As any lover of The Twelve Days of Christmas (or, for that matter, William Shakespeare) will know, the festivities continue into the New Year, with the festive season officially ending on the 5th or 6th January. There is some disagreement as to which is the correct date. Both dates seem equally valid, with January 5th making Christmas…
Following on from the festivities at Westminster Music Library, here’s a snapshot of what music librarians in Cambridge and Huddersfield have been up to. At Cambridge there was the usual departmental Christmas dinner along with our friends from the Chinese and Japanese departments… At Huddersfield, some clever librarians designed the ultimate cosy fire (though don’t…
Festivities have commenced at Westminster Music Library. There are drummers drumming… …pipers (ok, saxophonists, but it’s as near as we could get) piping… There was even a festive composer… With thanks to Ruth Walters, Westminster Music Library, for the photos.
The Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin has a useful catalogue of festive choral music with Irish connections, which can be viewed on its website. Ranging from unison to 8 part voices, and from the easily accessible to the challenging, there’s something here for any choir looking for something a little different for its next carol concert….
The canny librarians and archivists at ITMA (Irish Traditional Music Archive) have been busy putting together an Advent Calendar celebrating the music of Ireland. Some great surprises include performances in pubs and in ITMA’s very own reading room. There’s even an interview with the Zambian Kalingalinga Ceili Band. The current day can be viewed on…
The world is more complicated than ever and life around us seems to move at an ever faster pace, statistics show that anxiety and depression have risen by a third in just over four years – it’s clear that we are facing a significant and growing problem. Discovering new ways to target these issues present…
ITMA is delighted to announce that it has been awarded funding of over € 187k to host one of the European Commission’s inaugural Marie Curie Society & Enterprise Fellowships. Dr. Lynnsey Weissenberger, a postdoctoral researcher in Library & Information Studies from Florida State University – and a practising Irish traditional musician – joined ITMA in…
Nurse Cavell was shot in Brussels in October 1915 for helping 200 allied soldiers out of German-occupied Belgium to neutral Holland. Maltese composer Paolino Vassallo (1856-1923) wrote a three act opera on Norfolk nurse Edith Cavell which was performed in 1927. Christina Gauci in Malta is researching Vassallo’s work and has sought our help in…
“Have you got a piano reduction of the Bach Double?” “Do you have a set that goes with the Watkins Shaw Messiah?” “I’m looking for the Choral for easy piano” “Is the Robbins Landon Clock Urtext?” Do you panic when your readers come in with questions like that? Do you really know your Massenet from…
The Music Library at the Library of Birmingham looks at a “local” composer…. The recent WW1 centenary commemorations in Belgium brought the English composer Edward Elgar to mind, together with three largely unknown works he composed in support of that beleaguered country. The invasion of Belgium, at the start of the war in 1914, generated…
Some exciting news from ITMA (the Irish Traditional Music Archive). Tonight (Thursday 5th October 2017) at 19:30 there will be a concert of music & songs selected from the 19th century Canon James Goodman Irish Music Manuscript Collection. Featuring Aoife Ní Bhriain, fiddle, Caoimhín Ó Fearghail, uilleann pipes & vocals, with narration & video imagery…
To mark Sir Simon Rattle’s first season as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), and to celebrate a career spanning almost half a century, Barbican Music Library is hosting a free exhibition entitled Rattle. It features contributions from his family archives, his agency, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the…
At a special ceremony on Friday, 22 September, The National Library of Wales launched its Welsh Music Archive Programme in the presence of the folk music expert and Library benefactor, Phyllis Kinney. Phyllis Kinney and her daughter Eluned were present at the Friday launch where Maredudd ap Huw and I gave a presentation to the…
Good news from CYM (Community and Youth Music) Library based in Hornsey Library in Haringey. They have been very fortunate recently to have received a grant to purchase contemporary music for our stock. This has been made possible by the Radcliffe Trust. It should all now be on Encore21, but this was a chance to…
It all started 35 years ago in France… In 1982, staff at the Ministry of Culture dreamed up an idea for a new kind of musical holiday. They imagined a day where free, live music would be everywhere: street corners and parks, rooftops and gardens, store fronts and mountaintops. And, unlike a typical music festival,…
World Music Day in Manchester Central Library – 21st June 2017 World Music Day, or as is it known in France, Fête de la Musique originated in France in 1982. It was the brainchild of Jack Lang, the Minister of Culture and composer Maurice Fleuret, who he appointed as director of Music and Dance in 1981….
Music libraries and institutions across the country are going to be busy for the next few weeks with BBC Music Day 2017 today (June 15th), and “Make Music Day” next week on Wednesday 21st June. As part of BBC Music Day, in Cambridgeshire English Pocket Opera performed on a punt, and a blue plaque commemorating Syd Barrett, founder…
Being a member of the Conference Committee, I knew what the programme for the IAML (UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend in Exeter looked like but of course it only comes alive when you’re there. I missed the previous ASW in Manchester so I was really looking forward to catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones!…
An exhibition – Say it with Music – is being held at The Forum, Southend in May as the culmination of the National Jazz Archive Intergenerational Jazz Reminiscence Project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.An exhibition – Say it with Music – is being held at The Forum, Southend in May as the culmination of…
At the ASW on Friday 7th April, a new and revised version of Encore, the go-to site for orchestral or vocal sets in the UK, was premiered; the fruit of several months work by a number of people. There are lots of advantages to the new Encore-21. Most importantly, the software has been updated, so enabling easier searching….
It’s that time of year again… IAML UK & Ireland’s Annual Study Weekend will be starting this Friday (7th April) in Exeter, and running until Sunday. As usual there’s a range of subjects to suit all music librarian tastes from the impact of music on everyday life to the extreme cataloguers of the Gerald Coke…
Exciting news from the Britten-Pears Foundation…. The Britten-Pears Foundation is pleased to announce the completion of the Holst Archive Project and the launch of the new catalogue online, available to researchers through the Britten-Pears Foundation’s website. Funded by the National Cataloguing Grants Programme for Archives, the project has focused on the cataloguing of the Holst…
Very occasionally being a music librarian can take you to the most unexpected places. I’ve recently returned from a trip to Basel prompted by a production of a new ballet, Robin Hood, choreographed by British choreographer, Richard Wherlock, the Director and Chief Choreographer of Ballett Basel. So, what was the connection with my usual life in…
This was the headline grabbing news in The Post Boy for the 26th November 1695 on the death of composer Henry Purcell. Recognised as one of the greatest English composers, Purcell was universally mourned. But we wanted to celebrate his musical achievements rather than lament his death, not only as a prolific composer but also…