The Gerald Coke Handel Collection, housed in the Foundling Museum, has acquired a letter describing the first Handel Commemoration Concerts. Taking place at Westminster Abbey in 1784, this series of concerts commemorated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the composer’s death. The acquired letter is written by Mrs Henry Bates, sister of Joah Bates who led the Commemoration…
Diana Wood was an E.T. Bryant prize winner in 2015 for her dissertation on The Music Collections of Cambridge University : An investigation into perceptions of the value of user-generated content in a special collections catalogue. Here are some further thoughts a year on…. “I came to research and write my dissertation almost by chance….
Reposted from MusiCB3, the blog of Cambridge University Library Music Collections.
You can never have too much Messiah. A very Happy Christmas to music librarians and their readers everywhere. May you have a wonderful festive season, and a music-filled New Year. See you in 2016! Thanks to Paul Nash and the librarians of Oxford University for welcoming Christmas in style.
It’s nearly here…. Many thanks to Paul W. Nash and the librarians of Oxford University for today and tomorrow’s posts.
Examine the manuscript of Handel’s Messiah. Although the full score hasn’t been digitised yet, much of the Christmas music has been photographed, and you can listen to the festive chorus For unto us a child is born. Courtesy of the British Library. http://www.bl.uk/turning-the-pages/?id=38fd72b2-5b98-4fc2-aaae-98e717e8d512&type=book
Listening to carols in Padstow on the phone – A lovely interview about bygone Christmases from the Bob & Jacqueline Patten English Folk Music Collection at the BL : http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Bob-and-Jacqueline-Patten-Collection/025M-C1033X0271XX-1800V0 And how does this connect to Stargazy pie? Listen to the interview.
Last Tuesday’s Christmas showcase at Westminster Music Library was anything but a “Silent Night”, as our very own Joint Force Singers Choir* gave their debut public performance in festive style. Keen followers of Westminster Music Library’s community events may already know about our flagship choir, whose activities so far have included interactive workshops in the…
As well as the usual delights of the festive season—feasting , games, music and dancing—telling stories has long been a feature, especially spooky stories, which became increasingly popular in Victorian times, reaching their height in the early twentieth century when M.R. James, one-time Provost of King’s, published his ghost stories. One of the most popular of…
“The People’s Collection, Wales” is a fascinating online collection of items from museums, archives, libraries, and individuals in the Principality. A Christmas postcard from “Jack” of the 38th (Welsh) Division to “Edie” was part of an exhibition commemorating the Welsh experience in the First World War, a project led by the National Library of Wales. Perhaps, slightly…
Christmas Day in the Workhouse. This gloomy poem was a stalwart of the Victorian Christmas fireside. There’s a rather jollier parody in the British Library’s collections – http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Roy-Palmer-collection/025M-C1023X0007XX-1400V0
Miners singing Christmas carols underground at Bersham Colliery, Rhostyllen, Wrexham. Courtesy of the National Archives, UK. Have a look at their wonderful Flickr page – https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalarchives/
Christmas with the choir of Cambridge University Library…
Some fascinating Christmas oddities as discovered by COPAC – http://blog.copac.ac.uk/2015/12/11/celebration-of-christmas/
The choir of Clare College, Cambridge at the Library of Congress.
The Hathi Trust’s pages can be a great way of finding some more obscure Christmas musical fare. How about Liza Lehmann’s No candle was there or the festive children’s operetta The trial of John and Jane? It struck me having a quick search for Christmas music on their site, that there is a huge wealth of musical…
Fascinating blogpost from New College Library, Edinburgh, about the festive treasures in their hymnology collection: http://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/newcollegelibrarian/2014/12/08/christmas-is-coming-at-new-college-library/
A selection of unusual Christmas music from the British Music Collection : – https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/exhibit/british-music-collection-christmas-exhibition/QRHup94d
More singing in the library. This time courtesy of the librarians of the University of St. Andrews. The carol was taken from a text held in their Rare Books Collection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLXibizhGI8
Christmas at Westminster Music Library There will be a seasonal event on December 15th at Westminster Music Library, for more details see Joint Force Christmas. With thanks to Ruth Walters and the staff of Westminster Music Library.
Flash mob celebrating Wexford Library’s first birthday in style
A recording courtesy of the Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound’s 2009 Advent Calendar. The Star of Bethlehem by Stephen Adams was hugely popular in the early twentieth century. www.recordedsound.no/lyd/index.htm?filid=109 Less well known is Stephen Adams’ connection with a notorious murder case – the Maybrick poisoning. Adams was the brother of the victim, James, who was also a suspect in…
The British Library celebrates a Victorian Christmas – http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/victorian-christmas
December, this year, is a month of musical feasts with Christmas towards the end. But first, it’s Happy Hanukkah from the Judaica Sound Archive at the Recorded Sound Archives of Florida Atlantic University