Thursday, December 29, 2011

Library of Congress Helps Unlock Experimental Sound Recordings of Alexander Graham Bell

Nearly 10 years ago, the Library of Congress initiated a research collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to study the application of digital imaging to the extraction of sound from phonograph records and other grooved media. This non-invasive approach protects delicate or damaged historical items.

That collaboration has resulted in unlocking experimental sound recordings made more than 100 years ago by Alexander Graham Bell and associates.

The recordings, now available for listening by the public, can be found at http://irene.lbl.gov/volta-release.html.

In the early 1880s, three inventors—Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter, collectively making up the Volta Laboratory Associates—tried to record sound. In one experiment, on Nov. 17, 1884, they recorded the word “barometer” on a glass disc with a beam of light. This disc, along with nearly 200 other experimental recordings, was packed up for safekeeping and deposited at the Smithsonian Institution.

In the past year, Library of Congress Digital Conversion Specialist Peter Alyea; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Scientists Carl Haber and Earl Cornell; and National Museum of American History Curators Carlene Stephens and Shari Stout worked jointly to recover sound from those recordings. Using high-resolution scans made from the original Volta discs, they were able to hear the word “barometer.”

The team has successfully submitted six discs—all experimental recordings made by Volta—to the sound recovery process known as IRENE/3D (Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.), a process developed by Berkeley Lab in 2003-04 and installed at the Library of Congress in 2006 and in 2008.

The process creates a high-resolution digital map of the disc or cylinder. This map is then processed to remove evidence of wear or damage, such as scratches and skips. Finally, software calculates the motion of a stylus moving through the disc or cylinder’s grooves, reproducing the audio content and producing a standard digital sound file.

IRENE/3D research has been supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Department of Energy, the University of California, the Andrew P. Mellon Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, with more than 147 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library’s Preservation Directorate is the oldest and largest library preservation facility in the nation. The directorate’s mission is to ensure long-term, uninterrupted access to the Library's collections, either in original or reformatted form. It focuses on solving preservation problems facing collections of all types, whether traditional, audiovisual or digital. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/preservation/.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory and is located in Berkeley, Calif. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California. Its website is www.lbl.gov. The Berkeley/Library of Congress research website is http://irene.lbl.gov.

The National Museum of American History collects, preserves and displays American heritage in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific and military history. To learn more about the museum, visithttp://americanhistory.si.edu.

Heavenly Music From Hildegard Of Bingen, A Soon-To-Be Actual Saint

"Pope Benedict XIV has indicated he plans to canonize the 12th-century female composer, mystic, author, physician and abbess Hildegard von Bingen and then proclaim her a Doctor of the Church in October 2012."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

In Memoriam: Musicians We Lost In 2011

For the full list, please see NPR.org.

K-Pop Blows Up: Korean Music Finds Fans Worldwide

Listen to the story at NPR.org.

What Does a Conductor Do?

"I’m standing on a podium, with an enameled wand cocked between my fingers and sweat dampening the small of my back. Ranks of young musicians eye me skeptically. They know I don’t belong here, but they’re waiting for me to pretend I do. I raise my arm in the oppressive silence and let it drop. Miraculously, Mozart’s overture to Don Giovanni explodes in front of me, ragged but recognizable, violently thrilling. This feels like an anxiety dream, but it’s actually an attempt to answer a question that the great conductor Riccardo Muti asked on receiving an award last year: 'What is it, really, I do?'"

For the full story, please see NY Magazine.

The End of Modern Dance?

"Before Merce Cunningham died at age 90 in July 2009, he had decided that his company would die with him, preceded by a two-year world tour. And so, after the grand finale performances Dec. 29-31 at the Park Avenue Armory, the company will be snuffed out. Its demise carries with it a huge chunk of the American modern dance tradition. Besides Paul Taylor and Trisha Brown, there are no U.S. modern dance troupes whose leader is still alive, whose company still tours consistently and whose choreography stems from a technique developed by its founder."

For the full story, please see Musical America.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

New Books, Scores, Recordings & More!

Check out the new books, scores and media materials added to the Music Library in December!

Jazz Musicians Start a Pension Push

"New York City’s musicians’ union has begun leafleting outside a major jazz club, the first salvo in what union leaders say is a campaign to gain pension benefits and a minimum wage for jazz artists."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Celebrate the Stan Kenton Centennial with UNT Libraries

"In honor of the 100th anniversary of Stanley Newcomb Kenton's birth (December 15, 1911), the UNT Music Library offers the following medley of content from our various special collections which are connected to this influential American jazz band and orchestra leader."

To view the online exhibit, please see http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/kenton/stan-kenton-centennial.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Call for Papers: Pacific Northwest Graduate Student Conference

Pacific Northwest Graduate Student Conference

University of British Columbia

February 24-26, 2012

The University of British Columbia's School of Music is pleased to host the 2012 session of the Pacific Northwest Graduate Student Conference (PNWGSC) in
Vancouver, Canada. The conference will take place Friday to Sunday, February 24-26. We welcome proposals on any topic related to music theory,
musicology, ethnomusicology, or composition (lecture recital proposals will also be considered). Presentations will be twenty minutes, with ten minutes
for discussion.


January 15, 2012 is the deadline for submissions; full details and guidelines for proposals can be found in the attached call for papers.


Questions can be addressed to ubcpnw2012@gmail.com

Monday, December 12, 2011

A Giant Theremin Is Watching You Down Under

"Here's a travel tip: If you find yourself in Melbourne, Australia, with time on your hands, check out the Giant Theremin. The 23-foot-tall electronic musical instrument sits on a pedestrian walkway near the Yarra River. As people pass by — or dance or jump in front of the theremin — it tracks the motion and creates sounds. Judging by YouTube videos, a lot of people are taking part in this musical public art project."

For the full story and a video, please see npr.org.

Emboldened Orchestras Are Embracing the New

"RECENTLY Bartok trounced Schubert in an impromptu audience poll at Carnegie Hall. I was surprised and delighted. It seemed an indicator, albeit fanciful, that the battle for contemporary music had been won."

For the full story, please see New York Times.

Bach Cello Suites visualized

"Using the mathematics behind string length and pitch, it came from a simple idea: what if all the notes were drawn as strings? Instead of a stream of classical notation on a page, this interactive project highlights the music’s underlying structure and subtle shifts."

For the full visualization, please see flowingdata.com.

Happy birthday, Elliott Carter

"Not many composers will ever celebrate their 103rd birthday – but then, not that many people in the history of humanity have ever reached or will ever reach that astonishingly advanced prime number of an age. But no one has ever marked their 103rd, I can confidently predict, with three world premieres. But in New York last weekend, that's exactly what Elliott Carter did with concerts on 8 and 11 December."

For the full story, please see The Guardian.

Check out scores and recordings of Carter's works from the UW Libraries.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Mozart's Letters Online!

Check out anew version of Mozart's letters from Italy is online here:

letters.mozartways.com

The website offers access to the letters in English, Italian and French, and of course the original German version plus its modernised German spelling

http://letters.mozartways.com/dualview.php?lang=ENG&version=modernised&bd=147&layout=portrait

For the majority of the letters, both the holograph and its diplomatic transcription are available (left-hand side menu).

Mozart's scores are linked to each work, like here:

http://letters.mozartways.com/index.php?lang=eng&theme=works&name=385&alpha=M


The letters are fully annotated by Cliff Eisen , Academic Director of the edition and one of the most reputed Mozart's scholars.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Vinyl's Not Final

"Last week, we posted a photo of the object to the left, an object that serves a very particular, and perhaps slightly antiquated, function, and asked if you knew what it was. If you were among the 34% that didn't know, chances are you'd never seen it in its proper place. Yup, it's a 45 adapter, the tool that made the big hole on those small records fit on a turntable that only had a shaft sized to fit a 16, 33 or a 78."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Gifts (Not) To Buy For The Classical Fans In Your Life


"It's Cyber Monday again, and we here at Deceptive Cadence thought it was time to provide a public service to our readership: a survey of the very worst presents we've found online with classical music lovers as the presumed recipients. We're shopping at the intersection of good intention and bad taste."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Esa-Pekka Salonen wins the 2012 Grawemeyer Award


"Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto has won the 2012 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. The award is generally considered the most prestigious international honor for a new score; past winners have been several such masters of modern music as Witold Lutoslawski, György Ligeti and Pierre Boulez."

For the full story, please see the LA Times.

Himie Voxman, emeritus professor and School of Music director, dies at 99


"University of Iowa emeritus professor Himie Voxman, who was the director of the UI School of Music for more than a quarter century (1954-1980) died Tuesday, November 22, 2011, at the age of 99. The Voxman Music Building, which was destroyed by the 2008 flood, was named in his honor in 1995, and the UI named him an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 2008."

For the full story, please see Performing Arts at Iowa.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Want a quick Bibliography?

It is that time of the quarter again, time to start working on those final papers! Let a citation management software help. RefWorks, EndNote, and Zotero are citation management softwares that allow you to keep all of those book and article citations for your papers in one place. Curious about which one will fit your needs? Watch our webinar on Choosing a Citation Management System that Works for You to help make your decision.

Are you ready to add footnotes and a bibliography to your paper and need some help? Watch our webinars on RefWorks and Zotero to learn tips on creating these for your papers. Or, construct your bibliographies and for your papers the old fashion way. Use our citation style guides as a model to creating your own bibliographies and footnotes!

Site to Resell Music Files Has Critics


"Music fans looking to clear out some clutter can always try to sell their old CDs. But can someone resell an old digital music file of “Thriller” that’s languishing on a computer? "

For the full story, please see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/business/media/reselling-of-music-files-is-contested.html?_r=3&ref=business

Google Scholar Opens Up Its Citations


"Anyone can now track his or her citations via Google Scholar. The free citation service is “a simple way for authors to compute their citation metrics and track them over time,” the company said in an announcement yesterday on the Google Scholar blog. Google announced a limited-release test of the service in July."

For the full story, please see http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/google-scholar-opens-up-its-citations/34385

Monday, November 14, 2011

New Books, Scores & Recordings!

New books, scores, and recordings have been added to the Music Library collection in November. Go to http://uwashington.worldcat.org/profiles/uwmusiclib/lists/2912637 to learn more!

Q&A with composer/conductor Oliver Knussen

"It's going to be a very British affair at Benaroya Hall next week, when English composer-conductor Oliver Knussen leads the Seattle Symphony in performances of Benjamin Britten's "Canadian Carnival," his Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia (from his opera "Peter Grimes"), Luke Bedford's "Outblaze the Sky," and Knussen's own Violin Concerto (with Leila Josefowicz as soloist). Along with that lush violin concerto, several Knussen chamber works are on the bill with works by Elgar and Brahms in the Symphony's Nov. 20 chamber-music series."

For the full story, please see Seattle Times.

Aaron Copland's Forgotten Score Premieres At Last


"The orchestral version of Quiet City is fairly well known, but there's more to this story. Another version has recently come to light."

For the full story, please see npr.org
.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Announcing Vi Hilbert Website!

The University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives and Northwest Heritage Resources are pleased to announce that Voices of the First People, a website honoring the life and work of Upper Skagit elder Vi Hilbert, is now on-line at: http://music.washington.edu/ethno/hilbert. The site provides on-line access to audio and video recordings from the Vi Hilbert Collection in the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives and features Hilbert’s work as a storyteller, teacher, and culture bearer. It is hoped that the site will be a useful resource for teachers, students, and anyone interested in Lushootseed language and culture.

The Voices of the First People project has been supported in part by a grant from Humanities Washington, a statewide organization dedicated to providing and supporting cultural education programs in local communities.

Project staff for Voices of the First People includes Jill Linzee, Project Director (Executive Director, Northwest Heritage Resources); Laurel Sercombe, Curator/Humanist (Archivist, University of Washington Ethnomusicology Program); Riley McLaughlin, Interactive Media Developer (VillageMediaWorks); Colin Todd, Technical Advisor (Senior Computer Specialist, University of Washington School of Music); Bonnie McConnell, Curatorial Assistant; and Jill La Pointe, Project Advisor (President of Lushootseed Research and granddaughter of Vi Hilbert).

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Visit the UW Research Commons!

The UW Libraries Research Commons, located on the ground floor of the Allen Library South, has many spaces available for students and faculty to support group research, presentations, seminars, and colloquia. The Research Commons opened a little less than one year ago, and is designed as an evolving, flexible space that fosters interdisciplinary conversation and provides research support via the Libraries and campus partnerships.

A few highlights this quarter:

Graduate Student Workshops: In partnership with the Graduate School, the Libraries is kicking off a new year of graduate student workshops in the Research Commons. Check out the full list of offerings this fall at: http://commons.lib.washington.edu/news-events. Many workshops are happening this week.
Drop-in Writing Consultations: The Odegaard Writing and Research Center is now offering morning drop-in consultations in the Research Commons -- for graduate students only -- twice a week. Tutors staffing these consulting hours are experienced in supporting graduate level research and writing for a wide range of academic and professional purposes. Unlike traditional OWRC sessions, these consultations may last up to 1.5 hours to better accommodate larger projects. Autumn Quarter: Mondays and Thursdays 10:30am-noon. No reservations required. First-come, first served.

New Collaboration Screens: Student Technology Fee funds enabled us to add large screens, which can be used with your laptop, in many of our reservable spaces: http://commons.lib.washington.edu/resources

New Presentation Spaces: The Research Commons has undergone a few changes based on user feedback to better support large group research work and presentations. We’ve added a new room, Green A, that seats up to 25 people. http://commons.lib.washington.edu/resources/green-a/green-a Later this quarter we’ll have two additional enclosed reservable spaces for group projects and events.

GIS Day: On Wednesday, November 16th the Research Commons will serve as a venue for a full day of GIS activities coordinated by the UW Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology and the Libraries. Stop by the Research Commons to hear talks by students and faculty involved in Geographic Information System projects, view a GIS poster session, or visit the "GIS Doctor" to get help with a GIS-related question.

Whiteboard Capture: The Research Commons features whiteboard surface tables, mobile whiteboards, whiteboard walls and dry-erase markers for checkout. We also have an EBeam Edge interactive whiteboard system that can be checked out and used within the Research Commons to turn any whiteboard surface into a digital and interactive copyboard. Use the EBeam to create a video or image capture of a presentation, brainstorming session, or TA consultation in the Research Commons.

Information Design Exhibit: On display in the Research Commons are posters created by students in Assoc. Professor Karen Cheng’s ART 478: Information Design course. In this senior-level undergraduate studio class, Visual Communication Design students research and design a series of information graphics that visualize a subject, social issue, event, or controversy. These data graphics are composed into a pair of narrative information design posters/panels and a web-based module.



Interested in seeing your students’ work displayed in the space for a poster session or longer-term exhibit? Contact uwlibrc@uw.edu.

Visit the Research Commons website http://commons.lib.washington.edu or our blog http://uwresearchcommons.wordpress.com/ to learn more about the development of the Research Commons.

Use the Feedback link on the blog to give us feedback, or email uwlibrc@uw.edu.

Opera Is For The 99%: Here's What You Told Us

"Yesterday's post about popular perceptions of opera as an entertainment for the rich definitely struck a nerve. We've been (happily) deluged with responses both on our site and on Facebook – and much of the conversation has contradicted a very tired stereotype. Here's just a small sampling of what you've told us."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Are Gibson guitars killing the rainforest?

"Up here you grow up liking Fenders or you grow up liking Gibsons," says Billy Jack, 55, sat in a Nashville music store eyeing up a trio of shiny new Gibson guitars.

Cradling a $3,800 (£2,413) Gibson Les Paul, Mr Jack, a veteran guitarist, recalls riffs gone by as he explains his fondness for one of rock's iconic instruments."

For the full story, please see www.bbc.co.uk.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Music Training Enhances Children’s Verbal Intelligence

"A just-published study from Canada suggests early music education stimulates a child’s brain, leading to improved performance in an entirely different arena – verbal intelligence."

For the full story, please see Miller-Mccume.com.

Dealing With the Committee

"Your dissertation committee has to approve your dissertation before you graduate. Committee members can also serve as mentors and coaches who can help you reach your professional goals. Therefore, you need a strong working relationship with them. Here are some guidelines:"

For the full story, please see InHigher Ed.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

New @uwmusiclib

Welcome back to the UW Music Library. This summer we've made a number of changes to better serve you! Here are some of the new changes you'll see:

  • New Saturday 1-5 hours! You commented on the In-Library Use Survey and we heard you. This Fall we'll be open 1-5 on Saturday and Sundays.

  • Open Reserves by course. This Fall all books on reserve for your courses will be shelved upstairs by course where the current periodicals were located. You may pull books to read without checking them out at the front desk. Just remember to put them on the neighboring re-shelf shelf so that we can be sure to count them in our usage statistics.

  • Group Study & Quiet Study space. Based on your survey results from Spring quarter, we are designating the upstairs Music Library space as group study space. Use this space to work on group projects. Quiet study space is located downstairs.

  • Current Periodical Downstairs. Read the latest issue of Journal of the American Musicological Society or Billboard Magazine downstairs. The current periodicals are now located at the end of the bound periodicals (next to the oversized scores).

  • New books location & list. The new books and scores are now located on the shelves at the end of the theses, next to the large, bay window. Check out the new materials list of books, scores and media online at http://www.lib.washington.edu/music/about.html#new

  • Laptop workstations in the Listening Center. Bring your laptop to the Listening Center! The Listening Center has two new, dedicated spaces for laptop usage.



And coming soon...
• Two new scanners in the Listening Center.
We look forward to seeing you in the Music Library Listening Center!

Franz Liszt at the Library of Congress [article]

"In order to commemorate the bicentenary of Liszt's birth as well as to bring attention to the Library of Congress's substantial holdings of primary source material related to this composer, the present site is offered as a portal to facilitate the exploration of the Library's rich resources for performing research on Liszt's life and career, as well as to publicize the public concerts and events that will be presented in conjunction with this celebration."

For the full story, please see Library of Congress.

'Lost' Beethoven work to be aired

"Beethoven wrote the slow movement for his string quartet Opus 18 Number Two in 1799 before discarding it and composing another version a year later.

The original has not survived, but has now been reconstructed by Prof Barry Cooper of Manchester University."

For the full story, please see www.bbc.co.uk.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Everything to play for at the Tchaikovsky competition

"British pianist Peter Donohoe is used to being lionised in Moscow. In 1982, Donohoe won the highest prize awarded at the world's most prestigious and controversial classical music talent-show, the Tchaikovsky Competition. Those two words instil sweaty-palmed nervousness and feverish excitement in any musician who's ever competed in Russia, and in anyone who ever watched those grainy broadcasts of the finals that used to beam into our living rooms from the USSR every four years in the 1970s and 1980s. They were messages from another world, visions of an ethereal realm of the brightest and best pianists, violinists, cellists and singers. Donohoe remains a hero in Moscow, and his performances of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto and the "Rach 3", Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto, are still talked about with misty-eyed reverence in the corridors of the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, home of the Tchaikovsky Competition since its first edition in 1958."

For the full story, please see The Guardian.

Cultural Divide Persists as Musical Tastes Shift

"When the National Endowment for the Arts issued a report earlier this year suggesting the omnivore is in decline, many in the arts community found the news deeply unsettling. But newly published research from Britain, which focuses on taste in music, analyzes audiences from a different perspective — one that could be useful to both performers and presenters."

For the full story, please see www.miller-mccune.com.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Update: Oregon Symphony extends contract for music director Carlos Kalmar

"Carlos Kalmar, the Oregon Symphony's music director since 2003, has renewed his contract through 2015. His current contract ran through 2013. In the 2007-08 season, the last for which numbers are available, he earned $312,000."

For the full story, please see oregonlive.com.

Europe Extends Copyright on Music

"In a victory for the financially troubled recording industry, the European Union on Monday extended the term of copyright on sound recordings to 70 years from 50, while declining to include provisions that would allow artists in Britain and elsewhere in Europe to recoup ownership of their music easily. Had the Council of the European Union not acted, many of the most famous and popular recordings of the British Invasion of the 1960s, including albums by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Yardbirds, would have fallen into the public domain in the coming years. For example, the Beatles’ first hit record, “Love Me Do,” which was released in 1962, could have been treated next year in much the same way as works by classical composers whose exclusive ownership of their music has expired. With multiple versions available at cheaper prices, the four major record labels would be deprived of one of their biggest sources of income."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

The Clown Of The Orchestra Takes Its Revenge

"You might think you haven't heard the bassoon outside a concert hall before, but you have: The woodwind instrument features prominently in the theme music of Leave It To Beaver, represents the grandfather character in Peter and the Wolf, and scores Mickey Mouse's misadventure with the dancing broomsticks in Fantasia. Notice a trend there?"

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

JSTOR Opens Up U.S. Journal Content From Before 1923

"Users anywhere now have free access to JSTOR’s Early Journal Content, a corpus of scholarly articles published in the United States before 1923 and elsewhere before 1870. That’s about 500,000 articles from 200 journals, according to JSTOR’s announcement."

For the full story, please see Wired Campus.

Monday, August 29, 2011

How Steve Jobs Changed The Way We Listen

"We listen to music in the 21st century in a profoundly different way than we did in the 20th century. And, though Apple didn't invent the portable music player, the vision of Steve Jobs (a music geek himself) and his company of designers and engineers changed our listening landscape dramatically in 2001 with iTunes and the iPod. Some of those ways are wonderful: Portability of huge libraries, shuffling, quick access to millions of songs, and custom playlists are a few of the upsides. For some, shuffling may be a bittersweet downside, like compressed sound files or isolated listening, but I think the good far outweighs the bad."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Rick Steves gives $1M to arts in Edmonds

"Rick Steves, the Edmonds-based travel writer and public broadcasting host, donated $1 million to the Edmonds Center for the Arts on Thursday.

For the full story, please see the Seattle Times.

Monday, August 22, 2011

The Summer Opera Drinking Puzzler

"We're all told it's important to stay hydrated with plenty of water — not only in the summer heat, but throughout the year.

However, no one in the opera world seems to have gotten the message. Because when characters in opera raise a glass to their lips, they're almost always quaffing alcohol of one kind or another. Yes, there's the occasional teetotaler or poison drinker, but mostly people in opera are boozing it up. Not a good way to stay hydrated."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Actually Useful Research About Younger Jazz Audiences

"There's a new study out on the jazz audience. And for once, it actually contains some pertinent information about younger jazz concertgoers — the demographic much bandied-about the last time there was significant data about live jazz crowds, and the one necessarily responsible for the future proliferation of jazz performances."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

A Village Person Tests the Copyright Law

"The prefab, gaudily costumed 1970s group the Village People and its big hit “Y.M.C.A.” are enduring symbols of the disco era. But now this campy and eternally popular song has become the centerpiece of what could be a significant test of copyright law."


For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Revered maestro Vilem Sokol gave his love of music to all

"He was born in a log cabin in Pennsylvania, but his favorite place became the conductor's podium.

Vilem Sokol, who died Friday of cancer in Seattle at age 96, was the beloved godfather of the city's classical music and an internationally prominent conductor, professor and violist.

As longtime music director of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra and its Marrowstone Music Festival (1960-1988), and music professor at the University of Washington (1948-1985), Mr. Sokol shaped more than four decades of young talent, inspiring generations of students and listeners."


For the full story, please see the Seattle Times.

Listen to Sokol's recordings at the UW Music Library.

Naxos Music Library Adds Entire EMI Classics Catalog

"the complete EMI Classics catalog is now available to every Naxos Music Library and Naxos Music Library - Jazz institutional subscriber! This vast catalog of recordings includes EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, and Blue Note Records.

Today, more than 225 albums are be available in NML with the remainder of the 7200 album catalog available by the end of 2011. More details will be available shortly."

Check out our Music Library Naxos subscription at: http://www.lib.washington.edu/music/streamaudio.html

Friday, August 19, 2011

John Williams Lets His Muses Carry Him Along

"It would be hard to live in America and not know some of John Williams’s music. After six decades of working in Hollywood, much of that time in collaboration with the director Steven Spielberg, he has produced an opus — 121 film scores, a symphony, a dozen concertos and other symphonic works — that would intimidate many composers. He has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, five Emmys and 21 Grammys. He wrote the music for all the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies and the first three Harry Potter films. He was the one who wrote the fearsome two-note motif from “Jaws,” and the famous five-note intergalactic message he composed for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” At 79, he is still going strong and recently finished scores for two more Spielberg movies, “The Adventures of Tin Tin” and “War Horse."

For the full story, please see New York Times.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Dance Notation for the iPad? There’s an App for That

"When Reed College in Oregon invited faculty members last fall to submit app ideas for the iPad tablet, Hannah J. Kosstrin immediately thought of what she knew best—dance."

For the full story, please see The Chronicle.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Why Do We Sit At Jazz Concerts?

"I've been thinking about this for some time, even before Anthony Dean-Harris of Nextbop wrote it. It's about how there should be more standing-only jazz shows. It's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it makes some good points."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

A Faint Sound at a Concert, but Impossible to Ignore

"This was supposed to be a short review of the free concert at Avery Fisher Hall on Saturday evening previewing the Mostly Mozart Festival, which opens officially on Tuesday. And I can tell you some of what happened there."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Musician seeks support to solve serious problems with SGAE

"Santiago AuserĂłn, the former frontman of Spanish band Radio Futura, is trying to find support from fellow musicians to address the situation of SGAE, the copyright-management organization that was plunged into chaos when police raided the headquarters and arrested nine of its leaders on embezzlement charges."

For the full story, please see elpais.com.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Who, and Where, Are America’s Composers?

"I never wanted to be a composer.

Even well into college, the thought had not even crossed my mind. I wanted to be a band director. Or a music teacher. Because when you’re in high school in northern Illinois, as I was in the 1980s, with 45 miles of cornfields in every direction, and the music bug bit you, that’s what you did."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Lack of testes gave castrato superstar headaches

"THERE was at least one downside to Farinelli's castration. The operation may have preserved the 18th-century singer's treble voice into adulthood, making him a musical legend, but it also condemned him to a skull deformity that may have affected his mind.""

For the full story, please see New Scientist.

Monday, July 18, 2011

How Astronauts Fill Their Space With Music

"All week, the astronauts of space shuttle Atlantis have been serenaded with music from stars back on Earth. Elton John, Michael Stipe and Paul McCartney have all recorded messages for the crew."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Crazy Vibrations: What Strings Look Like From Inside A Guitar

For the story & video, please see NPR.org.

Through The Static, The Voice Of History

"The voice on the little antique cylinder record is tinny, scratchy, barely audible through storms of static. But if you listen closely, you can just hear a young woman reciting a nursery rhyme: "Twinkle, twinkle, little star.""

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Seattle Symphony Director Gets Brussels Post

"The opera house of Brussels has appointed the Frenchman Ludovic Morlot as its chief conductor, an assignment being heralded halfway around the world, in Seattle."

For the full story, please see the Seattle Times.

The Puzzle of Rossini’s Brief Career

"THERE are lots of theories. Maybe Gioachino Rossini was tired. He might have been devastated by the death of his beloved mother.

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Mozart Died of What?

"UPI reports a new bit of research indicating that Mozart’s death may have been caused by a lack of vitamin D. He died on Dec. 5, 1791 after having suffered from years of persistent colds, fever and stomach upset."

For the full story, please see Musical America.

Mozart, Beethoven... now meteorology?

"Variable 4 is the brainchild of composer James Bulley and erstwhile computer scientist Daniel Jones. The pair met when they were shortlisted for the New Cross Art Prize in 2008 and a discussion about where music, art and computing meet ensued. This led them to the idea of a sound art installation where the music played was composed by contemporaneous weather conditions."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Still Searching For Bruckner’s True Intentions

"POSTERITY has not always treated Anton Bruckner kindly. The popular image of this composer as an unwitting visionary — “half genius, half klutz,” as the conductor Hans von BĂĽlow once said — developed early on. During Bruckner’s lifetime conservative critics recoiled from his music. Eduard Hanslick called him the “gentlest and most peaceable of men who becomes an anarchist during the act of composition.”"

For the full story, please see New York Times.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Which Composer Is The Biggest Badass?

"This intriguing question floated across the Twitter transom to us last Friday morning from Kara-Lis Coverdale (@kliscoverdale):

Who is the most badass composer there ever was? #drugs #sex #guts #politics

We loved Kara-Lis' question so much that we immediately threw it open to our fans and friends across Twitter and Facebook, a question to be pondered if not for the ages, at least over the course of a weekend. And boy, did you all respond."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Monday, June 27, 2011

The Cloud That Ate Your Music

"Recent weeks have been filled with announcements about music taking residence in the cloud, the poetic name for online storage and software that promises to make lifetimes worth of songs available to anyone, anywhere, as long as those people and places have Internet connections. (Which of course is a long way from everyone, everywhere, but utopian tech dreams tend to ignore mere hardware.)"

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

EMI Puts Itself Up for Sale. Again.

"EMI, the music company that was seized by Citigroup in February after a disastrous four-year ownership by the private equity firm Terra Firma, is going up for sale again."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Clarence Clemons, The Big Man In The E Street Band, Has Died

"Clarence Clemons, saxophone player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, has died of complications of a stroke. He was 69."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Speight Jenkins Sets Retirement Date

"Speight Jenkins, who has single-handedly turned the Seattle Opera into a force with which to be reckoned, will retire as general director at the end of the season in August 2014. Jenkins will have been at the helm for 30 years."

For the full story, please see Musical America.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Maryland Doctor Wins Van Cliburn Amateur Piano Competition

"Christopher Shih, a 38-year-old gastroenterologist from Ellicott City, Md. says the only time he finds to practice the piano is at night, after he puts the kids to bed. But all that late-night practicing has paid off. Shih has won the sixth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Advertise on NYTimes.com No Radios by the Fountain, Please! Or Cellos!

"The crisp new signs began going up in some of the most popular spots in Central Park near the end of May. In large white letters on green backgrounds they announce that the areas have been designated Quiet Zones, and that musical instruments and amplified sound are not permitted. Some of the signs cite the authority of the Central Park Conservancy, the private organization that manages the park. Others also bear the name of the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Sony Records 'Discovered Handel Opera'

""Germanico del sig. Hendl." Since 1929 the catalog of the Conservatorio Cherubini in Florence (section "Opere teatrali", p. 143) has listed a Handel title --"Germanico"-- not mentioned in any other sources. In autumn 2009 Handel scholars* in both Europe and the U.S. got word that a Bond Street jeweler was circulating a copy of the manuscript in London, attempting to confirm its authenticity. On behalf of whom, we wondered? That mystery was partially solved when, on 18 May, Sony Classical announced on its website that an important press conference would be held on June 6, 11:30 am, at La Scala’s gift shop in Milan."

For the full story, please see Musical America.

When the Melody Takes a Detour, the Science Begins

"In the middle of a World Science Festival panel on Saturday night, the guitarist Pat Metheny took a sudden U-turn from the program he had planned. Instead of performing one of his innovative compositions, plucked from any of the phases of his career as a style-shifting jazz omnivore, Mr. Metheny, performing with the bassist Larry Grenadier, decided on the spot to play a jazz standard."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Music changed life of Seattle's new arts director

"If not for the trombone, Seattle's new arts czar says, he might not have gone to college."

For the full story, please see the Seattle Times.

Historian Explains The Origin Of "Taps"

"The languid, melancholy sound of a bugle call is a fixture at military funerals. But it wasn't always that way. The song taps used to signal 'lights out' for soldiers to go to sleep. Taps historian Jari Villanueva, a former ceremonial bugler at Arlington National Cemetery, discusses the evolution of the song and the meaning of Memorial Day."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Academic Minute: Passive Hearing, Active Listening

"In today’s Academic Minute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Pauline Oliveros examines the difference between passive hearing and active listening. Find out more about the Academic Minute here."

Musicians demand Grammy’s reverse category cuts

"A coalition of musicians is demanding the Recording Academy restore more than 30 categories cut from the Grammy Awards, alleging the reductions unfairly target ethnic music and were done without the input of its thousands of members."

For the full story, please see Star.com.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Will EMI's move to reclaim digital licensing rights simplify the process?

"Earlier this month, EMI Music Publishing announced that it will take back digital licensing rights from ASCAP, the body that collects performance royalties for artists in North America."

For the full story, please see The Guardian.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Sing for Your Life

"Ryan Speedo Green stands almost six-foot-five and weighs 300 pounds and wears size 17 shoes, and on a Sunday afternoon in March he was running in place and doing jumping jacks as he waited in the wings of the Metropolitan Opera for his turn to sing. It was the semifinals of the most important operatic voice competition in America, and Ryan was seized by such anxiety that he felt his massive body vanishing. Seventeen of the 22 singers left in the contest had gone before him; to his ears their performances were spectacular. He was fighting off the feeling that he didn’t belong here. Ryan, who is African-American, grew up in low-income housing and a trailer park in southeastern Virginia. When he was 12, he spent time in juvenile detention for threatening his brother and mother. During high school he moved to a street of shacklike homes, with a drug dealer’s headquarters across from his family’s front door and with bullet holes from stray gunfire just above his mother’s bedroom window."

For the full story, please see New York Times.

How Piano Wires Changed Through Centuries

"When Wolfgang Mozart sat down to perform his masterpieces to audiences, he tapped out the notes on a much different instrument than most pianos used today. Among the differences was the wire inside his instrument."

For the full story, please see Discovery News.

Departmental delivery from the UW Libraries and beyond... at no cost for current UW faculty and staff!

This service is for current UW faculty and staff at the Bothell, Seattle, and Tacoma campuses. The UW Libraries will pull material from our shelves, check it out to you and send it to your department via the campus mail. Summit and Interlibrary Loan material can also be sent to your department.

To Place a Request:


  • Request an item through the library catalog and select "Send to Fac-Staff UW Mailbox" as your pickup location.

  • Items must be sent to a valid campus box number. Check your campus box number in your library account. If the address is not correct you will need to change your address by accessing the Employee Self-Service web site. It may take a week or so for our information to be updated.



What To Expect:

  • Materials held on the UW campus will be delivered in 1-2 days, not including weekends.

  • Materials held by Summit libraries will be delivered in 5-7 days, not including weekends. This accounts for transit time from the Summit library, plus campus mail delivery time.

  • Materials requested through ILL will be delivered in 10-14 days, not including weekends. This accounts for transit time from the loaning library, plus campus mail delivery time.

  • When we send material to you it will appear in your library account as already checked out to you.

  • We will contact you if the material is not available or cannot be sent. We will use the email address in your library account to notify you of problems with delivery, so please make sure the email address in your account is one you check regularly.

  • To assess the service we will be surveying participants. You can also send comments at any time to suzzcirc@u.washington.edu.


Returning Material

  • Send material back to Suzzallo Circulation, Box 352900 or drop off at any UW library unit.

  • If mailing the material please try to use the original packaging or something similar.

  • To allow for mailing time you should send material back at least 2 days before the due date.


Background Information

  • Departmental delivery will improve access to the physical collections for UW faculty and staff who are not located close to library units.

  • Building on their existing service, the UW Campus Mail have agreed to handle the delivery of library materials at no charge.

  • The overall costs of the service to the Libraries are expected to be minimal.

  • We are initiating this service as a pilot and will evaluate the costs and benefits during the next few months. Your comments are important to us so please fill out the survey when requested.


*Limitations

  • UW students are not part of the pilot.

  • Cascadia Community College faculty, staff and students are not part of the pilot.

  • Material that does not circulate (Reference, Special Collections, etc.) and material on reserve are not available for delivery.

  • Fragile or large items may not be available for delivery.

  • This pilot provides for sending only to campus mail addresses. If you want to have a book sent to an off-campus address through the US mail Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services can provide this service for a $10 fee. Login to your ILL account and select Borrow a Book, fill out the form and then select one of the Delivery Options that provides for shipping to home.

Monday, May 16, 2011

10,000 Rare Recordings, Free for Streaming

"The Library of Congress has launched “National Jukebox,” a website that gives free access to over 10,000 recordings made between the years of 1901 and 1925. Recordings, all from the RCA and Columbia vaults now owned by Sony Music, are available for streaming only. The range is vast, from Al Jolson to Enrico Caruso, Nellie Melba, Rachmaninoff and George Gershwin playing “Rhapsody in Blue” with the Paul Whiteman Concert Orchestra."

For the full story, please see musicalicamerica.com.

Playing An Instrument May Help Preserve Hearing


"Some hearing loss is a common — and nearly unavoidable — effect of aging. A third of people 60 and older have lost some of their ability to hear."

For the full story, please see npr.org.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Google to Unveil Service to Let Users Stream Their Music

" Google plans to introduce its long-awaited service to allow people to upload and store their music collections on the Web and listen to their songs on Android phones or tablets and on computers."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

JoAnn Falletta to Ulster Orchestra

"The Ulster Orchestra has named Buffalo Philharmonic Music Director JoAnn Falletta to succeed Kenneth Montgomery as its principal conductor. She is the first American and first woman to take the position since the orchestra’s founding in 1966."

For the full story, please see Musical America.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Download Sales: Will Money Stay With Labels Or Go To Musicians?

"A recent move by the Supreme Court could mean millions of dollars in additional royalty payments for older musicians who signed contracts before the digital era."

For the full story, please see npr.org.

The Jazz Fan Who Invented A Machine To Make His Own Mashups

"The first thing is that it's actually pretty cool. There's some electronic music out there which sounds like "jazzy," lounge-y wallpaper — which takes, say, a Sarah Vaughan sample and layers it over a plodding beat. This is, at least in my estimation, a good deal more creative than that."

For the full story, please see npr.org.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Myth of the Starving Artist

"Conventional wisdom has long held that pursuing a career in the arts is a likely ticket to a life of perennial unhappiness, hunger and unemployment. But the opposite appears to be true -- graduates of arts programs are likely to find jobs and satisfaction, even if they won't necessarily get wealthy in the process -- according to a new national survey of more than 13,000 alumni of 154 different arts programs."

For the full story, please see Inside Higher Ed.

The Kronos Quartet's Double Exposure

"It says something about San Francisco's new music group the Kronos Quartet that they've won honors from two very dissimilar organizations on the same day."

For the full story, please see npr.org.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Behind the music: Why Eminem could spell major trouble for the major labels

The question of whether a digital download counts as a straight sale or a licence threatens to cost Universal Music millions

For the full story, please see The Guardian.

Steve Reich At (Nearly) 75

"This October, composer Steve Reich is turning 75 — an age that for many other artists, especially ones as widely adored as Reich, wouldn't be marked by much more than a few valedictory laps. Instead, he continues to make innovative music and is still one of the most important and influential voices of our era."

For the full story, please see npr.org.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Library Research Award for Undergraduates

Selection criteria:
  • The $1,000 awards are given in three categories: Senior Thesis, Senior Non-Thesis and Non-Senior.
  • Projects completed in Spring Quarter 2010 through Spring Quarter 2011 are eligible.
  • Projects must have been completed for UW course credit, or for the Undergraduate Research Program (URP).
  • A project may be in any format or medium.
  • Individual or group projects are eligible. Each student will be judged individually.
Applications are due Monday, May 16th, 2011 at5:00pm PST

For more information, please see < a href="http://guides.lib.washington.edu/researchaward">http://guides.lib.washington.edu/researchaward.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Zhou Long Wins 2011 Pulitzer Prize

"Madame White Snake by Zhou Long has been awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Madame White Snake, which premiered on February 26, 2010, by the Boston Opera at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, was described by the jury as "a deeply expressive opera that draws on a Chinese folk tale to blend the musical traditions of the East and the West.""

For the full story, please see New Music Box.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) under attack by Music Publishers Association

"IMSLP is currently under an extraordinarily underhanded legal attack by the Music Publishers Association of UK (http://mpaonline.org.uk)."

For the full story, please see imslpforums.org

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Today is Library Snapshot Day!

Join us on April 12 for Library Snapshot Day, a day for Libraries staff and the UW community to wield cameras, share comments, and gather statistics for a 24-hour period to illustrate the value of libraries through stories, photographs and numbers.

Let us know what the library means to you at https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/tawataoc/129473

For more information on Snapshot Day, please see http://www.lib.washington.edu/snapshot/

Monday, April 11, 2011

Second Stage: The Vegetable Orchestra


"Though the Austrian group formed in 1998, The Vegetable Orchestra (once known as the First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra) remains relatively unknown for its experimental instrumental music, and for its experimental instruments in general."
For the full story, please see http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2011/04/05/134127823/second-stage-the-vegetable-orchestra?ft=1&f=1039

They've Never Met, But 2,051 Singers Perform Together


"American composer Eric Whitacre is a rock star in choral circles. His music is performed by amateur and professional choirs alike, his chiseled good looks have earned him a modeling contract, and, Thursday night, he unveils his Virtual Choir 2.0 on YouTube. It features more than 2,000 singers from around the world, including this reporter."
For the full story, please see http://www.npr.org/2011/04/06/135181815/theyve-never-met-but-2000-singers-perform-together?ft=1&f=1039

Library Research Award for Undergraduates


  • The $1,000 awards are given in three categories: Senior Thesis, Senior Non-Thesis and Non-Senior.

  • Projects completed in Spring Quarter 2010 through Spring Quarter 2011 are eligible.

  • Projects must have been completed for UW course credit.

  • A project may be in any format or medium.

  • Individual or group projects are eligible. Each student will be judged individually.

For more information or to apply for the Undergraduate Research Award, please see http://guides.lib.washington.edu/researchaward

Library Snapshot Day

The UW Libraries are participating in Library Snapshot Day tomorrow, April 12 and we need your help! Libraries Snapshot Day is a nation-wide effort sponsored by the American Library Association to illustrate the importance of libraries and to show the vast range of services and resources we provide to the campus, community and state. The goal is to create a one-day "snapshot" of what goes on in libraries by collecting user quotes, images, photos, and data related to library activity. We want to illustrate the kinds of services offered by the UW Libraries, and most importantly, the value these services add to teaching, research, and scholarship. The information gathered will become part of a historic archive in the UW Libraries. Selected photos will be featured in our public Snapshot webpage and may be used in future library promotional material. This event is being conducted in all UW Libraries on all campuses. Participate tomorrow by sending us any comments you might have about the Music Library or the UW Libraries in general. The webpage below has links to tools you can use to send any comments or photos you want to share. http://www.lib.washington.edu/snapshot/ You can also email any comments about the library directly to musiclib at uw.edu, or stop by the library on the 12th and give them to us in writing.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Amazon vs Apple: The race for the future of music

"Ever since the dawn of the internet, music fans have dreamt of a mythical celestial jukebox where every song ever produced would be available at the click of a button."

For the full story, please see The Independent.

Monday, March 28, 2011

The MP3: A History Of Innovation And Betrayal

""I don't like the title 'The Father of MP3,'" says Karlheinz Brandenburg. But he kinda is. "Certainly I was involved all the time from basic research [to] getting it into the market.""

For the full story, please see npr.org.

Feel Locked Out? Nothing to Tackle? Well, Try Opera

"Lawrence Harris, an opera singer, poked the ballroom’s faded carpet with the toe of his black alligator boot and said it reminded him of another arena he once performed in."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Streaming Reserves Centralization Pilot

Beginning Spring Quarter 2011 the Music Library will partner with the Media Center in Odegaard Library to centralize streaming audio and video reserves services. The goal of the pilot is to offer the same high quality streaming service you are familiar with while reducing duplication of efforts within the Libraries.

What does this mean for you?

  • Streaming reserves: The Music Library will continue to accept streaming reserve request forms and audio materials to stream. Audio materials with forms will be delivered by student courier to the Media Center at 10:30 and 2:30 daily. Audio materials with forms may also be dropped off directly to the Media Center. NOTE: In order to allow for your streaming audio requests to be processed, we request that you drop off materials one week prior to the date that you need them made available online. Materials will be processed in the order they are received.
  • Print and electronic reserves: The pilot will not effect print reserves, electronic document reserves, and media materials on reserve in the Listening Center. They will continue to be processed and available in the Music Library.

  • Streaming videos: If you are interested in having videos streamed for your class, please email medialib@uw.edu or visit this page: http://tinyurl.com/uwvideoreserves



Music Library staff member Heather Spence will move to the Media Center to assist with this pilot. The pilot will run through the Spring Quarter and will be re-evaluated during the summer. Please contact musiclib@uw.edu or Music Library staff with any questions you have regarding the pilot.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Women composers: Notes from the musical margins

"Try this test. Write down all the women composers you know of. No, don't run away. Given the nature of this column, stick to contemporary classical. Too hard? OK, include anyone, past or present, who has written religious, symphonic, chamber, vocal, choral, operatic, electro-acoustic works. To make it simple, film and TV scores are allowed too. Still zero? You're in distinguished company. The Guardian's 100 Most Inspiring Women this week, marking the 100th International Women's Day, featured not one."

For the full story, please see The Guardian.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Research Award

On behalf of UW Libraries, I am pleased to announce the eighth annual Library Research Award for Undergraduates program.

The Research Award recognizes undergraduate students for excellent research and scholarship that demonstrates creative use of scholarly materials.

Please encourage your students to participate. Most of our student applicants say they submitted because they were encouraged to by their instructors or advisers.

Students may submit any research project they've completed between Spring 2010 and Spring 2011. In addition, they are asked to submit a short reflective essay about the research process.


- *Deadline*: Monday, May 16, 2011.
- Winners receive $1,000.
- Categories: Senior Thesis/Honors Thesis, Senior Non-Thesis, and Non-Senior
- Any media (project format) accepted.

Application information, previous winners, FAQ, and selection criteria are available at:

http://guides.lib.washington.edu/researchaward


The award jury is comprised of librarians and faculty evaluators, crossing disciplines and the three UW campuses.

Questions? Email: libaward@uw.edu

Monday, March 7, 2011

Early Music Is Enjoying Its Moment

"ARTISTIC revolutions rarely happen overnight, and if they do happen quickly, they do not necessarily spread uniformly. In recent decades the early-music movement has provoked a radical shift in performance styles throughout much of the music world. As an eccentric, irrelevant outsider in cultural life, the movement has managed to transform attitudes toward tradition and has wrought major changes in orchestral practice. A movement that started in powerful opposition to modern conventions has become increasingly integrated with mainstream performance."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Faculty Senate will consider endorsing Faculty Fund for Library Excellence

"If approved by the Faculty Senate, a new donation fund could help compensate for budget losses at the UW Libraries, and return the Libraries to their previous ranking.

The Faculty Fund for Library Excellence would accept donations from current and emeritus faculty starting in the next several months. On March 10, the Faculty Senate will consider endorsing the fund."

For the full story, please see UW Today.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Be happy: Bobby McFerrin to perform with local students

"Vocal improviser extraordinaire Bobby McFerrin will perform March 8th at The Paramount Theatre for one evening only. He’s coming at the behest of Giant Magnet (you may remember them better as Seattle International Children’s Festival, though they recently rebranded). The ten-time Grammy winner is still widely known for his wonderful and wonderfully simple hit single, Don’t Worry Be Happy. His concert performances are one-of-a-kind events that can open the world of music to an audience.

For the full story, please see KOMO News.

A Way to Move Forward

"A few weeks ago I wrote a piece about the DSO’s stalemate and many people have since asked me to share my ideas about a possible new model that might reverse current trends and create sustainability. But before I do this we need to turn our attention to the result of the Detroit Symphony strike. This should give us pause for thought. There has been a long and protracted battle. Total internecine warfare. At the end of which neither side has won. Crazy, really. But the worst of it is that the community has lost-big time. It is being deprived of its orchestra, the musicians’ work, their involvement in helping the city face up to a new economic reality and a new position in the world. Which is exactly what the orchestra needed to understand but didn’t."

For the full story, please see Tony's blog.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Sensational festival music, from your cellphone

"THE roar of the crowd! The thumping bass! The... tinny vocals? Open-air music festivals aren't exactly renowned for their balanced sound quality, but that could soon change, thanks to an audio-enhancing app for cellphones."

For the full story, please see New Scientist.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Free Trove of Music Scores on Web Hits Sensitive Copyright Note

"Humanity’s musical treasures — Beethoven piano sonatas, Schubert songs, Mozart symphonies and the like — come to life in performance. But they truly survive as black marks on a page, otherwise known as scores. Now a Web site founded five years ago by a conservatory student, then 19 years old, has made a vast expanse of this repertory available, free."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Vienna Philharmonic must answer for exclusion

"The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which arrives in Berkeley this week for a three-concert series that marks its first Bay Area visit in more than 20 years, is by common agreement one of the finest orchestras in the world. It's composed of some of the leading instrumentalists of Europe, their individual musical voices fused into a seamless communal sound that is steeped in a century and a half of tradition."


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/18/PKRN1HLNV2.DTL#ixzz1EhxnUC5T

Friday, February 18, 2011

Faculty to consider setting up library donation fund

"Recent budget cuts have reduced the number of journals, research papers, essays and publications available, dropping the University of Washington’s libraries out of the top 15 percent of the Association of Research Libraries’ rankings for the first time since 1932 last year."

For the full story, please see The Daily.

Yo-Yo Ma Receives Medal of Freedom

"Yo-Yo Ma, cellist extraordinaire and Musical America’s 2009 Musician of the Year, was awarded the Medal of Freedom earlier this week."

For the full story, please see Musical America.

Is Anna Nicole Smith worthy of an opera?

"Put your ear up to the magnificent walls of the Royal Opera House and you might expect to hear the strains of Verdi or Wagner.

But in the past few weeks, if you listened closely, there was an entirely different chorus drifting from the doors: the scritch-scritch of lawyers’ red pens and the grunting of classically trained singers learning to pole dance. Strain even harder and you might have heard the distinctive stylings of former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones."

For the full story, please see The Globe.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Paolo and Thomas' Sessions at Cornish

Pacific Northwest Viols presents a masterclass with viola da gamba virtuoso Paolo Pandolfo at Cornish College of the Arts on Monday, March 7 at 6 pm. Three talented players from Seattle and Vancouver will play for Paolo. Auditors: All Students (including UW) and Cornish faculty free, community attendees $15 at the door.
For more information,visit http://www.cornish.edu/music_series_10/event/master_class_with_paolo_pandolfo/

Early Music Guild with Cornish College present a seminar/masterclass by master lutenist and theorbo player Thomas Boysen at Cornish College at noon on March 7. Free and open to the public. For more information, visit
http://www.cornish.edu/music_series_10/event/thomas_boysen/

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

8-Track Tapes Belong In A Museum

"Today — when you can literally take your music anywhere — it's hard to imagine a time when that wasn't possible. So, if you're old enough, cast your mind back 40 years or so. Remember 8-track tapes? In the 1960s and early '70s, they were the way that millions of Americans took their music with them. Now, a museum devoted to the obsolete format is open in Dallas, Texas."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

3-D Comes to Met Opera, but Without Those Undignified Glasses

"Purveyors of entertainment, in the ever-urgent quest to grab audiences’ attention, have used 3-D imagery in movies and, more recently, television. Now it is coming to live theater."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Master of Queen's Music Protests Muzak

"Kudos to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen's Music, who is an active member of Pipedown, a campaign in the U.K. to eliminate, or at least turn down, Muzak in public spaces."

For the full story, please see Musical America.

Musical stash waiting to be found finally uncovered at Fort Lewis

"Construction crews discovered a treasure trove of military music recordings while renovating a fitness center at Madigan Army Hospital this week."

For the full story, please see King 5.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

UW piano prof to perform a bundle of Brahms

"For almost two decades, Craig Sheppard has been professor of piano at the University of Washington School of Music. One fine benefit of his presence here is that you get to hear some dynamite keyboard concerts for a bargain."

For the full story, please see the Seattle Times.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Music Treasures Consortium

The Music Treasures Consortium proudly announces a new Web site giving access to some of the world’s most valued music manuscript and print materials, available at

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/treasures/treasures-home.html
.

The site is the creation of several renowned music libraries and archives in the United States and the United Kingdom. The consortium members include the British Library, the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library at Harvard University, the Juilliard School Lila Acheson Wallace Library, the Library of Congress, the Morgan Library and Museum, and the New York Public Library. The site is hosted by the Library of Congress on its Performing Arts Encyclopedia (www.loc.gov/performingarts ). The aim of the site is to further music scholarship and research by providing access in one place to digital images of primary sources for performance and study of music.



The items digitized include manuscript scores and first and early editions of a work. Seminal composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, Claude Debussy, Georges Bizet, Arnold Schoenberg, and Igor Stravinsky, among others, are represented on the site through their original handwritten manuscripts and first editions. The online items range from the 16th century to the 20th century in this initial launch. Researchers can search or browse materials, access bibliographic information about each item, and view digital images of the treasure via each custodial archive’s Web site. The site will continue to grow as consortium members add more items.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Juan Pampin’s meditations ‘On Space’ part of Les Percussions de Strasbourg concert

"The audience will be literally surrounded when Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Europe’s leading percussion ensemble, performs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, in Meany Theater. And it isn’t just sound that will surround them. The audience will be seated on stage, with the six performers arrayed around them."

For the full story, please see http://www.washington.edu/news/articles/juan-pampin2019s-mediations-2018on-space2019-part-of-les-percussions-de-strasbourg-concert.

Mahler Said What to Whom?

"AT the height of the civil rights movement, two black musicians, a double bassist and a cellist, accused the New York Philharmonic of racial discrimination. It was July 1969, and soon the case, which had been brought before the New York City Commission on Human Rights, was making headlines. The National Urban League called on the orchestra to put affirmative action in place."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

What Can You Find in the New York Philharmonic’s Archives?

"The New York Philharmonic’s digital archive, which went live on Thursday, contains a wealth of documents from 1943 to 1970, some of which are featured in this article. The information is vast, so we invite readers inclined to do some digging to share their discoveries here."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

In with the old, out with the new

"Reed Juenger makes up half of the electronic music duo Beat Connection, which has gained notoriety across the Internet, eventually leading to a record deal. Invested in music and multimedia art, Juenger became a Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) major."

For the full story, please see The UW Daily.

Cairo Opera House Shuttered

"The Cairo Opera House, est. 1988, is among the places that have been shut down by government decree. Home base to the Cairo Symphony, the Cairo Opera Ballet and the Cairo Opera, it has been closed since Saturday, according to a WQXR report."

For the full story, please see Musical America.

EMI Taken Over by Citigroup

"Citigroup Inc. has taken over debt-strapped EMI Group Ltd., closing a disastrous purchase of the music label by Guy Hands, founder of British private equity firm Terra Firma."


For the full story, please see Musical America.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A battle-driven tune

"The UW Wind Ensemble played a familiar tune at their concert yesterday, but it wasn’t one most people expected to leave the screen.

Set to the theme song from “Halo,” accompanied by clips of scenes from the video game, the ensemble put on a performance to provide a sneak preview of some of its work as well as to show the performance level of a college band."

For the full story, please see the UW Daily.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Milton Babbitt, a Composer Who Gloried in Complexity, Dies at 94

"Milton Babbitt, an influential composer, theorist and teacher who wrote music that was intensely rational and for many listeners impenetrably abstruse, died on Saturday. He was 94 and lived in Princeton, N.J."

For the full story, please see the New York Times.

Learn more about Babbitt's musical life by searching the library catalog.

Friday, January 28, 2011

How Do We Fix Classical Music? Here's What You Told Us.

"Ten days ago, we posed the question: What's broken in classical music, and how do we fix it? We asked you, along with a few prominent musicians, to ponder that question and come up with a few thoughts and crafty ideas. And, heavens to Beethoven, you came up with a lot — hundreds of solutions, criticisms, praises and personal stories."

For the full story, please see NPR.org.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Larry Starr's George Gershwin

"As readers of this blog are aware, I have for some time been proclaiming a "new Gershwin" - in, e.g., the New York Times and the Times Literary Supplement. In Classical Music in America (2005), he ranks with Ives as our most important concert composer (my view of Copland, in that book, irked some reviewers). My book-in-progress is a study of Gershwin and Rouben Mamoulian, the theatrical genius who directed Porgy and Bess. And my latest Gershwin rant takes the form of a review of Larry Starr's superb new George Gershwin (Yale University Press), in the current Times Literary Supplement. Gershwin is no longer patronized as a "pops" composer, as an inspired dilettante. "The new Gershwin is versatile, protean, universal," I write. Here's the full review:"


For the full story, please see Arts Journal.

To read Dr. Starr's new book, please see the library catalog.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Shimon on marimba: Is this the new jazz?

"Shimon the robot is proving four arms are better than two. His extra limbs allow him to create a range of rhythms a human musician would find hard to replicate."

For the full story and video, please see Yahoo News.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Third of home insurers fail to cover downloads, warns Which?

"Music fans are at risk of losing thousands of pounds worth of digital music because their household insurer does not protect downloaded material, according to Which?."

For the full story, please see The Guardian.

The diva of all data: why we should take note of these musical numbers

"Here's a fun game: what was the most performed work of classical music throughout the world last year? Who was the busiest conductor? Which was the most performed opera? And who was the most overpaid diva? At last, answers to all of those questions and more (apart, alas, from the last one) are revealed today by Bachtrack, the classical music listing site."

For the full story, please see The Guardian.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Is the death of the CD looming?

"If you think the musical compact disc is dying or dead, you're probably younger than it is.

"Show me a teenager buying a Susan Boyle album on CD and I'll show you someone buying a gift for their grandparent -- for Christmas," jokes Billboard senior chart manager and analyst Keith Caulfield. "There is definitely an age component to the consumption of music.""


For the full story, please see CNN.com.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Composer's Unpublished Musical Manuscript Discovered at the University of Washington

The premiere will be on May 16, sung by Nataly Wickham, voice student of Tom Harper, and accompanied by School of Music faculty, Rhonda Kline, 7:30 pm at Brechemin Auditorium. $5 all tickets at the door (cash or check).

"A summer project to inventory uncataloged manuscripts in the Music Library resulted in the discovery of a previously unpublished two-page song, Birth, by composer Amy Beach (1867-1944)."

For the full story, please see the University of Washington Libraries e-news.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Fraternity in harmony

"On a typical Tuesday or Thursday evening in the music building, the perfectly harmonious tune of “Brown Eyed Girl” can be heard drifting up the stairs from the basement. The source of the music is the forty men who make up the UW Men’s Glee Club."

For the full story, please see The Daily.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Take a good album apart? Don't be ridiculous

"Since the Beatles signed up with iTunes, you can download individual tracks from their albums. You may start to question the band’s reputation for creative genius, however, should you download the Abbey Road classic, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window. It starts mid-beat with the guitar outro from Polythene Pam and ends with clumsy abruptness before the sublime segue into Golden Slumbers."

For the full story, please see The Telegraph.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

BRITTEN THEMATIC CATALOGUE PROJECT - USER SUBMITTED INCIPIT RECORDINGS

Are you interested in recording extracts from some of Britten's
unpublished childhood works?

The Britten Thematic Catalogue [Beta version] now includes the ability
for users to submit recordings of typeset incipits, presented within the
catalog, to the project in order to be considered for inclusion in the
final published version of the resource, due for release in 2013.

If you are interested in submitting a recording to the project, please
go to www.brittenproject.org and click on the 'Britten Incipit Recording
Project' icon on the left of the homepage. Please then browse the list
of incipits required and follow the recording and submission
instructions presented. The list of required incipits will be constantly
updated so please check back on occasion to view updates. If no incpits
are present for your instrument or ensemble, please feel free to email
Jonathan Manton (j.manton@brittenproject.org) to enquire as to
availability of other extracts.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Region's best opera voices compete in Seattle on Sunday

"Hear up-and-coming operatic voices at the Metropolitan Opera National Council regional auditions, to be held at Meany Hall on Sunday."

For the full story, please see the Seattle Times.

Academic Minute: The Touring Pianist

"In today's Academic Minute, Duncan Cumming of the State University of New York at Albany discusses the unforeseen difficulties faced by a touring concert pianist."

For the full story, please see Inside Higher Ed.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

UW trombonist, DX Arts, involved in concert at Town Hall

"Stuart Dempster, a trombonist and professor emeritus of the School of Music, teams with keyboardist David Gamper and accordionist Pauline Oliveros for a special appearance at Seattle's Town Hall on Saturday, Jan. 15."

For the full story, please see UW Today.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Talkin’ ’Bout i(Pod) Generation

"The iPod (and, by extension, iTunes) not only revolutionized the world’s listening habits early in the last decade, expanding the sheer variety of music people listen to; it also changed the manner in which people think of and hear music. It’s true that not everyone has an iPod (or an iPhone or an MP3 player of some sort), but virtually everyone understands its significance. The device holds music that fits in your pocket, offering you an easy way to listen to vastly different things, even a way to juxtapose and to mash-up music or sounds that would normally seem as far apart as a Formula One racecar and a pony."

For the full story, please see San Francisco Classical Voice.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Meet the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011



"Your votes are in. The professionals have had their say. And now, 101 people from more than 30 countries around the world are heading to Sydney Opera House to perform together in March as the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011."

For the full article, please see the YouTube blog.

Monday, January 10, 2011

How Mozart got his groove back

"Mozart: the image on a million Salzburg chocolates, the music at the end of a million call centre phones. One of Time magazine’s top 10 cultural figures of the millennium, Mozart probably has more CDs in the catalogue than any other classical composer, and from today is about to fill the airwaves as Radio 3 launches its complete broadcast of every note he wrote in his short life."

For the full story, please see the Telegraph.