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By 1900, Grove's Dictionary of Musicians was in its second edition, and Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians was in its first edition. These early editions, which are PD, might be useful for IMSLP users to consult online or download.

MS

Perhaps of antiquarian interest, since much of the information would be ludicrously out of date, but worthwhile acquiring nonetheless. (Wikipedia for example has heavily used PD versions of Britannica and other encyclopædias.)

Ludicrously out-of-date or more relevant and complete on some subjects. I have Grove's V, published in the 50s. It contains a wealth of information on numerous musicians who were dropped in later editions.

MS

The 5th ed. of Baker's (1958) is, interestingly enough, available full text at http://www.archive.org/details/bakersbi ... c011036mbp. The 1919 ed. is available through google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=H2kNAA ... &q&f=false.

The important 1920 American Supplement of Grove is also in Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=t_8PAA ... &q&f=false. The 4-volume 1890 ed. seems to be at http://books.google.com/books?id=5F4DAA ... &q&f=false.

The Mendelssohn article in Grove 2 (66 pages while Brahms gets only nine!) is still well worth reviewing for instance. Of course there are some very quaint contrasts - Bruckner gets one column, Chausson half a column, and Meyerbeer 6 pages. I like this line on Debussy - "has occasionally, it must be confessed, perpetrated things likely to offend musicians' prejudices unnecessarily".