Ban on Solo Encores at the Met? Ban, What Ban?

From the New York Times By Daniel J. Wakin
Published: April 23, 2008

After the tenor Juan Diego Flórez popped out his nine shining high C’s in “La Fille du Régiment” at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday night, the crowd rose and cheered. Mr. Flórez obliged with something not heard on the Met stage since 1994: a solo encore. more

Zotero helps you manage your research

Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. An extension to the popular open-source web browser Firefox, Zotero includes the best parts of older reference manager software (like EndNote)—the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to export that information as formatted references—and the best parts of modern software and web applications (like iTunes and del.icio.us), such as the ability to interact, tag, and search in advanced ways.

It lives in the web browser, it can effortlessly transmit information to, and receive information from, other web services and applications; since it runs on one’s personal computer, it can also communicate with software running there (such as Microsoft Word). And it can be used offline as well (e.g., on a plane, in an archive without WiFi).

Simon Kornblith is a Senior Developer and son of Gary Kornblith and Carol Lasser!

Rare Autograph of Olivier Messiaen on Display

View a rare autograph of Olivier Messiaen featured in this centennial year of his birth. Messiaen, an organist, composer, and professor at the Paris Conservatoire, taught Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, and Tristan Murail among others. This manuscript was purchased through a generous gift to the Conservatory Library.

The Conservatory Library's Special Collections are the focus of the year-long series of exhibits, Bibliorarities.

One didn't seem like enough...

The second new title this week--Journal of Film Music--is now available in Periodicals.

Goodkind home featured on HGTV’s “If Walls Could Talk”

The H.K. Goodkind Collection, housed in the Main Library Special Collections, was jointly purchased in 1986 by The Violin Society of America and Oberlin College. The collection includes over 1,200 book, score and periodical titles, more than 550 auction catalogs, miscellaneous research files, a clippings file, photographs, and two paintings.

This collection was amassed over the years with significant help from Hyman Frankel (d. 1959), an amateur musician and an informed book and violin collector in New York City. His valuable collection of materials contained over 1,000 books including many rare titles on the violin from the seventeenth century through the twentieth century; over 1,500 scores for solo violin, violin chamber music, violin methods and treatises; prints and engravings; and violins and bows. Frankel asked Goodkind to handle the disposition of the collection in about 1959.

Herbert Goodkind spent a portion of his youth in an unassuming house in Columbia’s first suburb which has been nationally recognized for bridging the gaps across lines of race, religion, class and culture. This site in Historic Waverly, a National Register for Historic Places District, has proved to connect diverse lives with roots to Historically Black colleges, a Jewish synagogue, and famous musicians. This story of this private residence known as the Visanska-Starks House, and its hidden carriage house will be featured on the “Hidden Hideout” episode of HGTV’s “If Walls Could Talk”. The episode will air nationally on Monday, April 28, 2008 at 6:00 PM ET/PT.

New title in Periodicals

Nineteenth-Century Music Review is now available in Periodicals.

Fall 2008 - Conservatory Library Circulation Desk Positions Available

General and reserve circulation, patron assistance with copiers, printer and equipment. Enforcement of library policies and procedures, and other duties as assigned. Willingness to be a team player, reliable and punctual. Paid training to begin this April/May. Minimum of 4 hours per week. Includes evenings and week-ends. Work study and previous library experience a plus! Applications available at the Con library circulation desk. Application deadline is Monday, April 21. Contact Alexis alexis.edleman@oberlin.edu or Faith faith.hoffman@oberlin.edu, if you have any questions.

New Scores, Recordings, Videos, & Books !

We've been busy purchasing and cataloging new materials for your use. Take a look at the new materials that have been added to the collection in March. There's so much to chose from that it's like picking cherries!!

Measure for Measure: How to Write a Song and Other Mysteries

The New York times is featuring songwriters on their blog this spring. With music now available with a single, offhand click, it's easy to forget that songs are not born whole, polished and ready to play. They are created by artists who draw on some combination of craft, skill and inspiration. In the coming weeks, the contributors to this blog -- all accomplished songwriters -- will pull back the curtain on the creative process as they write about their work on a songs in the making. Take a look at the blog, Measure for Measure: How to Write a Song and Other Mysteries.

Opera Glass

Check out Opera Glass!

If you can't remember a particular aria from Gounod's "Faust" or a certain detail from the song contest at Wartburg, this site dedicated to opera may be just the ticket. Created and maintained by Rick Bogart, a research scientist at Stanford, the site provides access to libretti, source texts, performance histories, synopses, discographies, and so on.

The site also contains an opera information directory, which features an opera composer index containing 4800 entries. Moving on, those who might be new to the wonders of opera will appreciate the "Opera For Everyone" CD's, which are offered here at no charge. Visitors can use the music here to learn about four classic operas, including "La Traviata" and "Madama Butterfly". The site is rounded out by a list of operas requiring six or fewer singers and a calendar of operatic commemorations.

Trumpet Playing Robot!

Toyota has developed a trumpet playing robot good enough to play professionally. Read the New York Times article. Check this out! Watch the video.