing a firm and dependable secondo at the keyboard when it was needed, and for faithfully helping pilot the book through to its conclusion.
I should also like to express my gratitude to my colleagues, family, friends, and students for their patience and unflagging encouragement.
Errors and omissions are an unavoidable consequence of a reference work of this nature, and the author would be most grateful to have corrections and additions brought to his attention.
Cameron McGraw, 1981