Pure Brass quintet - meteoric progress

Pure Brass is on the up and up at the moment. A little bird tells "Whittaker" that they've -

• been on the competition trail with great success in recent weeks;
• been accepted onto the Tillett Trust, which leads to engagements around the UK and a shared recital in the Wigmore Hall on 28th November;
• been accepted onto the Worshipful Company of Musicians' Maisie Lewis/Concordia Concert Platform, again meaning a shared recital in the Wigmore hall either late 2011 or mid 2012;
• been shortlisted for the Park Lane Group (a recital in Purcell Rooms is the prize).

NOT ONLY BUT ALSO ...

Pure Brass has made the final for the Royal Overseas league competition - do fingers even need crossing?

And to top it all, individual members of the ensemble are having significant successes of their own, too.

An ensemble to watch.

Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79

AP Press relates the sad news here.

National Library of Scotland digitises music from Glen Collection

Major news - Scottish collections digitised

146 volumes from the NLS Glen Collection have been digitised via the Internet Archive. NLS Music Librarian Almut Boehme reports that,

"The volumes have been digitised as part of a mass digitisation programme and we hope to be able to get more volumes digitised in the not too distant future. Current images with improved metadata will gradually become available in the NLS digital archive at http://digital.nls.uk/. We welcome any feedback to music@nls.uk or a.boehme@nls.uk."

Link to digitised Glen collections here.

Transformations Come and have a look at the Victorian and Edwardian collections of Scottish songs in RSAMD Whittaker Library - the trolley displays some old collections of Scottish songs gathered and published for domestic use. The exhibits are just a few examples from a lecture recently given by Dr Karen McAulay to our BA (Scot) first-year students. She'll be happy to show you plenty more similar collections if you're interested in seeing more of them. (The trolley is outside the Librarians' Office.) Whittaker Library catalogue link here.

Bushes and Briars

"Whittaker" recently attended a workshop on information literacy as it affects postgraduate researchers. Over lunch, the question of folk music came up. (As it does ...)

Discovered another delegate, Paul Kiff, is in a folk/rock/dance band called Bushes and Briars. Based in the South-East of England - why not visit his website to see what they're up to?

Click here.

Durham University Library receives Sir John Stainer Archive

"Whittaker" promised to update you about this event: last night, there was an official reception in Durham Castle (one of the University Colleges), then the invited guests went to see the Stainer Exhibition in the old University Library on Palace Green. (It was much changed and improved since "Whittaker's" time in Durham, since it's no longer the main library building but is used as an exhibition space amongst other purposes.)

One of the principal exhibits was the score of Stainer's "The Crucifixion" - open at the famous "God so loved the world."

There was a fabulous concert by Magdalen College Choir, who travelled up from Oxford for the event. No prizes for guessing what the encore was.

And then another post-concert reception. "Whittaker" walked back along the riverbank to the guest-house, slept like a log, and polished off a healthy breakfast before travelling back to the Whittaker Library. 24 memorable hours.

Sir Ken Robinson on creativity

The RSAMD was privileged to host a keynote speech on creativity by Sir Ken Robinson today, Tuesday 8th March 2011. Ken mentioned various books during his wide-ranging and highly engaging speech. "Whittaker" thought followers of WhittakerLive might like to follow up these references. We've got Ken's own books, but we'll be ordering the others mentioned:-

• Ray Kurzweill - The singularity is near: when humans transcend biology
• Mattheu Ricard - Happiness: a guide to developing life's most important skill
• Ken Robinson - Out of our minds
• Ken Robinson - All our futures
• Eckhart Tolle - The Power of now

We can't offer you a recording of Ken's presentation, but you can be inspired by other speeches that Ken has given in the past, on YouTube.

RSAMD staff and students may like to read Andy Dougan's posting about the keynote presentation, on Moodle.

Love Scottish Libraries

Don't let Scottish libraries suffer unfair cuts! In particular, if you've ever made use of your local public library, you may want to join in this campaign, organised by CILIPS - the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland. Read all about it:-

As you may be aware, CILIP in Scotland has been working on a campaign to support and promote libraries in these times of budget cuts. A central part of our strategy will be the new Love Scottish Libraries website www.lovescottishlibraries.org which is now online. The site features an online petition and a “have your say” section, which lets users post comments of support about libraries. We aim to use the website to demonstrate the support for libraries within our communities to policymakers and politicians. We’d be really grateful if you could start the ball rolling by signing the petition or adding a comment here http://www.lovescottishlibraries.org/have-your-say/. The site will be officially launched and promoted in the next few days ... so please feel free to pass this on to anyone else who may be interested.

"Whittaker" - alias CILIP Fellow Karen McAulay - is keen to endorse this campaign.

Early Modern London Theatres

New! Free online database

(international AHRC research project) Right now, the EMLoT database includes records pertaining to the Eight Theatres north of the Thames:

• the Red Lion (1567)
• the Theatre (1576)
• the Curtain (1577)
• the Fortune (1600)
• the Red Bull (1604)
• the Boar's Head (1602)
• the Phoenix or Cockpit (1616)
• Salisbury Court (1629)

(The next version of the database will incorporate the Bankside theatres in the historic county of Surrey.) Visit the website to explore it for yourself!

BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECT

(This introduction is quoted from the EMLoT database homepage.)

Early Modern London Theatres (EMLoT) is a research database and educational resource that grew out of a collaboration between the Records of Early English Drama (REED) at the University of Toronto, the Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH) at King's College London, and the Department of English at the University of Southampton, and developed from an editorial project at REED.

EMLoT lets you see what direct use has been made, over the last four centuries, of pre-1642 documents related to professional performance in purpose-built theatres and other permanent structures in the London area. It is not a comprehensive collection of those pre-1642 documents; rather, it charts the copies (or ‘transcriptions’) which were subsequently made of them. It thus gives you access to the varied and long ‘after-life’ of those documents. It tells you who used them, and when, and where you can find evidence of that use. It also gives you some access to what was used, because it includes a brief account (or ‘abstract’) of the transcription’s contents, together with a reference to the location of the original document.

This database does not include play texts, and if your main interest is in the pre-1642 evidence for actual performances, ceremonies, and the playing of secular music in London, you should go first to the London, Middlesex and Surrey collections of the REED series. They are currently being edited — Ecclesiastical London (2008) and the Inns of Court (2010) are published — and, when they are completed, will be made available in hard copy and online, ultimately being linked to this site.

By way of an experiment, Whittaker tried entering a few random terms. This one appealed:-

The Shoole of Abuse, Conteining a plesaunt invective against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Jesters, and such like Caterpillers of a Comonwelth; Setting up the Flagge of Defiance to their mischievuous exercise, ...

RIN project into research supervision and information literacy

Calling on all supervisors and research students! QUESTIONNAIRE

The background to this project appears on the RIN website, quoted below:-

The Research Information Network has begun a study on the role of research supervisors in information literacy. A crucial stage has now been reached with the initiation of two survey questionnaires, one for research supervisors and one for research students. RIN would greatly welcome input from both supervisors and students across all disciplinary areas, and we would appreciate if you might take the time to complete one or other of the questionnaires. This study, in an area which has to date received relatively little attention, should provide some very valuable insights and help to ensure that research students posess the necessary level of information literacy skills to pursue their careers successfully. Further details can be found here. Please help us by taking part, and thank you very much in anticipation for your input.

• If you're a research student or supervisor, and would like to help this crucial survey, please click on this link.

Research Information Network : Social media

Social media: a guide for researchers

A report from the RIN (Research Information Network), published February 2011.

• Read online here -
• Staff and students of RSAMD can borrow a copy from the Whittaker Library. (Check the catalogue here )
• Music & Academic Services Librarian @ RSAMD has a few spare copies.