Acknowledgments

This handbook has been a four-year labor of, if not unconditional love, then surely a love tempered by blood, toil, tears, and sweat. Completing the task from proposal to completion, of compiling, editing, and publishing a two-volume work of over 650,000 words, requires dedication, attention to detail, and, at times, sheer bloody-mindedness. Here, thanks are due to the many people without whom the book you now hold in your hand would not have seen the light of day. Our first thanks go to our commissioning editor, Norm Hirschy, and music editor, Lauralee Yeary, both of Oxford University Press, who not only had the vision to see beyond the shortcomings of our initial proposal but also firmly and patiently guided us through the many twists and turns of putting together the final manuscript. Additionally, we are grateful to their many nameless colleagues at the press who have tirelessly labored over copyediting, proofing, design, indexing, and a host of other unknown tasks that take place behind the scenes. Thanks are also due a number of anonymous reviewers, from proposal through to draft manuscript, who were overwhelmingly supportive of what they read while also presenting us with many suggestions for expansion and improvement. Alistair Payne, Professor of Fine Art Practice and Head of the School of Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art, has our gratitude for allowing us to use his magnificent diptych The Fall, as the cover art. Finally, although it is our names on the front of the handbook—and thus our responsibility for any errors that remain—none of what you are reading would have been possible without the contributions of our authors, who have neither ceased in their enthusiasm for the project nor flagged in the face of countless e-mails from us. Our heartfelt thanks go to them; we hope you enjoy their efforts.