Barlow, Harold

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Barlow, Harold

Barlow, Harold, American writer on music and composer; b. Boston, May 15, 1915; d. Manhasset, N.Y., Feb. 15, 1993. He studied violin at Boston Univ. (B.M., 1937), and later played in various orchs.; also led a U.S. Army band. He compiled two valuable reference works, for which he designed an original method of indexing melodic themes by letters plus accidentals: A Dictionary of Musical Themes (N.Y., 1948) and A Dictionary of Vocal Themes (N.Y., 1950), both with S. Morgenstern. He also composed popular songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire