Encyclopedia of African American music - New in the Con Library Ref Collection

Located in Conservatory Reference ML101.U6 E53 2011
African Americans' historical roots are encapsulated in the lyrics, melodies, and rhythms of their music. In the 18th and 19th centuries, African slaves, longing for emancipation, expressed their hopes and dreams through spirituals. Inspired by African civilization and culture, as well as religion, art, literature, and social issues, this influential, joyous, tragic, uplifting, challenging, and enduring music evolved into many diverse genres, including jazz, blues, rock and roll, soul, swing, and hip hop. Providing a lyrical history of our nation, this groundbreaking encyclopedia, the first of its kind, showcases all facets of African American music including folk, religious, concert and popular styles.

Over 500 in-depth entries by more than 100 scholars on a vast range of topics such as genres, styles, individuals, groups, and collectives as well as historical topics such as music of the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and numerous others. Offering balanced representation of key individuals, groups, and ensembles associated with diverse religious beliefs, political affiliations, and other perspectives not usually approached, this indispensable reference illuminates the profound role that African American music has played in American cultural history.

Free Trove of Music Scores on Web Hits Sensitive Copyright Note

Humanity’s musical treasures — Beethoven piano sonatas, Schubert songs, Mozart symphonies and the like — come to life in performance. But they truly survive as black marks on a page, otherwise known as scores. Now a Web site founded five years ago by a conservatory student, then 19 years old, has made a vast expanse of this repertory available, free.

The site, the International Music Score Library Project, has trod in the footsteps of Google Books and Project Gutenberg and grown to be one of the largest sources of scores anywhere. It claims to have 85,000 scores, or parts for nearly 35,000 works, with several thousand being added every month.  More

Detroit Symphony Reject Contract Offer, Prolonging Strike

DETROIT — Striking Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians rejected the latest contract proposal from orchestra management, but the disagreement has narrowed, a spokesman for the musicians said Wednesday.
Musicians spokesman Haden McKay said there could be an agreement if management could find a way to direct $2 million in donor-restricted funds to the musicians. He said the money is intended for community outreach programs.
"We're not that far apart," he said.
Management officials submitted the proposal last Friday, and it included a stipulation that the musicians must respond by Friday.  More

Smartphone App Makes Book Citations a Snap

A new smartphone application takes most of the grunt work out of citing books in scholarly papers.
Quick Cite, which costs 99 cents and is available for both iPhones and Android-based phones, uses the camera on a smartphone to scan the bar code on the back of a book. It then e-mails you a bibliography-ready citation in one of four popular styles—APA, MLA, Chicago, or IEEE.  More

Guest conductor struggles to connect with Cleveland Orchestra

By Zachary Lewis, The Plain Dealer

Standing in for another conductor is fine. Standing in the way of the music is not.

Alas, that’s exactly what Jun Markl ended up doing last weekend with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall. Filling in for an ailing Vladimir Jurowski, Markl struggled to connect with the orchestra while displaying a frustrating penchant for holding back natural expression.  More

Aribert Reimann Awarded Siemens Prize

Aribert Reimann is the recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2011. The prestigious award will be presented to Reimann by the President of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in a musical ceremony in the Cuvilliés Theatre in Munich on 24 May 2011. The laudation will be given by the music critic Stephan Mösch. The soprano Anna Prohaska will perform Reimanns Trio ...ni una sombra together with Jörg Widmann and Axel Bauni.  More

New York Philharmonic’s digital archive goes live!

Paid for by a $2.4 million grant from the Leon Levy Foundation, the release contains 3,200 programs; hundreds of documents; more than 1,000 scores marked by past conductors, including Mahler; letters; handwritten notes; old clippings; and yellowing Western Union telegrams.  Read More

Check out the Archives here.

Can Music Predict The Super Bowl Winner?

The Green Bay Packers are a slight favorite over the Pittsburgh Steelers in this Sunday's Super Bowl. Oddsmakers and football analysts typically base their predictions on the strength of offenses, defenses, players and coaches. But Morning Edition music commentator Miles Hoffman has broken down the game differently: by weighing the musical talents of the teams and their home cities.

When you look at the musical pedigrees of the teams' home cities, Green Bay would seem like the underdog.  Read and Listen to more!

Citigroup Takes Over EMI

Citigroup Inc. has taken over debt-strapped EMI Group Ltd., closing a disastrous purchase of the music label by Guy Hands, founder of British private equity firm Terra Firma.

The foreclosure by Citigroup, EMI's main lender, brings [EMI Classics and] acts such as The Beatles and Pink Floyd under American control until a new buyer can be found.  Read more here.

New Documentary On The Late Composer Milton Babbitt

The American composer and teacher Milton Babbitt died Saturday, Jan. 29 at age 94. For years, New York-based journalist and filmmaker Robert Hilferty had been constructing a documentary on Babbitt. It was a quirky, loving look at a man regarded by many as a composer of "difficult" music. Hilferty left the film unfinished when he died in 2009. Composer and former Babbitt student Laura Karpman has now completed Hilferty's film. And she has graciously placed its premiere on NPR Music.  Watch it here.