Whittaker Live

Just look at that physique!

2012-01-31T03:28:00.000-08:00

Physiology - for pianists!

The Whittaker Library is building up a wee collection of resources about the way pianists use their bodies.

Take a look here.

(Johnny Depp image with thanks from http://data.whicdn.com/images/14745003/cigarette-hot-johnny-depp-muscles-piano-Favim.com-142370_large.jpg)

Working things out

2012-01-31T03:20:00.000-08:00

Tommy Smith, Course Leader of Jazz here at Royal Conservatoire of Music, sends his friends regular "Quotes from the Road".

Here's one 'Whittaker' liked:-

"Jazz also reminds you that you can work things out with other people. It's hard, but it can be done. When a group of people try to invent something together, there's bound to be a lot of conflict. Jazz urges you to accept the decisions of others. Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow-but you can't give up, no matter what. It is the art of negotiating change with style. The aim of every performance is to make something out of whatever happens-to make something together and be together."

Wynton Marsalis

Marsalis recordings in the Whittaker Library

And here's a book that we're ordering today - To a Young Jazz Musician, Letters from the Road, by Wynton Marsalis himself.
Marsalis website - http://wyntonmarsalis.org/

The idea of Scottish music (Matthew Gelbart new article)

2012-01-31T02:38:00.000-08:00

ALLAN RAMSAY, THE IDEA OF ‘SCOTTISH MUSIC’ AND THE BEGINNINGS OF ‘NATIONAL MUSIC’ IN EUROPE

New article on 18th Century Scottish music:-

Matthew Gelbart
Eighteenth-Century Music, Volume 9, Issue 01, March 2012, pp 81 - 108
Published Online on 27th January 2012
[ abstract ]

Staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland can read this article here.

Essay crisis? Who are you going to call?

2012-01-30T06:25:00.000-08:00

First year music students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland have essays on the horizon. Where to start?

Assemble any notes you've already made
Check the library catalogue. (Do ask the staff if you need help with finding things in the catalogue or on the shelves!)
Don't forget all the electronic resources available to you. The library website has an A-Z of e-resources (all of them) or just the Databases.
DATABASES: Get an idea of what's available by consulting JSTOR (full-text articles) or RILM (abstracts/summaries of a wide range of items)
We just subscribe to the JSTOR music package, so do make sure you're using the "Items available to me" tab, and not "all items".
With RILM, an advanced search means you can select English language materials - or items in other languages. We can obtain items from elsewhere, but it's not usually necessary unless you're writing a dissertation or extended essay.
E-journals - look at our A-Z list, and see what might be useful. Articles are generally full-text. If you can't gain access to a whole article, consult the library staff.
Streamed music services - Naxos or Classical Music Library. You'll need to login if you're off-site. Ask us if you need a reminder of the login. Archival Sound Recordings are useful for historical topics.
Scottish theme to your essay? Don't forget Scran - multi-media resources - pictures, photos, film, sound, images of old Scottish music ... (What is Scran? Click here)
Ask the subject librarian if you get stuck at any point in your researches.
And the Effective Learning Services team are always on hand to help, too. Contact them at:- els@rcs.ac.uk
Alexander (Sandy) Hutchison, RLF Writing Fellow also advises on all aspects of writing. Contact Sandy at: a.hutchison@rcs.ac.uk

News - University of Exeter - Short walk cuts chocolate consumption in half

2012-01-30T01:53:00.000-08:00

News - University of Exeter - Short walk cuts chocolate consumption in half Stuck on an assignment? Go for a walk before hitting that chocolate bar! (Recent research finds this helps!)

NUS: inductions should continue beyond 'hello'

2012-01-30T01:41:00.000-08:00

'Whittaker' found this in the THE this week:- NUS: inductions should continue beyond 'hello'

Oh yes, indeed! Here at the Royal Conservatoire, the Whittaker Library has been very keen to continue the induction conversation beyond the initial 'hello'. And now we find the NUS agrees with us - what wonderful news!

Visit NUS Connect, on the National Union of Students website, to read more about the NUS Charter for Academic Support.

EU Screen - Conference in Budapest, September 2012

2012-01-27T06:31:00.000-08:00

Look! A conference with NO conference fee!

EU Screen, 13-14 September 2012, Budapest

EUscreen organises its third and final conference on the topic Television Heritage and the Web. The conference takes places at ELTE University in Budapest, on Thursday, September 13, and Friday, September 14, 2012. Attendance is free, but registration is required

Conference Topic

The television landscape is evolving at tremendous speed. According to Eric Schmidt, former CEO at Google, “the Internet is fundamental to the future of TV”. Most broadcasters are struggling to grasp the pitfalls and potentials of the net. Emerging viewing patterns involve increased interactivity, non-stop availabilty and the evidence of choice.

The current shift suggests new ways of looking, where a web-centric view becomes more and more popular. Broadcasters’ resources are being redirected to web based forms of TV and the ‘archive’ increasingly becomes an asset, since it can attract potential users online. The major question for audiovisual archives, educators and researchers these days, is what the current web-based shift implies for television heritage.

The EUscreen project puts more than 30.000 televisual items online in an act to make historical audiovisual content widely accessible. The conference Television Heritage and the Web attempts to discuss and analyse the potentials and pitfalls of the current media transition.

Conference programme - The programme of the conference will be published soon. You can sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter or register your attendance on http://euscreen2012.eventbrite.com to stay up to date.

Scottish Theatre Archive - searching the collections

2012-01-27T04:33:00.000-08:00

Searching the Scottish Theatre Archive

.
http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/sta/search/

Special Collections at Glasgow University Library host the Scottish Theatre Archive. And that means you can search their fabulous database.

For example, 'Whittaker' wanted to find out more about Hal D. Stewart, a playwright in our collection. Easy! I found all the biographical info I needed with this search link

You'll immediately see just how useful this is. Here's the basic search:- http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/sta/search/

Digitised Librettos

2012-01-27T03:55:00.000-08:00

What could be better news to the average singer than a bunch of links to digitised libretti?

These suggestions have been made by German and Italian music librarians, members of IAML (The International Association of Music Libraries):-

Goethe Universitat (University of Frankfurt) digitised music, film, theatre resources - including librettos.

This library has large collection of libretti (about 3000) from about 1750 to 1930. Digitizing them slowly - now up to now 458 libretti. You can find them on the repository website http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/solrsearch/index/search/searchtype/collection/id/16108

Also, in the digitized collection of music ("Noten") there are some complete opera scores e.g. manuscript of "Don Giovanni" by W. A. Mozart or a print of "La Vestale" by Spontini.

Raccolta Drammatica - digitised libretti, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense Digitised libretti - about 10,000 libretti.

Another interesting link is the Italian union catalogue (Il Catalogo online del Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale, or OPAC SBN), which lets you search lots of library catalogues at once.

Wan ye were jist a wean: Poem to Robert Burns for the Year of Homecoming, 2009

2012-01-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

This verse (it doesn't claim to be Poetry) - may only have a transient presence online. Written for Scotland's Year of Homecoming in 2009, 'Whittaker' has decided to air it in honour of The Bard himself - Robert Burns.

Wan ye were jist a wean, Rab,

Yer’ Mammie didnae ken

That ye her eldest wean, Rab,

Wad be the toast o’ men;

An’ wan ye learned tae count, Rab,

An’ read an’ write an’ spell,

Ah reckon she’d hae nodded, lad,

And said ye’d done richt well.

Wan ye were growin’ up, Rab,

Ye’d no’ much time tae read,

From dawn tae dusk ye worked, Rab,

Till ye were aff yer heid

Wi’ boredom at the ploo, Rab –

It wisnae tae yer taste,

Thank heavens that yer Daddie didnae

Leave yer brains tae waste.

A tutor showed ye buiks, Rab,

Ye grew tae love the words;

Ye lo’ed the lassies tae, Rab –

A rare man wi’ the birds!

You wrote braw verse aboot them,

An’ word o’ ye soon spread;

It wisnae lang ere ye were writin’

Sangs to earn yer bread.

A man’s a man for a’ that –

‘Twas ye that penned the line;

Ye kept yer’ common touch, Rab,

Tho’ minglin’ wi’ the fine.

Twa hunnert-fifty years, Rab,

We’ve no’ fergot yer name,

An' ye’re our national bard, Rab,

The Year o’ Comin’ Hame!

In accordance with Rabbie’s custom, this song has been penned by Karen E. McAulay to a weel-kebnnt air: 'John Anderson, my Jo'.

Cellist Paul Fournier

2012-01-25T04:40:00.000-08:00

Cataloguing a donated cello CD, I was curious to find out more about the cellist. Here's a very useful Korean page - clearly a labour of love by compiler Youngrok Lee.

Pierre Fournier, Prince of the Cello
(1906-1986)

The CD that prompted my interest? Fournier accompanied by the Festival Strings Lucerne, playing Vivaldi, Haydn and Boccherini cello concertos. Rudolf Baumgartner conducted.

See what Fournier CDs, books and music are in the Whittaker Library here.

Celebrating the Bard

2012-01-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

Robert Burns

Vocal scores in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Music
CDs (we just searched on Burns as Author. More results using a keyword search.)
Robert Burns in our book collections

Late 18th/early 19th century collaborators with Burns included James Johnson (of Scots Musical Museum fame), and George Thomson. Thomson got Burns' lyrics set by famous Continental musicians like Haydn, Beethoven and Kozeluch.

You could also look him up in one of our databases, like Oxford Music Online (for info), Naxos or Classical Music Library (streaming services). See what's available to our staff and students here.

Celebrating Burns

The BBC has a fantastic page for Robert Burns (biography, 716 works, and all about Burns Night)
Steve Jones' audio slide show inspired by Robert Burns (a page on the BBC site)
Scottish Storytelling Centre - Burnsfest this week (w/c 22nd January 2012)
Scottish Poetry Library - similarly a significant week for Burns enthusiasts here.
Echoes from the Vault - the St Andrew's University Library Special Collections blog has today posted about Burns. A truly beautiful page.

Royal Opera House - what it's like being an opera singer

2012-01-24T07:09:00.000-08:00

From the ROH website:-

Jette Parker Young Artists - Insight Evening
21 February 2012 (Calendar)
Clore Studio Upstairs

Introductory: suitable for newcomers

Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes | No Interval
Generously supported by
the Paul Hamlyn Education Fund
Next Performance Tue 21 Feb 2012, 7:30 PM
Buy Now
Background
Since 2001 The Royal Opera’s Young Artists Programme has been contributing to the development of the opera stars of the future with coaching ranging from music and sword-fighting to stagecraft and media training. Here, current members, alumni and Royal Opera House staff divulge the intensive two-year process.
Tickets: £16.30 | £7.10 students

Encant - Equality and Diversity Arts Festival

2012-01-24T03:55:00.000-08:00

Just circulated by internal mail at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland:-

Encant

ENCANT is a radical, inter-disciplinary Arts Festival about EQUALITY and DIVERSITY across genres and across the board in Glasgow. We're looking for student and graduate performance artists, film-makers, visual artists, musicians, poets, dancers and writers to submit proposals for a piece of work based around the subject of equality and/or diversity to be performed/installed in several venues on the 9th and 10th of March. This exciting festival is in collaboration with the E and D RCS Forum and the GSA SU.

See www.encant.org for more details and to submit applications or email abudge@rcs.ac.uk or a.josephinebudge@gmail.com for more information.

Festival pass tickets are free for all RCS and GSA students (excluding the lounge night event) and will be on sale from the 10th of Feb.

Write Now at AyeWrite festival - 9th March

2012-01-23T01:24:00.000-08:00

Creative writing event at Glasgow Mitchell Library's AyeWrite! festival

9th March - Write Now

AyeWrite! Glasgow book festival

2012-01-23T01:19:00.000-08:00

Friday 9th - Saturday 17th March 2012

AyeWrite! home page

Can't miss it - AyeWrite! book festival promoted by Glasgow's Mitchell Library.

Loads of Author events
You can't miss our own Principal, John Wallace, talking with co-author Sandy McGrattan on 11th March between 2-3 pm about their new book, The Trumpet.
Whittaker Live's own page about John Wallace and Sandy McGrattan's new book.
Start marking events in your diary!

John Wallace and Alexander McGrattan, The Trumpet

2012-01-21T11:43:00.000-08:00


The Trumpet /Wallace and McGrattan

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Principal, John Wallace, and colleague Alexander McGrattan, have written an authoritative new book on the trumpet, which is to be published this month.

The Trumpet is to be released by Yale University Press, 27 January 2012.

Amazon link here.
Yale Books link here.
The authors appear at Glasgow's Aye Write! festival on 11th March, between 2-3 pm. Details here.

Celtic Diaspora

2012-01-20T03:53:00.000-08:00

"Whittaker" thinks it's important for Celtic musicians to be aware what's going on in other Celtic lands. With that in mind, we've added a few Welsh CDs to the Whittaker Library stock. Take a look here.

Image by Ogwyn Davies

I've also been indexing useful websites onto my Diigo account. Here are the Welsh sites.

And then - did you think I'd omit the Irish websites? (Me, half-Welsh, wed to a Scot, two of whose great-grandparents came from Ballymoney; I have genuine Celtic pretensions!)

Welsh bagpipes

2012-01-19T08:18:00.000-08:00

Released 5 years ago, but it takes a while for these things to filter through the misty Celtic borders ...

‘This is a new CD by Ceri Matthews, a solo album of pipe music played on the pibe-cyrn (bag-hornpipe). This is the first recording devoted entirely to the instrument.’

And we have it here in the Whittaker Library at M145 M. There! I hope you’re impressed! Find it here.

Gathering Momentum

2012-01-19T07:35:00.000-08:00

New post, on Reflections on a Creative Scotland by Andrew Dixon.

Digitised guitar music

2012-01-19T06:46:00.000-08:00

GUITARISTS!

From the Royal Irish Academy of Music, a very important announcement:-

"Users can now view online the music contained in the entire Hudleston Collection of printed guitar music in digital format. This is freely accessible via the Royal Irish Academy of Music online catalogue.

"This unique resource, held in the RIAM special collections, contains over 1,000 works for guitar (both solo and chamber music) in original editions from the 19th century.

"It was the private collection of Josiah Andrew Hudleston (1799 - 1865) who lived for many years in Madras and subsequently settled in Ireland in 1857. Throughout his life, Hudleston collected works for guitar composed by his contemporaries, several of whom he knew personally. This corpus of work represents a very flourishing period in the history of guitar music, featuring composers such as Giuliani, Sor and Carulli, and many other lesser known names.

"You can search for material by going to our online catalogue http://library.riam.ie/ and selecting "Hudleston Collection" from the menu of options.

"We welcome any feedback on which can be sent to library@riam.ie "

Many thanks to the Royal Irish Academy of Music Library for alerting us to this fabulous resource.

Intellectual Property Rights

2012-01-19T03:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to our Educational Technologist for flagging up this interesting news item from The Guardian newspaper today - copyright in the arts and humanities.

Wheesht around the World

2012-01-19T02:02:00.000-08:00

Have you bought your Whittaker Library Wheesht bag? Environmentally friendly, and you can join in our Wheesht around the World Flickr project as well, if you take your bag somewhere photogenic or unexpected!

New Year's Resolutions - how are you doing?

2012-01-19T01:15:00.000-08:00

What can we learn from ancient Scottish traditions about doing a PhD?

KarenMcA continues the #NYE theme with a posting for The Thesis Whisperer (a research support website).

Scottish Music Composition Marathon

2012-01-18T05:42:00.000-08:00

Whittaker Live is adding this to the Whittaker Library's Awards, Grants, Prizes page! Event details from the Scottish Music Centre's website:-

Opportunities
Composition Marathon - Scottish Music Centre 24th March
A unique project inspired by Bang on a Can's inconic performance festivals. DEADLINE: 1st February 2012
In March 2012 Bang on a Can are coming to Scotland for Glasgow Concert Halls’ Minimal: Extreme and to mark this occasion, the Scottish Music Centre are running a unique project, a Composition Marathon inspired by the organisation’s iconic performance festivals.
The aim of this project is to challenge composers to create a brand new work in the Scottish Music Centre over the course of 8-12 hours on Saturday 24th March. The marathon will commence with each composer being partnered with the ensemble* who will be performing their work and it is requested that they remain on hand throughout the day to workshop and rehearse. Additionally, guidance and support will be offered by members of Bang on a Can.
Following this, on Sunday 25th March, performers will rehearse the completed scores, culminating in a final performance in the Old Fruitmarket from 3pm.

More here ...

Samuel French - theatre bookshop

2012-01-17T06:10:00.000-08:00

https://samuelfrench-london.co.uk/

Colleague was rhapsodising about the quality of information about plays on the Samuel French website.Take a look here.

Select-a-Play looks fantastic, too. Words from the website:-

Plays to Perform and Play Publishers
We have over two thousand play scripts available for amateur performance, covering all elements of performing theatre: comedy, tragedy, drama, pantomime, sketches, plays with music and full-scale musicals, ranging from classics to new plays, one act plays to full length plays. Use Select-a-Play, our advanced search facility, to help you choose the right one for you. Search by cast, genre, length, period, keyword, title or playwright. Or see our play lists with suggestions for Christmas plays and musicals, pantomimes, plays and musicals for children, schools, youth and student groups.

Blodwen: Joseph Parry's opera, the first in Welsh

2012-01-17T04:38:00.000-08:00

The Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has just acquired the CD of Joseph Parry’s Blodwen. Written in 1878 whilst Parry was head of music at Aberystwyth College, this was the first ever Welsh language opera.

Wikipedia (English language) Blackout Wednesday 18th January

2012-01-17T01:54:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia Blackout
You need to know this. Tomorrow (Wednesday), you won't be able to access Wikipedia in English, because they're protesting about proposed anti-piracy legislation in the United States.

Read more about the politics on Wikipedia (before or after the blackout!). It's about the freedom of information, and who owns it. Make your own mind up what you think.

English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout
From the Wikimedia Foundation

To: English Wikipedia Readers and Community From: Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Date: January 16, 2012

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate—that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.
This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made

True Imaginary Friends

2012-01-16T15:09:00.000-08:00

Diary of the progress from thesis to book. By Yours Truly, "Whittaker" himself!


From Dr to Author

True Imaginary Friends

Journeys across media: call for conference papers

2012-01-16T06:55:00.000-08:00

Journeys Across Media: Time Tells

19th April 2012

University of Reading (Film, Theatre and Televison)

Conference website

Call for papers - deadline Friday 3rd February

Time Tells: Temporal Excavations in Film, Theatre and Television

JAM (Journeys Across Media) 2012 is celebrating its 10^th anniversary with the theme of time. The conference seeks to address issues of time in film, theatre, television, and more widely in performance, media and art, and initiate discussions about the temporal across disciplines, practices and fields of research.

This is a call for postgraduates engaging in contemporary discourses around time to submit papers for the JAM 2012conference; topics may include, but are not restricted to:

Perception of time
Time and memory
Spatialisation of time/Time-Space
Cinematic time
Time and technology
Time and New Media
The archive
Revivals, Anniversary Productions, Retrospectives and Re-enactments
Sequels, Series and Recurring Characters
The Evolution of the Spectator in Time
Endurance Art
Debates on Ephemerality within performance
Life-as-art
The experience and performance of Duration
Time-based performance
Timelessness

Please see Whittaker Live's CFP - Call for Papers page, for further details.

Burnsfest at Scottish Storytelling Centre

2012-01-16T03:15:00.000-08:00

January 13-28

It's that time of year, folks. Burnsfest events in Edinburgh this week and next - click here.

Robert Burns died broke

2012-01-16T03:10:00.000-08:00

Podcast on BBC website

There could be useful material here, if you're speaking at a Burns event next week!

How do I publish a book (part 2)

2012-01-16T02:38:00.000-08:00

Pat Thomson suggests this self-publishing guide: 25 Things You Need To Know, by David Carnoy (on the CNET Reviews website).

This link has been added to Whittaker Live's first self-publishing blogpost, How do I publish a book?

How to survive in an opera chorus

2012-01-13T07:34:00.000-08:00

Spotted on Twitter:-

How to survive in an opera chorus: Chorus master Tim Burke @spiltmilkman tells all in today's guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/12/how-survive-opera-chorus

PhD to Published

2012-01-12T01:42:00.001-08:00

Here's a blog that will be relevant to anyone just finishing / recently having finished a PhD:-

PhD to Published

Thomas Wilson Composition Prize: deadline 29 February 2012

2012-01-12T01:25:00.000-08:00

Thomas Wilson Prize for Composition

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of the composer Thomas Wilson, a composition prize has been inaugurated in association with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Composers will be invited to choose a theme from six incidental works commissioned from Wilson by the BBC and STV.

The Thomas Wilson Prize for Composition is intended for composers of 25 years of age or younger. Works to be for solo guitar and should last between six and ten minutes. Entries to be submitted by 29 February 2012.

A jury will select a shortlist of three entries to be played by students of the Royal Conservatoire during the PLUG Festival in April 2012. The jury will then select a winner to be awarded the prize of £500.

For an application pack please apply to the Thomas Wilson Trust, c/o David Griffith, 146 Niddrie Road 3/2, GLASGOW, G3 7YL, UK. Full terms and conditions can be downloaded here.

This competition will also be added to Whittaker Live's Awards, Grants, Prizes page.

Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard

2012-01-11T05:31:00.000-08:00

For a forthcoming conference paper, "Whittaker" has undertaken to talk about Scottish and Welsh songbooks. Welsh? Now, there's a new venture!

A Tiki-Toki timeline keeps track of new Welsh discoveries: 21 titles so far. Next problem - getting hold of titlepages/ prefaces!

Tiki-Toki is a brilliant way of organising historical facts. Ask Music and Academic Services Librarian Karen McAulay to tell you more about it.

Piano competition: Piano a Mayenne, 13-15 April 2012

2012-01-11T04:37:00.000-08:00

5e Concours International

"Piano a Mayenne"

13-15 April 2012

Information from the Conservatoire at Le Grand Nord: www.legrandnord.fr

Competition details here. Registration before 10 March 2012.

The competition will also be posted on Whittaker's Awards, Competitions, Prizes page.

Emerging Young Artists: Monday Platform at Wigmore Hall, London

2012-01-11T02:27:00.000-08:00

Monday Platform Programme available now.

ROSL (Royal Overseas League) Prizewinners Concert on Monday 16th January 2012 in the Wigmore Hall's Monday Platform series of concerts.

SEMPRE - Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research

2012-01-11T02:15:00.000-08:00

Performance practice conferences coming up:-

The Reflective Conservatoire: Performing at the Heart of Knowledge (Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 17-20 March 20120
40th Anniversary Conference, 14 Sept 2012 (Institute of Education, University of London)

Call for papers: The Call for Papers for the 40th Anniversary Conference is available now in pdf format. The deadline for submission of abstracts (maximum 200 words) is Friday 24 February 2012. See website for details. This CFP will also be added to Whittaker Live's CFP page.

SEMPRE Conferences website
SEMPRE homepage

Music Streaming - more good news for 2012

2012-01-10T05:44:00.000-08:00

Classical Music Library

adds more recordings

Classical Music Library (Alexander Street Press) has added even more recordings to its database for you to stream and enjoy. Staff and students of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland can access these through the Library and IT Database website, here.

Here's their news release:-

"...we have just released released 459 albums (8,384 tracks) into Classical Music Library from a wide variety of labels, including new releases from Haenssler Classics, Mode Records, Bridge, Vox, and Wirripang.
New material includes compositions by Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten, Arnold Bax, Gustav Mahler, Charles Koechlin, Wolfgang Rihm, Elliott Carter, Edvard Grieg, Morton Feldman, Aldo Clementi, Antonio Salieri, Lawrence Dillon, John Cage, Olivier Messiaen, Henry Fillmore, Morton Subotnick, Ursula Mamlok, Valentin Silvestrov, Giacinto Scelsi, Toru Takemitsu, and more.
... This new content is available worldwide."

Music Online now contains

693,698 tracks

100,030 pages text reference

24,977 scores (417,083 pages)

889 hours of video

How do I publish a book?

2012-01-10T03:24:00.000-08:00

Subject librarians learn to expect the unexpected. Today's question is: How do I get a book published?

Are you looking for a publisher, or self-publishing?
Here's a self-publishing guide, on Tom Andry's blog. Our thanks to Pat Thomson for her advice here. We bloggers stick together!
Pat also suggests this self-publishing guide: 25 Things You Need To Know, by David Carnoy (on the CNET Reviews website)
You need an ISBN; this will make it easier to sell and promote your book. Here's a useful link: http://isbn-information.com/get-isbn.html
So, to get an ISBN, where do you go? In the UK, it's Neilson Book Services.
You need to have publisher status.

NB: we don't claim to be experts! Any useful info that comes our way will be added here in due course.

Reflections on a Creative Scotland

2012-01-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

'Our progress and the exciting year that lies ahead', a blogpost by Andrew Dixon for the Reflections on a Creative Scotland blog.

Why archives are interesting

2012-01-09T06:58:00.000-08:00

The Guardian newspaper now has a blog called, From the Archive. Interesting features pop up. For example, how playwright Vaclav Havel becames President of the Czech Republic, as reported in 1989. Take a look.

Archives aren't just dusty old papers (though hidden treasures lurk within). They also document the recent past. That's why the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is so proud that we now have a proper archive - and archive officer - of our own. Visit our Archives website here. Contact Stuart Harris-Logan if you wish to arrange a visit in person.

Cambridge Early Music Summer Schools 2012

2012-01-09T06:37:00.000-08:00

5-12 August 2012
@ Emmanuel College, Cambridge

The new programme for the Cambridge Early Music Summer Schools is available now.

Music Streaming - good news for 2012

2012-01-09T04:18:00.000-08:00

Classical Music Library

(Alexander Street Press)

Classical Music Library – one of the Whittaker Library’s music streaming services – has just notified us of a huge addition to their provision. They’ve now got lots more EMI recordings. Staff and students can stream recordings via our library website. Why not take a look at what’s on offer? Here’s our databases page.

Subject: Major EMI content release into Classical Music Library and Music Online

I am pleased to announce that we released 1,409 albums (35,688 tracks) into Classical Music Library and Music Online today! We have now released the remaining EMI material into Classical Music Library, adding to the already 22,000 tracks of EMI already in the database - over 50,000 tracks of EMI in total.

New content comes from EMI Classics, Angel Records, Capitol Catalog, and more.

Highlights include recordings by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jussi Bjorling, Victoria De Los Angeles, Itzhak Perlman, Renata Scotto, Mstislav Rostropovich, London Symphony Orchestra, Taverner Choir, Maria Callas, Jon Vickers, Melos Ensemble, Pinchas Zuckerman, Borodin Quartet, Christoph Eschenbach, Elly Ameling, Trio Sonnerie, Alban Berg Quartett, Chung Trio, John Ogdon, and more.
Also included in this release are hundreds of full length operas ...

Classical Music Library now includes 7,417 albums, equaling 134,381 tracks, and is growing regularly.

Burnsfest at the Scottish Storytelling Centre

2012-01-09T03:59:00.000-08:00

13-29 January 2012, Scottish Storytelling Centre

Burnsfest

Find out more

2012 Plans

2012-01-06T03:16:00.000-08:00

New Year's Resolution: the last word

In the spirit of a New Year's Resolution, 'Whittaker' has devised a Grand Book Plan. Just something for those out-of-hours moments ...

And started a new blog: True Imaginary Friends

On this day, 2nd January 1824

2012-01-02T09:35:00.000-08:00

Poet and song-collector William Motherwell responded to his friend R. A. Smith's polite request for a preface, along these lines: yes, fair enough, but it'll take me a week to get over Hogmanay!

To all those staff and students just wearily psyching themselves up to some 'real' work on 2nd January 2012 - one can only imagine how Motherwell celebrated Hogmanay in 1824, if it was going to take a week to get over it!

And did he write the preface eventually? Yes, after a fashion. Smith and his committee of "ladies" drafted a preface for The Scotish Minstrel, and Motherwell rearranged it a bit. Gee whizz!

Whittaker Library at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland catalogue
COPAC - union catalogue of university and national British and Irish libraries

Handel Singing Competition @ London Handel Festival

2012-01-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

Our contacts on Twitter advise that the 11th Handel Singing Competition is announced:

Singers aged 23-34

Applications due 16 January 2012.

Find out more here. (Then get your skates on!)

.
This will also be posted on Whittaker Live's Awards, Grants, Prizes page.

And a Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T15:52:00.000-08:00

2012

Whittaker wishes all 'his' followers a happy, healthy and productive New Year. And may we all be solvent if not wealthy. May the Whittaker Library be a buzzing hive of activity, with patrons aided and assisted by your enthusiastic Library & IT staff.

Extra-murally, 2012 is going to be the Year of the Deadline. 'Whittaker' has a contract to deliver a book by 30th April 2012. All solicitous enquiries, encouragements and otherwise supportive comments will be very welcome indeed.

But enough of this pseudonym stuff - to get myself in the right frame of mind for the task ahead - no, this is not procrastination! - I'm looking for a new mug to add to the collection. I like, 'When I'm writing, I know I'm doing the thing I was born to do.' But it's big, which in Cafepress terms is huge. I want a Cafepress small (everyone else's medium) mug.

'Working on a bestseller' is a good slogan, but - oh, I'm so fussy - I don't like the art-work. And 'Writers hate deadlines' is another apt one, but it's not positive enough!

The winner is: 'Writer's block is when your imaginary friends refuse to talk to you'. Very nice. (As regular visitors will have realised, there are a number of Victorian Scottish song-collectors who are very real to me. I know far more people in 19th century Edinburgh than I do today! Alexander Campbell, R. A. Smith, George Farquhar Graham and Finlay Dun are like close friends; In London, William Chappell and his successors are a source of endless interest; and in the Hebrides, the Maclean-Clephane sisters were fascinating women. So, too, was Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser.)

But deadlines are about more than mugs. Here are David Seah's Productivity Tools, as recommended by The Thesis Whisperer.

Meanwhile, my own all-time favourites are Diigo, Mendeley, and Evernote, with Copac always in the wings to back up my evidence. Where would I be without them?

What are your most useful productivity/ time management aids?

Wish me luck!

Whittaker's Magic Carpet

2011-12-30T14:10:00.000-08:00

Welsh songbook update

‘Whittaker’ is checking out 19th Century Welsh song collections to see how they compare with Scottish and Irish. A magic carpet to Wales would be nice, but this isn’t really feasible. In the absence of the carpet, we’re trying crowdsourcing. If a songbook has paratext, and particularly if it’s early, it must be seen! Whittaker is very grateful indeed to the Welsh librarians who have offered to help here. Looking forward to what 2012 will bring!

Three cheers for COPAC, Mendeley and Twitter!
I'm also using PBWorks as a wiki: Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard.

In terms of what Whittaker has seen/ not seen:-

SEEN

Jones, Edward - Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards, 1794
Jones, Edward - The Bardic Museum, 1802
Thomson, George (and Haydn) - A Select Collection of Original Welsh Airs, 1809-17
Williams, Maria Jane - Ancient National Airs of Gwent and Morganwg, 1844
Richards, Brinley, The Songs of Wales, 1879 (4th ed)
Parry, Joseph et al, Cambrian Minstrelsie, 6 vols, 1893-5

UNSEEN

Jones, Edward - Hen Ganiadau Cymru = Cambro-British Melodies, 1820
Parry, John - Cambrian Harmony, 1809
Parry, John - A Selection of Welsh Melodies, 1809 & new ed., 1821/2
Parry, John - A Collection of Welsh Airs, 1810
Parry, John - A Third Volume of Welsh Melodies, 1829
Parry, John - The Welsh Harper, 1839, 1848
Thomas, John, Merthyr Tydfil - Y Caniedydd Cymreig =The Cambrian Minstrel, 1845
Alaw, Owain (John Owen) - Twelve Popular Welsh National Songs, 1859
Thomas, John, Thomas Oliphant and; John Jones, Welsh Melodies, 1860
Owen, John (Owain Alaw, Pencerdd) - Gems of Welsh Melody, 2 vols, 1860
Hulse, Henry, The beaties of Cambrian Melodies, 1863

Hogmanay: New Year and those New Year's Resolutions

2011-12-30T09:32:00.000-08:00

Whittaker is looking for some innovative and feasible resolutions. Not the 'I'll keep the place tidy and do my ironing daily' kind, please note!

Here's a good one to kick off with: Write every day. Especially important if you've got a dissertation, project, thesis or book to get on with. Or if you're a composer. Lindsey Metcalf found this blogpost, Ten Ways to Write Every Day, by an American professor and author, Tanya Maria Golash-Boza.
Start exercising regularly. Investigate the local authority's facilities, eg Glasgow Life, if your college doesn't have a gym. (Beware: Googling 'start an exercise regime' isn't the most effective way to start - unless you're interested in media reports of celebrity workouts!)

On this day: George Farquhar Graham

2011-12-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

On this day, 28th December 1789, Scottish music journalist, historian and arranger George Farquhar Graham was born. Graham (1789-1867) was originally destined for law, but became what we would now call a musicologist instead. At some stage in his early adulthood, he had lessons with Beethoven on the Continent.

G F Graham - Songs of Scotland, 1st ed., 1848

His major accomplishment was the three-volume anthology of Scottish songs he edited for publisher John Muir Wood - The Songs of Scotland adapted to their appropriate melodies. He arranged some of the songs himself, wrote all the commentary, and coordinated the efforts of the other arrangers - Mudie, Surenne, H. E. Dibdin and Edinburgh-based Highlander Finlay Dun.

Popular Songs and Melodies of Scotland, 1908

Because Wood was the publisher, the collection was also known as Wood’s Edition of the Songs of Scotland.

Why is this interesting today? Because the collection was one of the most respected Scottish song anthologies for the next sixty years, meaning that countless households over several generations would have encountered their Scottish heritage in the version presented to them by George Farquhar Graham and John Muir Wood - good, middle-of-the road arrangements, playable by a competent amateur, and bringing together some of the background to each song, as it had accumulated over the previous half-century or more.

The title changed slightly over the years, with the different editions:-

1848-1849 The Songs of Scotland adapted to their appropriate melodies (Mudie, Surenne, H. E. Dibdin, and Dun were also named on title-page). Also known as Wood’s Edition of the Songs of Scotland - see illustration of open copy
1887 Revised as The Popular Songs of Scotland with their appropriate Melodies; with additional airs and notes (J. Muir Wood and Co.);
1908 Revised as The Popular Songs and Melodies of Scotland, with the addition of many airs and notes by J. Muir Wood, notes by Graham and arranged by A. C. Mackenzie [et al] (London: Bayley and Ferguson). ‘The Balmoral Edition’ is the green copy illustrated here.

It only remains to be said - happy 222nd birthday, George! Cheers!

Check our holdings in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland here;
Check other libraries' holdings in COPAC here.
Click the 'On this day' label below to see other blogposts in this series.
'Charlie is my darling', arranged by G F Graham

Hogmanay (and Auld Lang Syne)

2011-12-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

Auld Lang Syne

Robert Burns can't have realised what he was starting when he wrote 'Should auld acquaintance be forgot' (Auld Lang Syne).

But do you realise just how much has been written about it?! Staff and students of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (and indeed, anyone with a current university connection) can look it up on JSTOR. The database indexes thousands of scholarly journals, and gives you abstracts summarising content. Hours of innocent amusement (if you look up Auld Lang Syne), or worthwhile study at other times of year!

You'll need to login to use it.

And here's a FREE resource: the World Digital Library. You can find the original words by Robert Burns here, but you'll have to search cannily. Search on Auld Langsyne (two words, not three!). Here's the direct link if you're in a hurry.
'Whittaker' dislikes the modern English translation for which Classic FM has just tweeted the link! Oh, please!
Evidence that 'Auld Lang Syne' still resonates today? No less than the Wall Street Journal had a piece by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, 'Visiting an Auld Acquaintance', earlier this week (27 December). There's an Auld Lang Syne exhibition in New York until 2nd February 2012.

Should new-found weblinks be forgot?

If you like a link, why not save it to your social bookmarking Diigo account? Find it anywhere, whatever online device you're using.

Hogmanay (and Phil and Aly)

2011-12-27T04:23:00.000-08:00

Hogmanay wouldn't BE Hogmanay without Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham
BBC - Hogmanay Live - play "I-Spy" the RSAMD/ Royal Conservatoire alumni!
GlasgowLovesHogmanay.com
ABOUT Hogmanay - on Historic UK.com
Historic Hogmanay on SCRAN (just search Hogmanay)
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland staff and students can get their fill of frothy Viennese musical extravagance via our database page - stream a few waltzes with Naxos or Classical Music Library, or sort out which Strauss is which at OxfordMusicOnline.

Glasgow entertainment

2011-12-26T12:13:00.000-08:00

______________________________

Hogmanay, at Jongleurs, Glasgow - Janey Godley. Read the Evening Times feature, 26 December 2011, here.

If you can wait until late January/early February 2012, there's the Britannia Panopticon in Trongate. Read the Evening Times feature, 26 December 2011, here.

What else is on? Try www.scotlistings.com or www.s1play.com
Evening Times - regular features link: http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/features
Glasgow loves Christmas / Hogmanayday website
Visit Scotland - Christmas events

You see? Whittaker doesn't leave you without entertainment between Christmas and Hogmanay!

Whittaker's Winter Holidays

2011-12-22T13:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2011

The Royal Conservatoire of Music is closed between Christmas and the New Year. The Whittaker Library will reopen on Wednesday 4th January 2012.

Library Team Christmas Dinner 2011

Library Ladies Christmas Headgear

Because 'Whittaker' is on holiday, his blogposts may be rather sporadic. But he can't leave you totally bereft of helpful updates!

_______________________________________

Corff y Gainc: Welsh Folk Melodies

Here is a useful digital archive of folk melodies from old Welsh sources. It comes from Chris Grooms, who also maintains www.docgrooms.com.

Conducting Competition

2011-12-22T01:20:00.000-08:00

2012 Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition

Competition entry is open now
Online submission only.
Deadline: 16 March 2012

The Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, created by Donatella Flick in 1990, aims to help a young conductor establish an international conducting career.
The winner of the competition is offered, in addition to an award of £15,000, the opportunity to become Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for up to one year.

The next competition will be held in London on 28–30 September 2012, and is open to conductors under the age of 35 who are citizens of the 27 countries having full membership of the European Union.

Find out more here

NB This competition will also be listed on Whittaker's Awards, Grants, Prizes page.

Watson's Wind-Up Christmas Cracker

2011-12-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

A Play, a Pie and a Pint

Watson’s Wind-Up Xmas Cracker at Oran Mor - 20th/21st/22nd/23rd Dec, get your tickets now! http://bit.ly/sXvyZI

If you'd like to follow the Oran Mor 'A Play, a Pie and a Pint' series on Twitter, you'll find them at PlayPiePint. Easy.

Christmas Greetings across the years

2011-12-21T06:22:00.000-08:00

From the National Archives:-

Talking of digital, do you know what a manicula is?

2011-12-21T05:18:00.000-08:00

I recognised it as soon as I saw it! But as a musicologist, no-one ever told me what these little scribbles actually were. St Andrews' Rare Books department explains all, in their latest Echoes from the Vault blogpost. Most informative!

If you think you might ever, ever, remotely want to examine a mediaeval manuscript or book ... well, you never know.

Digital Researcher

2011-12-21T02:35:00.000-08:00

ANYONE doing research can harness the power of the web, so you too can be a digital researcher!

Monday 20th February 2012

Our helpful allies at Vitae are promoting a Digital Researcher event with the British Library. Find out more here.

Picture borrowed from the Vitae website to help promote this event.

PhD2Published - getting that first book published

2011-12-20T02:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a useful website, if you're looking to getting a book published:-

http://www.phd2published.com/

Join the community of scholarly authors!

Short folkloristic Christmas film from Sweden

2011-12-20T01:34:00.000-08:00

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Sent to 'Whittaker' by Pia Shekter, Secretary General of the International Association of Music Libraries. Enjoy!

Here comes a folkloristic Christmas Greeting from Sweden! This film is sent every Christmas Eve on Swedish television since many years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rJ0Ec-jYg8

Keep the kids busy - short story writing competition

2011-12-19T06:06:00.000-08:00

Cold winter holidays looming? Here's an idea to keep the kids busy!

Organised by the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Should keep kids out of mischief for an hour or two!

Find out more here.

Between Tradition and Contemporaneity

2011-12-19T01:35:00.000-08:00

Conference in Austria next December. See Whittaker's CFP (Calls for Papers) page.

Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard - sourcing digital copies of Welsh collections

2011-12-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard

PROJECT INTRODUCTION: We are examining late 18th and 19th century Welsh songbooks to see what their prefaces etc tell us about their cultural background. In literary terms, all the introductory matter is called the paratext. So, we're looking for minstrels, bards, harps and other symbols of a Celtic Welsh past; also for metaphors which give away clues about what mattered to the compilers of these songbooks, and the audiences they were intended for.

PROJECT LEADER: Dr Karen McAulay, Music & Academic Services Librarian at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

PROJECT MEMBERS: currently, we're a handful of librarians, but interested literary scholars and librarians would be very welcome to join us.

All good crowdsourcing projects have a wiki - here's our Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard wiki.

There are also two Tiki-toki timelines:-

Introducing project: King Edward's folly - crowdsourcing the Celtic bard
Chronology of Welsh songbooks .

Help is needed locating digital copies please. Some are on Internet Archive (see the wiki resource bar), but others remain to be found.

Obituary: Gill Clarke, pioneering dancer

2011-12-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

Gill Clarke, born 9th December 1954; died 15th November 2011

Read the obituary by Roanne Dods in yesterday's Herald newspaper, Friday 16th December.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/obituaries/gill-clarke.16175857

Gill was the co-founder of Dance UK and Independent Dance.

____________________________________

Looking ahead: Celtic Connections

2011-12-16T06:31:00.000-08:00

A new diary for Christmas? Get planning!

When you get your new diary, you'll want some dates to put in it.

Glasgow's Celtic Connections, 19th Jan - 5th Feb 2012.

Then Broadford (Skye), for the Celtic Connections Big Top, 23rd-24th March 2012.

On this day: Beethoven anniversary too!

2011-12-16T03:56:00.000-08:00

16th December, 1770: Happy Birthday Beethoven

The Royal Opera House reminds us today is a significant day!

Born on this day in 1770. To celebrate, a clip of his only opera - Fidelio

Twitter handle: RoyalOperaHouse

Panto at Strathclyde University Archives

2011-12-16T03:27:00.000-08:00

Hot from the Twittersphere ... Strathclyde University Archives (StrathArchives) brings you:-

Oh no it isn't! Oh yes it is! It's our new panto themed item of the month.

Writing for publication

2011-12-16T03:06:00.000-08:00

There's a new post on Patter (Pat Thomson's blog) which might interest anyone with the urge to go into print ...

Writing for publication – it’s just a matter of meeting the conventions of a journal, right?

by pat thomson

Jazz: Stan Kenton Centenary

2011-12-16T02:53:00.000-08:00

On this day ... (well, yesterday)

Stan Kenton Centenary (15th December 2011)

The University of North Texas has created a digital exhibit to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Stan Kenton's birth, which was yesterday - December 15th.

Please enjoy and feel free to pass along to anyone who might be interested.

http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/kenton/stan-kenton-centennial

Vitae - Briefing for Researcher Developers

2011-12-13T02:24:00.000-08:00

Might (should!) be interesting to anyone supervising research:-

Briefing for Researcher Developers

The Engaging Researcher

2011-12-13T01:36:00.000-08:00

The Engaging Researcher

booklet by Vitae

Subtitled, 'Inspiring people to engage with your research', what could be more relevant to the committed researcher?

Followers of Whittaker Live may remember the original call for stories to go into this booklet, back in Spring 2010.

Always well-written, succinct, and the size you can read in a coffee-break - copies available from Karen for research staff and doctoral students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

If you can't be dragged away from your keyboard, visit www.vitae.ac.uk/researcherbooklets for a cyber version.

(But Karen recommends the coffee-break way! Breaks are good for you, and how else can you engage with your public?)

Research Information Network - new report

2011-12-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

New report, Information Handling in Collaborative Research - find the printed report in Whittaker Library or read it online. Here.

Warwick Folk Festival 26th-29th July 2012

2011-12-12T01:21:00.000-08:00

This link offers tickets at 2011 prices.

National Libraries Day February 4th 2012 - Save the Date!

2011-12-09T01:38:00.000-08:00

Follow this link (coming soon):- http://www.nationallibrariesday.org.uk/

"Whittaker" wants to celebrate. What do you think? Library cake, anyone? Other ideas for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's library?

In Mozart's words: new website makes Mozart's letters available online

2011-12-09T01:31:00.000-08:00

In Mozart's words

In Mozart’s Words provides multilingual access to an annotated version of the voluminous correspondence of Mozart and his family - approximately 1,400 letters - that will progressively be made available online on this website. The website offers i) a univocal database of all references to people, places and musical works contained in the letters, facilitating the systematic search of all cited occurrences, and ii) access to background materials such as reviews, newspapers, documents, objects, paintings, engravings, and books as a corollary to the historical-critical annotations.

Credits:-

Academic direction and notes: Cliff Eisen, King's College, London
Mozart's works scores: Neue Mozart-Ausgabe Online Website
Full credits, translators etc - click here.

Pathways to the Profession: Scottish Dance Theatre Symposium

2011-12-09T01:24:00.000-08:00

Pathways to the Profession Symposium

West Park, Dundee. 19th-20th January, 2012

Royal Conservatoire Research Lecturer Anna Birch is Documentation Advisor for this industry changing Symposium!

ln January 2012, Scottish Dance Theatre and partners host the Pathways to the Profession Symposium which will explore the issues inhibiting the inclusion of physically and sensory disabled people in the performing arts.

Website

Severe weather

2011-12-08T03:09:00.000-08:00

The Met Office blog:- http://metofficenews.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/what-to-do-in-severe-windy-weather/

Showcasing Digital Theatre Plus

2011-12-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

"The best seat in the house is the one you're sitting in."

The best of live theatre
Documentaries
Interviews

Take a look at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's latest online subscription. Actually, since the Digital Theatre Plus team are experts in "putting it across", let's see how they describe it themselves:-

" ... a team of theatre makers committed to using new media to enhance the theatre watching experience. In partnership with some of the UK's leading theatre organisations ... put the audience at the heart of all their work ...

"... pioneering a new way of capturing live performance on film. By using multi angle HD cameras they're able to pick up the intimacy of a play and the story that unfolds on stage and share it with audiences - wherever they are.

"hugely beneficial to tuning a younger audience into the excitement of theatre. By presenting plays online and complementing them with related documentaries and interviews, Digital Theatre and Digital Theatre Plus are offering access to people, places, productions and a new way of experiencing theatre.

"Creating a relationship with audiences is vital and as new technology moves further and further towards a culture of complete interaction theatre makers are able to push boundaries and explore a shared experience between performer and audience in both a real and virtual space.

http://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/home

Registered Royal Conservatoire staff and students can contact the Whittaker Library for details of username and password. Ask next time you're in, or email us using your Conservatoire email account.

GSA (Glasgow School of Art) Video Archive

2011-12-07T05:48:00.000-08:00

GSA Video Archive - 6,500 views since May 2011 launch!

84 videos of public lectures and events
Wide variety - organised by The Glasgow Urban Lab, Architecture Friday Lectures, Fine Art Friday Events, Exhibitions talks and events, and more!
Entire series of Architecture Friday Lectures from 2010-11
Various Friday Event lectures dating from 2006-11
The GSA Video Archive was launched in May 2011 - and is now available via the Glasgow School of Art website. Here's the link:-www.gsa.ac.uk/videoarchive. It will also soon become available on GSA’s Vimeo account (over the next few months, with the help of Lyn McLaughlin), where you can browse by subject categories – using channels on Art, Architecture, Design, FoCI, Research, etc: http://vimeo.com/gsofa

'... including notable talks by architect Steven Holl, artist and kinetic sculptor Susumu Shingu, designer Ben Kelly, artist and GSA graduate Christine Borland, artist and GSA graduate Roddy Buchanan, Urban Lab lecturer Graeme Evans, artist Martha Rosler, and more! There are two talks each featuring our own Roger Wilson and Thomas Joshua Cooper, a fantastic research presentation by Alistair MacDonald, and two talks by recent UK Fullbright Distinguished Chair Ann Markusen.'

12 Days of Christmas, Advent 'Calendars' and Santa Claus

2011-12-07T02:40:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of Christmas, I offer these links to all followers of Whittaker Live!

Freebies from the RSNO

Classic FM Advent Calendar

Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound (a tune a day)

Glasgow’s 12 days of Christmas calendar- theatre ticket offers . Today (7th December) it's a 2 for 1 deal!

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'You'll lower my chances of winning!', my colleagues protest. But they don't mind really!

Lost for words?

2011-12-07T01:29:00.000-08:00

Where can you find the words to thousands of songs and poems?

A useful free database, The Lied, Art Song and Choral Texts Archive contains the words of thousands of songs.

Take the Romantic Scottish poet, Allan Cunningham, for example. (Well, today's his birthday, so it's a good day to focus on him!)

Allan Cunningham (1784-1842) was a bit of a prankster, to be honest. He invented some Borders songs for Cromek's collection called Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song. (He admitted this to close friends.) And he was thought to have done the same for his own larger collection, Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern. (This is a collection of poetry, not music.) Plenty of composers have drawn upon his lyrics, all the same. As you'll see in The Lied, Art Song and Choral Texts Archive. Here's his page.

Wikipedia entry on Allan Cunningham (born on this day, 7th December 1784)

Looking for Scottish verse? Allan Cunningham might not be quite what you're looking for, but you can find plenty of source-material at the Scottish Poetry Library. Here's their catalogue. Learn a poem, or set one to music.

If you're using a poem as lyrics, do remember to check if the poet is still in copyright. Poets have feelings (and rights!), but they'll be flattered to be asked ...

NB this post is one of Whittaker Live's 'On this day' series about Scotland's song history.

Showcasing SCRAN (Scotland's history at the click of a mouse)

2011-12-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

Have you visited the Whittaker Library and Information Services website, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland?

We offer much more than printed and audiovisual materials! Staff and students of the Royal Conservatoire can access quality electronic resources through our website. Our digital offerings include various useful databases. Sometimes they're useful in more ways than you'd imagine.

Take SCRAN, for example. Scottish materials of all sorts, including images, pages of old books and music, portraits ...

BA in Scottish Music students might find useful source materials, or even images for back-projecting during a performance
Costume and theatre designers will find masses of illustrations of fashions and every aspect of contemporary life in any historic period
Surprise yourself - try an old cake recipe, or cook a Christmas pudding as your great-grandmother would have done!
You can even pull out stuff on a particular theme, such as Christmas, or war. A particularly poignant one is a photo of soldiers celebrating Christmas in the trenches, Western Front, during World War I. Here's part of the caption:-

This photograph shows a dozen men sitting in the mud in a trench celebrating Christmas. They have laid some white paper on a crate and set out some slices of cake, a tinned pudding, a packet of raisins and what looks like an orange. These may have been in a food parcel from home, shared by a group of friends.

The photograph's original caption reads, 'Tommy's Xmas on the West.' There is a poignancy about these men celebrating Christmas, the Christian festival for the birth of Christ and 'peace and goodwill to all men', while behind them there is a crude wooden cross over the grave of a dead soldier.

Direct access from within Royal Conservatoire premises. Institutional access from outside. (Identify us from a list then use your Royal Conservatoire staff or student ID and password.)

Images can be used educationally, but we're not permitted to put them on a publicly accessible website. So the Christmas pud is from Creative Commons, not Scran!

Scottish Poetry Library - Poetry Issues

2011-12-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

Latest issue is out now (December 2011)

"New Poetry Titles, including a stunning new translation from Simon Armitage, the 20th Century in Poetry, and Douglas Dunn’s new pamphlet
Recommended titles for Burns Night and Scots Weeks projects and queries ...
… and a brand new free Handbook to download on easy ways to approach discussing poetry."

Scottish Poetry Library homepage

Tales of Christmas Past

2011-12-05T04:11:00.000-08:00

Are you in Edinburgh on 17th December?

3 pm at the Scottish Storytelling Centre

43-45 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1SR

"How was Christmas celebrated in days gone by? Time to reflect on the joy and good tidings Christmas can bring with storytellers Heather Yule and Janis Mackay. Yuletide tales from Scotland conjure up the Christmas spirit, in story, music and song. There is a rich and varied story culture in Scotland associated with the birth of Christ and the winter’s solstice, so come and join us, away from the commercial face of Christmas, to celebrate."

Engaging communities: Reflections on a creative Scotland

2011-12-05T03:50:00.000-08:00

Engaging communities

The latest post by Andrew Dixon for Creative Scotland.

Audition for Olympic Ceremonies!

2011-12-04T14:33:00.000-08:00

Dancers, Musical Theatre students ...look!

Stadium? Check. Staff? Pending!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16024217

Still time to audition. Worth following up?

Useful link (not just dancers!): Job Opportunities 2012

Beyond Macbeth: Shakespeare in Scottish collections

2011-12-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

National Library of Scotland exhibition

Over 400 years, the National Library of Scotland and Edinburgh University Library have acquired world-class collections of plays by William Shakespeare. These shed light on the ways in which Shakespeare's works have been read, collected, adapted and circulated in the centuries since they first appeared in print.

Beyond Macbeth: Shakespeare in Scottish Collections, is the new exhibition running at NLS from 9 December to 29 April which looks at these collections through the lives and activities of those who helped to bring them together, from the Scottish poet William Drummond to the editor and critic John Dover Wilson. It asks what Shakespeare - valued and championed in so many different ways in the past - means in Scotland today.

See iconic Shakespearean treasures including a copy of the First Folio (the first collected edition), and some of the first published versions of his plays

E-portfolios at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

2011-12-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

The Conservatoire made it into the JISC RSC Scotland* Newsfeed for its work with e-portfolios! The Interviewer talked to Aaron Shorr, Head of Keyboard and Collaborative Piano Studies, Andy Dougan, Lecturer in Digital Film and TV, Silviya Mihaylova, Keyboard and Collaborative Piano Studies student, Alicia Shaw, Digital Film and TV student

Read on ...

* JISC Regional Support Centre Scotland

Lasair Award - Irish Film and TV Network

2011-12-02T02:09:00.000-08:00

Film and TV students! Look here - an award!

Be quick ...deadline extended.

Filmbase and TG4 have announced that the deadline for the Lasair award scheme has been extended until the 27th January 2012. Filmbase and TG4 are also organising an information session for filmmakers interested in applying to the Lasair short film award scheme. Lasair, now in its 5th round, is Filmbase and TG4’s scheme for supporting filmmakers to produce short films in the Irish language.

Full details here

Mention of the Irish language suggests that you might need to find Irish collaborators ...?

This will be added to Whittaker Live's Awards, Grants, Prizes page

Crowdsourcing the Celtic bard

2011-12-01T07:11:00.000-08:00

Subsequent to my "appearance" at the IAML 2011 Conference in Dublin, I've been asked to speak at IAML (UK and Irl) Annual Study Weekend in 2012, and my talk will hopefully have a Welsh flavour. (Any jokers about Welsh rarebit can stop right there, thanks!)

I'd like to combine the Welsh song aspect with a social networking idea that I've been contemplating. I've put together a Tiki-Toki presentation to explain what I mean.

If there are any librarians or Celtic song scholars who think they might be able to help, or would like to join in, then the prime requirement is to be able to access some of the early Welsh songbooks that I'm interested in. I'm putting together a Mendeley list which I'll be happy to share in the next few days.

Many thanks - I look forward to hearing from you!
Dr Karen McAulay
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

A Play, a Pie and a Pint - New Voices

2011-11-28T12:28:00.000-08:00

The well-established lunch-time play series at Oran Mor, A Play, a Pie and a Pint has a special series of student productions this week. Quoting from the website:-

New Voices
Monday 28th Nov - Saturday 3rd Dec
"In an exciting new venture A Play A Pie and A Pint has invited students from Glasgow University, Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of the West of Scotland to submit short 9 minute plays for production at the end of the Autumn Season. These 5 works are the result of that initiative and Oran Mor is delighted to be helping these young playwrights to take their first steps onto the professional stage."

Lipstick, Powder and Paint by Victoria Bianchi (Recent graduate of University of West of Scotland)

Dreams of Fiji by David Cosgrove (Recent graduate of Glasgow Caledonian University)

One Straight Line by Stewart Ennis (Recent graduate of Glasgow Caledonian University)

Godfather by Emily Aitchison (Recent graduate of Glasgow University)

Just Short of Sparkling by Caeley Elcock (Glasgow University)

Scots Music Group

2011-11-28T04:10:00.000-08:00

Scots Music Group

Our community music students may be interested to follow the activities of this Edinburgh-based community music group:-

Scots Music Group is a community-based charity located in Edinburgh. We run traditional music classes, informal sessions, ceilidhs, and many other social events.

On this day in 1853: Finlay Dun

2011-11-28T01:50:00.000-08:00

On 28th November 1853

Scottish musician Finlay Dun died aged 58.

"I've never even HEARD of Finlay Dun!", I hear you cry.

Why he matters?

Although he's now largely forgotten, Dun was much respected in his time, as performer, scholar and arranger. It's interesting to see what activities occupied a Scottish Victorian musician's career - and find out more about the circles in which he moved.

Finlay Dun (1795-1853) was born in Aberdeen, attended grammar school in Perth, and spent most of his adult life in Edinburgh. His father was a dancing master, and the young violinist Finlay joined his father in this. He attended Edinburgh University from 1815-16 and is on record as having taught dancing to Elizabeth Grant of Rochiemurchus in December 1816. He studied violin in Paris and then in Milan (1820-25), where he also learned counterpoint, composition and singing, and played viola in the royal theatre of San Carlo.

Back in Edinburgh, he became leader of the Edinburgh Professional Society of Musicians’ concerts in 1827, and worked as a music teacher. Although Dun applied for the Reid Chair at Edinburgh University in 1841, he was unsuccessful.

Dun married in 1828. In 1829, Mendelssohn dined with the Duns on 28 July, and went to the triennial highland pipers’ competition with Dun the next day.

Amongst other works, his notable output in the field of Scottish music includes:-

1830 A Selection of Celtic Melodies
1836-8 Vocal Melodies of Scotland
1838 Appendix no.1 in William Dauney’s Ancient Scotish Melodies. (Dun was encouraged to write this Appendix, on the grounds it would be good for his CV.)
1846 Oliphant, Carolina (Lady Nairne), Lays of Strathearn: arranged with symphonies and accompaniments for the piano-forte by Finlay Dun.
1848 Orain na h-Albam: a Collection of Gaelic songs
1848-9 George Farquhar Graham, Songs of Scotland. Edinburgh: Wood, 1848-9. (Dun contributed 26 arrangements – only two less than Graham himself.)

Check the Whittaker Library catalogue to see what the Royal Conservatoire of Library has available.

Visit Copac (the union catalogue of British university and national libraries) for a more comprehensive list.

This blogpost is one of Whittaker Live's On this day series of Scottish musical history posts.

'Letter to my students': a US professor tells it how it is

2011-11-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

This came up on the Twittersphere - the letter which Steve Aird, a Maryland professor, sends to his students at the start of session.

It basically says, getting an education is hard work. I'll teach you; you must do your bit; and you'll get the marks you deserve! Read it here.

Musica Scotica CFP deadline 30 November

2011-11-26T09:15:00.000-08:00

Don't miss it! Call for papers for the Musica Scotica conference - deadline 30th November!

http://whittakerlive.blogspot.com/p/musica-scotica.html