Summer Intersession begins 8/18

Summer Intersession hours will begin on Monday, August 18th, and be in effect through Labor Day. Enjoy the last few weeks of summer, everyone!

Cambridge Journals Online offers some enhancements

Cambridge Journals Online has announced some enhancements to its online services, including the ability to bookmark content using social bookmarking services (such as del.icio.us), to interface with Zotero, and  a downloadable search widget. Full details on the enhancements are available at this link.

Music journals which currently have online content provided through Cambridge Journals Online via Columbia University Libraries are:

• British Journal of Music Education
• Cambridge Opera Journal
• Early Music History
• Eighteenth-Century Music
• Journal of the Society for American Music
• Organised Sound
• Plainsong and Medieval Music
• Popular Music
• Tempo
• Twentieth-century music

Check out these new enhancements, and let us know if you have any questions or problems!

Summer reading suggestion

OK, perhaps it’s not “Jaws” or other typical beach reading, but the journal Nature has been running a fascinating series of articles on music and science, including articles by John Sloboda, Nicholas Cook, and Philip Ball. They’ve now made all of the articles available as one download, or you can also browse and download single articles, and access a related podcast. (Note that the articles are listed on the web page in reverse chronological order, with the last in the series at the top).

Technology re-animates performance. Or, re-performance?

There’s a fascinating story on WNYC’s Soundcheck blog today, which details a process used by the company Zenph, which uses actual audio recordings of keyboard music to re-create live performances, on a computer-driven Disklavier. Their claim is that the process is accurate enough to capture all of the details of an original piano performance. Of course, other performance issues, such as the room, the instrument, the audience, and how these may have been factors in the artist’s performance, cannot be factored in.

I think this raises many interesting issues of performance vs. recording vs. the perception of “liveness”. To me personally, even at its best this can only be another form of recording, rather than a “live performance”.

New E-Resources added

Three new e-resources of interest have been added to the Libraries’ collections. Please have a look!
Questions or feedback? Please contact us at music@libraries.cul.columbia.edu

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Classical Music Reference Library
http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio6697428

The Classical music reference library brings together reference materials, spanning the entire history of Western classical music. Included are the reference titles Baker’s dictionary of music, Baker’s biographical dictionary of musicians, Baker’s student encyclopedia of music and Women composers: music through the ages. Provides coverage of all classical genres, from the Medieval period to the 21st century.

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Opera in Video
http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio6697350

A streaming video database that will contain approximately 250 important
opera performances, captured on video through staged productions,
interviews, and documentaries. Selections represent the world’s leading
performers, conductors, and opera houses and are based on a work’s
importance to the operatic canon.

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Dance in Video
http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio6697347

Searchable database containing streaming video files of dance productions
and documentaries by influential performers and companies of the 20th
century. Selections cover ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental,
and improvisational dance, as wellas forerunners of the forms and the
pioneers of modern concert dance. Videos can be browsed by people, role,
ensemble, genre, and venue. Material types include documentaries,
editorials, instructional, interviews, and performances. Database users
may create their own custom playlists and video clips.

Mister Softee’s siren song

This country is facing a time for big decisions. Wherever you may fall on the Mister Softee jingle controversy (soothing and nostalgic, or nervewracking?), it’s important to have the facts to make an informed decision. Check out the official sheet music, with *lyrics*, to get up to speed on the issues:
http://www.mistersoftee.com/music.html

Columbia Libraries launches re-designed Academic Commons

Columbia Libraries has launched Academic Commons, a re-designed version of the earlier Digital Commons. The site

“collects, preserves, and makes accessible the scholarship and research of the faculty, staff, and students of Columbia University. The Commons will include articles and monographs, working papers, preprints, technical reports, conference papers, datasets, multimedia creations, and other materials in various digital formats. Content will grow as new communities and collections are added to Academic Commons.”

The site includes links to Columbia dissertations and theses, with full text in many cases. It is possible to browse these by academic dept., by navigating from Browse All Content By >>> Communities/Collections >>> Columbia Dissertations and Theses >>> Dissertations by Dept. (or follow this link).

Coverage for dissertations is from 1997 forward, with some selected content prior to 1997.

Remember also that for dissertations in general, Proquest Digital Dissertations, available through the Columbia Libraries, is a great resource (note: access limited to full-time students, faculty and staff).

New book by music faculty member George Lewis

Prof. George Lewis, the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, and Director, The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University, has a new book out: “A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music” (University of Chicago Press, 2008). The book is available in CLIO under call number ML3508.8 C5 L48 2008. Check it out!

New Bach organ composition discovered

On the heels of the discovery of an unknown aria in recent years, German scholars have announced the discovery of an unknown organ composition by J.S. Bach, as reported (in German) here, with a report in English here. The work is a chorale fantasy on the chorale “Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält”.

A report here says that the piece will be give its modern premiere in Germany on June 7, 2008, at the Halle Handel Festival, played by Martin Haselböck.

Summer hours

The spring semester’s really over – wishing everyone a great  summer! Summer hours for the library are available at this link. Hope to see you in the library!