Studying for Graduate Level Music History Exams

 It is that time of year!  If you are a senior applying to graduate programs in music, you are starting to hear about auditions, interviews, and entrance examinations for those universities.  The Maxwell Music Library has several resources that will help you in your preparation.
If you have more than a week, you should flip back through the texts of your textbook, but also take a look at what if fondly just known as "Grout."  This is the text most music schools traditionally use.  The music librarian just might have a copy of the 8th edition in her office that can also be borrowed.

• Grout, Donald Jay. A history of western music.
  Call #: ML160 .G872 2006

Two additional books are intended for a quicker overview of music history.  Please note that these have not been updated in ten years or more, but they are still a good tool for a review of the majority of the Western music history canon.

• Poultney, David. Studying Music History: Learning, Reasoning, and Writing about Music History and Literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.
  Call #: ML161.P8 1995
• Wold, Milo, Gary Martin, James Miller, and Edmund Cykler. An Outline History of Western Music, 9th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
  Call #: ML161.O97 1997

If these are checked out (and at the time of this posting, they were), DO NOT PANIC!  All these titles can be requested from PASCAL Delivers and will come in from other schools.

"The President's Own" Marine Band

Furman is preparing for a performance of "The President's Own" Marine Band on Friday, October 28.  I'm sorry to say that if you did not get tickets in the first five hours they were available, you might miss out on seeing them live this time around.

Do not despair!  The Maxwell Music Library has a display up featuring quotations about The United States Marine Band, physical recordings we have, and Furman users can also access a wealth of recordings of "The President's Own" Marine Band in Naxos Music Library.  Thanks to student worker Chase McAbee for putting the display together.

Resources:

• Naxos Music Library collection of The United States Marine Band (requires Furman username and password)
• The United States Marine Band website

Tributes to the Fallen - Music of 9/11

Come by and see our display about music inspired by the events around 9/11/01, expertly prepared by students Will H. and Chase M.

Included among the works are a handful that we have recordings for:

• As All the Heavens Were a Bell by Jay Bocook
• Memorial by René Clausen
• On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams

This display was created in support of Furman's Interfaith Conversation,  From the Ground Up.

New Resource: Computer Science Digital Library

The library just purchased the Computer Science Digital Library, and I went hunting for music content. There is quite a bit in there on digital music, tuning/temperament, and electro-acoustics. The nature of the material is pretty technical, most of it coming from computer science journals, but would be useful for the students really interested in specific softwares, experiments, composition techniques, and so on.

New Resource - American National Biography

The library recently purchased the online version of American National Biography. While not specifically a music resource, it is rich with music-related content.

If you are familiar with the more well-known (British) National Biography, this is a similar resource - an attempt to collect reliable biographical entries for Americans with significant contribution to history, invention, culture, and politics.

While the Grove Dictionary is still the best resource for music, as well as typically being the most thorough, there are some features of the American National Biography that are quite useful. For instance, if you look up Aaron Copland, it has an entry about 2000 words long, with linked cross-referenced entries that include people other than musicians. (Eisenhower, FDR, Martha Graham, in addition to the musicians and composers he worked with). This information within that context is useful when looking at a composer or musician as a historical or cultural figure, and not just at his or her music.

The entries also include a selected bibliography that is slightly easier to read than Grove, as well as a list of vetted online resources, something which Grove lacks!

American National Biography does tend to only include people who are no longer living, and is not comprehensive, since the editors get to pick who they feel has made a significant enough contribution. However the online version allows for more frequent updating than the print volumes did, so there is a chance that recently passed composers (such as Lou Harrison) may still be included.

For now, this is available through the All Databases page on the main library site, but as the music library's site morphs into its new form, you will see it linked from several of the related course guides, and listed as a music reference resource.

Naxos is in the Building!

Thanks to all of your positive feedback, the Furman Libraries now subscribe to Naxos Music Library. This wonderful classical music resource includes (at last count) over 740,000 tracks. While it may have started as a digital collection of the Naxos label, it now includes many labels. The first track I listened to was On a Wire by Jennifer Higdon, featuring the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, on the new ASO Media label. A recent agreement between ASO Media and Naxos will include all new Atlanta Symphony Orchestra recordings in Naxos.

Naxos Music Library has many features that will aid the listener and researcher. PDFs of recording booklets are often available, as well as the ability to create playlists, link to a static URL, and extensive searching capabilities. You can even access opera libretti in the resources menu. I recommend following the Naxos Music Library blog for updates on content, mobile functionality, and features.

Speaking of mobile devices, Naxos Music Library works on an iPhone app as well as on the Android. It looks like there will be more to come in that arena!

Furman has fifteen simultaneous users for Naxos Music Library. This could mean there are times when all fifteen seats are in use, but we are hoping this will not happen too frequently. Just remember to close your browser when you are finished listening!

Let the music librarian, Jenny Colvin, know what you think!

New Trial - Naxos Music Library

There is a trial of Naxos Music Library up and running, for Furman faculty, staff, and students only.

Click here to access the trial.

Naxos Music Library is one of the world´s largest online classical music libraries. Offers streaming access to more than 46,000 CDs with more than 653,000 tracks, standard and rare repertoire. Over 800 new CDs are added to the library every month. Includes the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues plus the complete catalogues or selected titles from over 250 classical, jazz and world music labels with more labels joining every month. Classic pop and rock music as well as Chinese orchestral music are also represented. (This description is taken directly from the trial connect page, created by Cris Ferguson).

The trial runs through December 31, 2010.

Please try it out and send feedback to Jenny Colvin, music librarian (jenny.colvin@furman.edu).