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The History of Grove Music: an interactive timeline

Since 1873, Grove Music has expanded from one piece of hardbound reference detailing the work and lives of musicians to becoming a powerful online encyclopedic database that serves to educate the world about music. George Grove, founder of the Grove dictionaries, was motivated by the lack of music reference works available to scholars and music professionals. He compiled the first volume of Grove’s Dictionary in 1878 with the extensive help of venerable editors. Today, Grove’s work is published online as a continually evolving digital database, formally known as Grove Music Online. For a detailed history of Grove’s inception, explore this interactive timeline from Oxford Music Online.


Headline image credit: Photo by Sara Levine for Oxford University Press.

Recent Comments

  1. John Handford

    I enjoyed the timeline, but I’d like to have seen a good picture of my ex-colleague Stanley Sadie. I photographed Stanley and Julie with the RCM bust of Grove at the centenary celebrations in 2000. As I was then contracted to Macmillan, OUP probably owns the copyright. I’ll gladly email it to you if you wish.

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