Since its inception in 1900, Baker"s has been the most enlightening and entertaining one-volume music dictionary available. In preparing this concise edition, Slonimsky slimmed down the seventh edition (1984) to about one-half its size, eliminating entries for music critics, theorists, librarians, church organists, and other secondary references. The remaining items have not been updated, though a memorial necrology through 1987 is included. Slonimsky"s entries are generally shorter than those found in Grove"s Dictionary , but his trademark droll wit and ironic observations more than compensate for the lack of detail. An essential purchase for libraries with small collections that do not already own the seventh edition.