Musical limericks no.10 (GO VOCAL)

It's the singers' turn ...

The Highs

A cute little Scottish soprano

First encountered her spouse in Milano,

So they cancelled her flight

And were up half the night

Singing amorous songs at the piano.

And the Lows

The contralto said "Bonnie Dundee"

Would suit her range better in C;

But when asked to transpose,

Her accompanist froze;

checked his diary, and croaked, "I'm not free!"

Schwarzkopf (shampoo) anyone?

A vain, image-conscious young tenor

Said hair products packaged for men, or

For family use

Using fruit-fragranced juice

Were not nearly as luscious as henna.

From the valleys

A baritone lad from Caerphilly

Said Strauss operette were silly;

A La Scala role

Was his ultimate goal,

Via Glyndebourne or first, Piccadilly.

 

Musical Limericks no.1 (flute, oboe, clarinet)
Musical Limericks no.2 (bassoon)
Musical Limericks no.3 (trumpet, horn)
Musical Limericks no.4 (Piper, by James Beaton)
Musical Limericks no.5 (tuba, trombone)
Musical Limericks no.6 (saxophone)
Musical Limericks no.7 (violin, viola)
Musical Limericks no.8 (cello, double bass, timpani)
Musical Limericks no.9 (percussion)
Musical Limericks no.10 (singers)

Musical limericks no.9

Last week, 'Whittaker' rendered the entire symphony orchestra into limericks.  The muse is illusive this week, but here's one for the kitchen section of the orchestra:-

Dry-cleaning blues

A statuesque girl on percussion

Once borrowed a dress from a Russian,
The dress was acrylic,
The label Cyrillic,
But it shrank, and she ended up blushin’.

Musical Limericks no.1 (flute, oboe, clarinet)

Musical Limericks no.2 (bassoon)

Musical Limericks no.3 (trumpet, horn)

Musical Limericks no.4 (Piper, by James Beaton)

Musical Limericks no.5 (tuba, trombone)

Musical Limericks no.6 (saxophone)

Musical Limericks no.7 (violin, viola)

Musical Limericks no.8 (cello, double bass, timpani)

Girls in boys' clothing

Yi Wen Hon, trainee librarian and a former library volunteer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, also authors a blog entitled 'The Victorianist'.

Read her posting about Vesta Tilley, a Victorian girl who became a famous music hall male impersonator.  Click here.

• The Victorianist - homepage

Sensory O, opera initiative

Calming the savage [little] beasts?

While you're practising your arias, you may wonder if the fruits of your labour could have anything pertinent to parents with toddlers.  (Screams, tantrums, trainer pants - ah, the happy memories!)

According to the Sensory O initiative, it might be more relevant than you think.  Here's a BBC report about it:- click here.  (Feature by Pauline McLean.)

• Scottish Opera Sensory O website (Rachel Drury, composer to the project, is also a doctoral student and member of staff at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.)
• Opera Scotland website - details of the Sensory O Tour.
• Last year's Tete a Tete, the earlier Baby O project, again featuring our own Rachel Drury.

You might also be interested in the work of another of our students, Ben Fletcher-Watson, Theatre for Babies.  (This link tells you about Oily Cart's latest production: 'Oily Cart: how to prepare your toddler for a trip to the theatre')

Careeers: women aiming high enough?

Women wait politely for the next promotion?

'Are women their own worst enemy when it comes to the top jobs?'


Interesting post on the BBC News website (29 May 2012). Click on the link above.

Meanwhile, Reuters offers us this:-

'A campaign to get more women on to company boards in Britain could struggle to make progress because headhunters and hiring committees are too traditional when recruiting for senior roles, a report said on Monday.'  Read the rest here.

Storify - have you tried it yet?

Storify - tell your story

Storify is a way of telling a story using social media, pulling together resources and linking them with your own text. 

It's another kind of blog, in a sense.  But it's easy and fun - I can see myself using it again.  Here's a story I made up in my lunchbreak:-

Musings on Creativity: book review of The Fiddletree, by Otis A. Tomas.

• Storify homepage

Warwick Folk Festival

Warwick Folk Festival website - here. 

26-29 July 2012

'Whittaker' has received a reminder that Warwick Folk Festival early-bird bookings close soon.

Getting into Character

Queen Victoria's diaries

Are you an actor getting into character for a play set in the Victorian age?

Queen Victoria's personal journals are now available digitally.  BBC news item here.  (A nice, Royal story appropriate for the Jubilee!)

'We kissed each'
The intimate side of the queen is revealed through an entry after her marriage to Prince Albert in February 1840.  She wrote of her new husband: "He clasped me in his arms, and we kissed each other again and again!
"Oh! was ever woman so blessed as I am."

The Irish Composers' Collective, Ireland, Ireland

The Irish Composers' Coll

Visit their Soundcloud page!

Burns an a' that - Festival, Ayrshire

Burns an a' that

Festival , 30 May - 3 June 2012

http://www.burnsfestival.com/

Charlie Gore online (Scottish Fiddle Index now Scottish Music Index)

From printed Scottish Fiddle Music Index

... To online Scottish Music Index

Charlie Gore published his Scottish Fiddle Music Index in 1994. The Whittaker Library has a copy of this invaluable resource in its reference section, here at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  (Details here.)

You can find Scottish fiddle tunes, indexed by "intervals-going-up-and-down", and the book will tell you where to find the tune in hundreds of old fiddle books.  It was truly a labour of love, and worth every minute to people working with this repertoire.

Now, it's online.  (There should be a cyber drumroll and/or a fanfare to announce this.  It really is that important.)

The online version - note the new title!

Find Charlie's 21st-century new edition, The Scottish Music Index, here:-

• http://www.scottishmusicindex.org/

How far can a song travel?

This evening, I've been reading a new library book - The Fiddletree, by Cape Breton fiddle-maker, Otis A. Tomas.  He made a number of string instruments from an old sugar maple tree.  As well as describing the making of the instruments, he provides the music for a number of tunes he has written, and an accompanying CD.

Here I sit in Scotland, enjoying music written and recorded in Cape Breton.  Nothing very unusual about that, today.

Torloisk, Mull. Now a holiday home

How much more unusual, though, is the idea that some well-born sisters on the Isle of Mull in the early 1800s should enjoy playing Hindu airs on the pianoforte?  The Maclean-Clephane's manuscript music collection is now in Trinity College Dublin, because the first part of the manuscript consists of transcriptions of harp tunes by the Irish Carolan.  However, I was able to see photocopies of the entire manuscript in the National Library of Scotland.

(If you're interested, the references are:- Trinity College Dublin, TCD MS 10615 and National Library of Scotland,MS 14949a-c)

Apart from the Irish harp tunes, the rest of the manuscript is mainly Gaelic song, but there are a few exotic imports.  Such as these intriguing entries:-

A Hindustani Air

A Hindostanee Air

A Malay Tune

East Indian Dancing Girl's Air

When I indexed the manuscript a few years ago, I hadn't time to transcribe the airs, but there's every chance they came from late 18th century English transcriptions of Indian tunes, such as the often-cited Twelve Hindoo Airs with English Words Adapted to them, ultimately published by Biggs c.1805, to words by Amelia Opie.  One day, I'll have to go back to Edinburgh and identify them!

It is incredible to imagine the effort that went into transcribing such tunes, and making the difficult journey back from the colonies to England, to  get words set to them, and then have the book published.  The Maclean-Clephanes visited Edinburgh and London often enough, so they probably bought a piano book on one of these trips, or copied the tunes from a friend's copy.  There was much interest in what would have been considered exotic oriental music around this time; some people even speculated about links between Scottish and Oriental scales in early musical history.  

The eldest sister, Margaret, married the Marquess of Compton and spent the rest of her days between Northampton and Europe, so we can only conjecture whether this particular manuscript went with her, or stayed with one of her sisters.  It was by no means the only song collection in their possession.  How lucky that it survives to this day!

Incidentally, this posting was inspired by Bibliolore's blogpost, Hindustani Harpsichord Music.
Further proof of the exciting possibilities offered by social networking, because neither would have happened before the advent of Web 2.0!

Copyright Dr Karen E McAulay

Music and Academic Services Librarian

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  23 May 2012. 

Exeter Arts Archives DVD-roms

The Whittaker Library drama section holds a significant resource that you may not know about: the Exeter Arts Archives DVD-roms.  They cover a wide range of theatrical subjects, and are produced by Exeter Digital Archives.

Here are the links you need, to explore the collection:-

• Exeter Arts Archives DVDs in the Whittaker Library Catalogue
• Exeter Digital Archives - the University of Exeter website.

The Oracle Speaks (well, translates)

Song and Lieder translation sources

It's official - I'm an oracle! 

But it's tough being an oracle, so here are a couple of DIY song translation websites!  They might help you get the translations you need for your recital programme.

The one we subscribe to is IPA Source - it's on our database page, and it's accessible on-site only, to staff and students of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  No notes, just pronunciation and translations.

However, there's another database called the Lied, Art Song and Choral Texts Archive - worth a look if you haven't found the song you're looking for.  Same idea as above.

Lastly, you could always look for recordings in the library, to see if there are translations in the sleeve-notes. 

Or try IMSLP (The Petrucci Music Library).  These are digitised old scores.  You might only get the original words and quite possibly no translation, but if you need words for a programme, this is better than nothing.

(Of course, you know the moral of the story?  Start looking for your translations nice and early, to assist the people typing up your programmes for you!)

Musical Limericks no.8 (The bottom end of the orchestra)

Image from MiltonGlaser.com

Cellist goes Continental

A cellist was going to France,
And excitedly  burst into dance;
A gavotte and a jig
In a strange-looking wig
Made the coppers look very askance!

Racy Bass

A lady who plays double bass

Has a strangely implacable face

If she missed a rest

You’d never have guessed

Though her heartbeat might silently race!

Flat footed

A timpani player from Troon

Tuned his timps imperceptibly doon;

When meant to play C,

He struck a low B;

“YOU ARE FLAT!”, yelled the maestro, “You loon!”

*****

Musical Limericks no.1 (flute, oboe, clarinet)

Musical Limericks no.2 (bassoon)

Musical Limericks no.3 (trumpet, horn)

Musical Limericks no.4 (Piper, by James Beaton)

Musical Limericks no.5 (tuba, trombone)

Musical Limericks no.6 (saxophone)

Musical Limericks no.7 (violin, viola)

Musical Limericks no.8 (cello, double bass, timpani)

BBC podcast: ethnomusicologist, Dr Margaret Bennett

Our own ethnomusicologist, Dr Margaret Bennett, is the subject of a recent BBC podcast. View here.

Olivier Messiaen: Journalism / Stephen Broad

'Whittaker' was excited to see a colleague's book in the latest Ashgate Music catalogue today.

Olivier Messiaen: Journalism 1935-1939

By Dr Stephen Broad, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

"This is the first edition of Messiaen's early journalism and provides both the original French text and an English translation. Many of the articles included in this collection are new to the Messiaen bibliography, and others are available here for the first time in English.  This edition, therefore, represents a new source for understanding Messiaen and provides a fascinating glimpse of the composer in the early part of his career."

• View it on the Ashgate website here. 
• Find it in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland here.

Musical Limericks no.7 (Strings)

The old violinist

The old chap who played violin

Was dreadfully, painfully thin;

And his delicate hands

Couldn't fold music stands,

Lest he damaged his papery skin.

Viola with Attitude

A posh gent who led the violas

Had solid gold put in his molars;

His flashy gold teeth

Lit the music beneath,

And set off his cape, gloves and bowlers.

Musical Limericks no.1 (flute, oboe, clarinet)

Musical Limericks no.2 (bassoon)

Musical Limericks no.3 (trumpet, horn)

Musical Limericks no.4 (Piper, by James Beaton)

Musical Limericks no.5 (tuba, trombone)

Musical Limericks no.6 (saxophone)

Musical Limericks no.7 (violin, viola)

Musical Limericks no.8 (cello, double bass, timpani)



Research into the Student Experience

The Student Experience

2 recent reports from the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education focus on research into the student experience in HE.

Both are in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland; full details here.

(There are more Leadership Foundation reports on other aspects of HE aspirations and administration, here.)

Cellos and Bellows: librarians' tweetup #GLTU4

Glasgow Library Tweetups Pay Us a Visit

Assorted librarians gathered to visit the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and then the museum and newly refurbished library at the National Piping Centre, last Friday (18th May).  This was a joint effort organised by Anabel Marsh, with Karen McAulay at the Royal Conservatoire and James Beaton at the Piping Centre coordinating the visits to each venue.

Preceded by the James Clark lunchtime concert at the Royal Conservatoire, and rounded off by a meal at the Tryst, a congenial and informative visit was had by all.

The event has been blogged by Anabel Marsh - here, on the Glasgow Library Tweetups blog.  (There are pictures!) Anabel has also compiled a Storify story, to collate participant feedback - here. 

James Beaton, piping librarian and oral history project manager ('Noting the Tradition') at the National Piping Centre, contributed his own limerick report on the event:-

The blogs are quite full of it

James and Karen's big hit

They came, saw our books

And our most learned nooks

And went off and thought for a bit.

Bee Gee Robin Gibb died yesterday

Singer and songwriter Robin Gibb died yesterday, after a long battle with cancer.

• BBC News ...
• Saturday Night Fever - find it in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
• The Bee Gees' music even made it into the AQA GCSE Music syllabus

Dietrich Fischer Dieskau dies

Dietrich Fischer Dieskau died aged 86, last week.  Unforgettable exponent of Schubert Lieder and beloved by generations, here's a tribute article in the New Yorker:-

'The Clearest Voice', by Leo Carey

Dietrich Fischer Dieskau - books and recordings in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Musical limericks No.6

Just one, this time:-

The Saxophonist's Schedule

A saxophone player called Tom

Is frequently asked where he’s from;

Well, such a globetrotter

Has a trip-planning jotter -

What a guy, what a Mensch, what an homme!

Musical Limericks no.1 (flute, oboe, clarinet)

Musical Limericks no.2 (bassoon)

Musical Limericks no.3 (trumpet, horn)

Musical Limericks no.4 (Piper, by James Beaton)

Musical Limericks no.5 (tuba, trombone)

Musical Limericks no.6 (saxophone)

Musical Limericks no.7 (violin, viola)

Musical Limericks no.8 (cello, double bass, timpani)

Wiesbaden Highlander K. James Peace, tango composer: new DVD

K. James Peace in Wiesbaden

An interview with the

Scottish tango composer,

who performs some of his

own piano tangos (DVD)

K. James Peace has donated a copy of this DVD interview to the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  Library patrons curious how a Highlander ended up writing piano tangos in Wiesbaden, will need to borrow it!  Find it here.

If you're not a patron of the Library, but are fluent in German, you can visit the Wiesbadener Tagblatt (newspaper) to read a news item about the tango-ing Highlander.  More recently, Mr Peace has also been interviewed for a Spanish website, Música Clásica.  Click here (Spanish text).

Library staff at large

Cellos and Bellows

If it seems as though there are more librarians around the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland than usual this afternoon - it's true.  Friday 18th May is the day for 'Cellos and Bellows', a tweetup arranged for librarians to visit our library, and then the Glasgow Piping Centre.  So the Whittaker Library will see a sudden influx of librarians and then - like the tide receding - they'll all drift off to visit the Piping Centre's refurbished library.  (And hear the pipes.  Cover your ears!)

Who said library staff were quiet?

Musical Limericks no.5

Tango for Tuba?

An old senorita on tuba

Commissioned a piece from Franz Gruber,

She got him quite merry 

On plenty of sherry

Then whisked Gruber and tuba to Cuba.

 "The number you're calling, knows ..."

A lady who played the trombone

Was prone not to answer the phone

"Well, I just cannot reach

When I'm trying to teach",

She explained, in a piqued, injured tone.

Musical Limericks no.1 (flute, oboe, clarinet)

Musical Limericks no.2 (bassoon)

Musical Limericks no.3 (trumpet, horn)

Musical Limericks no.4 (Piper, by James Beaton)

Musical Limericks no.5 (tuba, trombone)

Musical Limericks no.6 (saxophone)

Musical Limericks no.7 (violin, viola)

Musical Limericks no.8 (cello, double bass, timpani)

With an Olympic theme

Flames, torches and a' that!

Well, didn't you expect anything on the Olympics in a performing arts conservatoire?

• See what's Olympic-related in the Whittaker Library! Here ...
• Chariots of Fire - the music
• Listen to 'Chariots of Fire' on Naxos or Classical Music Library (link to our e-resources page)
• Old flames, new flames, any kind of flames Here ...
• Torches (mainly songs on the theme of torches!) Here ...
• Official website http://www.london2012.com/

Image from Newport, Pembrokeshire website
http://newport-pembs.co.uk/cmb/images/stories/Newport/olympic_torch/torch.jpg

Musical Limericks no.4. The Piper's Reply

Blue-Skye Thinking

There was a young man from Skye

Poked by a bass drone in the eye
He said to the blaggard
Your crunluath is haggard
And your hiharin fair makes me cry!

Fabulous image from Aros on Skye
http://www.aros.co.uk/wp-content/uploads//piper2.png

Authored by James Beaton, Piping Librarian and Project Officer, College of Piping, Glasgow

Musical Limericks no.1 (flute, oboe, clarinet)

Musical Limericks no.2 (bassoon)

Musical Limericks no.3 (trumpet, horn)

Musical Limericks no.4 (Piper, by James Beaton)

Musical Limericks no.5 (tuba, trombone)

Musical Limericks no.6 (saxophone)

Musical Limericks no.7 (violin, viola)

Musical Limericks no.8 (cello, double bass, timpani)

Musical Limericks No. 3: the Brass Section

The Trumpeter

Thanks to http://www.eardrum.com.au

A jazz-buff who majored on trumpet,
Declined damson jam on his crumpet.
A jazz-player's 'jam' isnae damson, said Tam;
And I'd rather not mess up the drumkit.

The Haughty Hornblower

A Teuchter who played the French horn
Regarded the pipers with scorn,
'Til they kidnapped his mute,
Called his embouchure 'cute',
And defied him to skirl on the lawn.

Musical Limericks no.1 (flute, oboe, clarinet)

Musical Limericks no.2 (bassoon)

Musical Limericks no.3 (trumpet, horn)

Musical Limericks no.4 (Piper, by James Beaton)

Musical Limericks no.5 (tuba, trombone)

Musical Limericks no.6 (saxophone)

Musical Limericks no.7 (violin, viola)

Musical Limericks no.8 (cello, double bass, timpani)

17th May: a sad day for Scottish musical history

Personal Tragedies: Campbell and Tannahill

(17th May 1810)

On 17th May 1810, we find our hero, song-collector Alexander Campbell (whom I mentioned earlier in the week) back in his Highland  home in Clianaig.  His wife - a wealthy widow whose family disapproved of him - had left him; they simply couldn't get along.  Poor old Sandy!

Robert Tannahill, 1774-1810

Not as bad as the fate of Paisley poet Robert Tannahill, though.  A tortured soul, he committed suicide by drowning, the very same day.  There's a commemorative stone just round the corner from the University of the West of Scotland.

You could say it wasn't a good day for traditional Scottish music! 

Musical Limericks No.2

The Young Bassoonist

A junior who played the bassoon

Announced she could play Clair de Lune

When her pal, all sardonic,

Said, ‘You’re not polyphonic’,

She replied, ‘I just bring out the tune!’

Musical Limericks no.1 (flute, oboe, clarinet)

Musical Limericks no.2 (bassoon)

Musical Limericks no.3 (trumpet, horn)

Musical Limericks no.4 (Piper, by James Beaton)

Musical Limericks no.5 (tuba, trombone)

Musical Limericks no.6 (saxophone)

Musical Limericks no.7 (violin, viola)

Musical Limericks no.8 (cello, double bass, timpani)