has abstract
| - Frank Mercer, (1891–1955), was the editor of the 1935 reprint of Charles Burney's A General History of Music (1776–1789), 2 volumes, published by G. T. Foulis. The American edition (from the English printing) was published by Harcourt Brace in 1935. This edition was reprinted in 1957 by Dover Publications, of New York. What drew Mercer to work on Burney remains to be discovered. He did his research in the library of the British Museum and the music library of the University of London. Dr Percy Scholes sent him a proof copy of his book The Puritans and Music (1934). The education departments of several Record Companies loaned him records. In his work, he was much assisted by his wife. Miss Burney, of Wandsworth, allowed him to copy and include a number of Charles Burney's letters, which were in her possession. Mercer was very painstaking in his work. His own footnotes are prefixed with an asterisk and show his profound reading of the literature. Throughout the original work, all the musical examples were type-set, or engraved; Mercer transcribed these for the new publication, where they were printed as illustration blocks. The reprint was favourably reviewed by "H. G." in The Musical Times in 1935, who commented "Praise is due to Mr Mercer. He has wisely refrained from over-editing; his notes are helpful and not too numerous, and his laborious task has been performed with an unusual blend of scholarship and modesty". Scott Goddard commented in Music & Letters, in 1936, "The book has long needed the very work which Mr Mercer has expended on it. His notes are excellent, as illuminating as they are copious, and as far as we have been able to verify them, trustworthy". (en)
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