You need to look at the PRS for Music website. The Performing Right Society website advises about licences, royalties and more.
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, assisting our staff and student performers, composers, and production technicians with their information requirements. We have books about performing rights in our collection, which you can find HERE.
Friday, 29 August 2014
End of an Era - Principal John Wallace Retires
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| Image from Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Facebook page |
- John Wallace's published output (printed and audio)
- Whittaker noted John Wallace's book, The Trumpet, co-authored with Alexander McGrattan in 2012
Do I need a Licence for a Live Music Event?
The Performing Right Society website can guide you through the maze:-
- PRS for Music Advice about Licences
- PRS for Music Homepage
Thursday, 28 August 2014
Who Remembers The Boyfriend?
Sandy Wilson wrote his popular show, The Boy Friend, in 1960. He lived another 54 years, and has just died aged 90 - his obituary appeared in The Telegraph today. Read it HERE.
Revisit The Boy Friend (or Ken Russell's film adaptation, The Boyfriend) in the Whittaker Library here at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Revisit The Boy Friend (or Ken Russell's film adaptation, The Boyfriend) in the Whittaker Library here at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Musicians! RILM or JSTOR: Deciding Where to Start
Do you look at our Electronic Resources page and wonder where to start? Do the acronyms and abbreviations bamboozle you?
Two of our most popular and useful resources for musicians are RILM and JSTOR. There are two main differences, and once you understand those, you're better able to decide where to start!
It's the difference between subject specific and multi-disciplinary; and the difference between full-text and abstract or indexing services. Whatever you're consulting, you need to know what's in there. (It's like knowing whether a shop will have the kind of merchandise you're looking for!)
RILM consists of abstracts (summaries) of scholarly writing on all kinds of musical subjects. The abstract helps you decide if the article or book will be of use to you, and there are all the details of where to find it. The Whittaker Library staff are here to help staff and students access the information they need for a teaching or essay assignment. It's a subject-specific abstracting service. It provides directions towards the info you need, but it doesn't actually give you the full-text information.
JSTOR is a huge multi-disciplinary database of full-text articles. Unlike RILM, it gives you full-text articles. However, whilst universities subscribe to the whole database, we only subscribe to the music package. On the other hand, if you find details of an article in another discipline, and it really looks relevant, then come and ask us. We can try to obtain it from another library for you.
This blogpost is about a couple of our resources that musicians might find useful. We could tell you about many more! In due course we'll also share information about drama and dance resources, too.
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to help our staff and students access the information they need to be effective creative artists.
Two of our most popular and useful resources for musicians are RILM and JSTOR. There are two main differences, and once you understand those, you're better able to decide where to start!
It's the difference between subject specific and multi-disciplinary; and the difference between full-text and abstract or indexing services. Whatever you're consulting, you need to know what's in there. (It's like knowing whether a shop will have the kind of merchandise you're looking for!)
RILM consists of abstracts (summaries) of scholarly writing on all kinds of musical subjects. The abstract helps you decide if the article or book will be of use to you, and there are all the details of where to find it. The Whittaker Library staff are here to help staff and students access the information they need for a teaching or essay assignment. It's a subject-specific abstracting service. It provides directions towards the info you need, but it doesn't actually give you the full-text information.
JSTOR is a huge multi-disciplinary database of full-text articles. Unlike RILM, it gives you full-text articles. However, whilst universities subscribe to the whole database, we only subscribe to the music package. On the other hand, if you find details of an article in another discipline, and it really looks relevant, then come and ask us. We can try to obtain it from another library for you.
This blogpost is about a couple of our resources that musicians might find useful. We could tell you about many more! In due course we'll also share information about drama and dance resources, too.
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to help our staff and students access the information they need to be effective creative artists.
Remember this is not an Essay, Pat Thomson reminds PhD Candidates
Nearly finished a PhD? Pat Thomson, Education Professor blogging as 'Patter', provides a handy checklist for anyone about to submit their doctoral dissertation. Read it HERE.
Wednesday, 27 August 2014
Are You a Reflective Practitioner?
RILM to the Rescue!
We've been looking at our electronic databases to see what information you can access. "Reflective practice" seemed a good place to start, so we searched RILM, a database for music abstracts. Surprisingly, the first result was about reflective practice in dance, which just goes to show that sometimes you get more than you expected!
Find our subscription to RILM on the Whittaker Library's electronic resources pages. If you're a Royal Conservatoire of Scotland student or member of staff, you can gain access from anywhere, on campus or off-site. If you're off-site, remember to pick the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland from the list of colleges and universities, then use your usual RCS login.
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to assist our performing artist community with their teaching and learning information needs.
Tuesday, 26 August 2014
When it's core repertoire, but we've lent all our hard copies ...
... Take a look at our digital music collections. Staff and students of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland can download sheet music from Alexander Street Press, or from LibrarySource.com. They're listed on the Whittaker Library electronic resources page, and very usefully augment the popular free resources that anyone can access.
Partifi.org
Catherine also found an intriguing website called Partifi, the other day. It can create parts from an IMSLP (Petrucci Music Library) full score. It's fair to say that it's a bit fiddly to use, but if you're desperate to create parts for a piece of music, and they're not already online, then you might find it handy.
It's listed on our electronic resources page, to help you find it when you need it.
Partifi.org
Catherine also found an intriguing website called Partifi, the other day. It can create parts from an IMSLP (Petrucci Music Library) full score. It's fair to say that it's a bit fiddly to use, but if you're desperate to create parts for a piece of music, and they're not already online, then you might find it handy.It's listed on our electronic resources page, to help you find it when you need it.
Instantly Find Literature on Reflective Practice with JSTOR
While you've been enjoying our atypical Scottish summer, and mindfully giving yourself a rest from scholarly routine, we hope you haven't forgotten this useful website -
We subscribe so our performing artists can find lots of information for their teaching and learning. And their reflective practice. Try a search - you'll be astounded how much you retrieve! (We were.)
Suggestion: search Reflective practice
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to help our community of performing artists with their teaching and learning information needs.
http://www.jstor.org/
JSTOR is a vast database of scholarly articles. It has all but the most recent ones (because the journal publishers themselves want you to read their recent journals)!We subscribe so our performing artists can find lots of information for their teaching and learning. And their reflective practice. Try a search - you'll be astounded how much you retrieve! (We were.)
Suggestion: search Reflective practice
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to help our community of performing artists with their teaching and learning information needs.
Monday, 25 August 2014
A Film About RILM - Quality Music Info for Students and Researchers
RILM: Cool for Music School
Musicians, are you a student, researcher or educationalist?
If you've been a music student for a while, you've probably already heard of RILM - a database containing abstracts (summaries) of articles and other publications about music. You can search by keywords and authors - it's great, a really useful service. You'll find the link to the Whittaker Library RILM subscription on our library databases page, and also on our Mahara e-resources page, accessible to staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. We've put a brief guide on the Mahara server, too. However, it's also worth noting that there's a video about it on the RILM website. Access it HERE.
If you're a researcher, or publish scholarly writings about music, here's something you might have forgotten about: You can upload your own abstracts directly to RILM via their submissions page. It gets your scholarship 'out there' faster, and helps raise your profile - what could be better? Upload abstracts of your published music writings HERE.RILM website (not the search interface)
Friday, 22 August 2014
Folksinger Legend Jean Redpath dies in Arizona aged 77
We were sad to read of Jean Redpath's death in an Arizona hospice this week.- BBC News tribute
- YouTube - Jean Redpath sings The Wild Geese
- Jean Redpath sings 'Jock o' Hazeldean' 1st line: Why weep ye by the tide, lady - Child ballad 293 sung with heartbreaking poignancy by Jean Redpath onYouTube
- Jean Redpath Sings (website)
- We in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland treasure our Jean Redpath materials, still appreciated by today's students of Scottish music.
Thursday, 21 August 2014
Ever Wanted to Take a Look at the Broadway Archives? Now's Your Chance!
Excellent new resources available via our
subscription to Digital Theatre Plus. Royal Conservatoire of Scotland staff will get an in depth look at the Learning
& Teaching Conference session “New Transitions in the Library for
DDPS” on Wednesday 17th September.
We're sharing the latest Digital Theatre Plus update, to whet colleagues' appetites!
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Streaming Classical Audio? Supercharge Your Classical Music Library Skills
The Whittaker Library
subscribes to two of the top music streaming services for classical music - Music
Online: Classical Music Library (produced by Alexander Street
Press), and the Naxos Music Library. They're a bit like Spotify, but our
registered staff and students don't have to pay a subscription, and there are no
adverts! Add to that the useful background information about the music, and
you've got a very useful resource.
Here are some useful podcasts about Music Online: Classical Music Library
Now try a search for yourself - go to Music Online: Classical Music Library . In the search box at the top, type Holst Planets, and hit return. Click on the first item. See what kind of information appears down the white, left-hand panel. Note that when you hover your mouse over the Planets title hyperlink, you get further factual info about when the piece was written etc, but you don't get a full programme note.
Here are some useful podcasts about Music Online: Classical Music Library
- Using the Audio Player YouTube podcast, by Alexander Street Press
- Searching for material in music and the performing arts YouTube podcast, by Alexander Street Press
- Creating custom playlists YouTube podcast, by Alexander Street Press
- Tutorials on YouTube by Alexander Street Press
Now try a search for yourself - go to Music Online: Classical Music Library . In the search box at the top, type Holst Planets, and hit return. Click on the first item. See what kind of information appears down the white, left-hand panel. Note that when you hover your mouse over the Planets title hyperlink, you get further factual info about when the piece was written etc, but you don't get a full programme note.
Have You ever Wondered What Our Ancestors Listened To?
British Library Sounds is
a collection of archival sound recordings. Case-studies offer quick podcasts
about different aspects of the collection. Listen to Emily Worthington, a music
researcher, or hear Paul Long talking about historic jazz recordings. Other podcasts desribe working on accents and
dialects. Click
here then choose an enthusiast!
Example of recent query: An enquirer wanted to know about an early record label. British Library Sounds had several podcasts by an expert in recording history.
Podcast of a visit to the British Library Sound Archive
Example of recent query: An enquirer wanted to know about an early record label. British Library Sounds had several podcasts by an expert in recording history.
Podcast of a visit to the British Library Sound Archive
Jazz Course Leader Shares Enthusiasm for Jazz Books
The other day, we were chatting about the Whittaker Library's collection of books on jazz. We have hundreds of them! (Searching the word "jazz" as a keyword yields well over 400 books, and then there are the scores and recordings ...)
Tommy Smith, the leader of our Jazz BMus, asked us to produce a list of these books, and we're happy to share this with our blog-followers and performing jazz artists.
Music Online: African American Music Reference
When you look at the homepage of this Alexander Street Press resource, you'll immediately recognise lots of jazz names. Give it a go!
Just click here: Music Online: African American Music Reference
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to support teaching and learning amongst our performers and technicians.
Tommy Smith, the leader of our Jazz BMus, asked us to produce a list of these books, and we're happy to share this with our blog-followers and performing jazz artists.
- Jazz Books in the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
- Jazz Printed Music
- Jazz CDs
NEW! NEW! NEW!
Music Online: African American Music Reference
When you look at the homepage of this Alexander Street Press resource, you'll immediately recognise lots of jazz names. Give it a go!
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| Screenshot of African American Music Homepage |
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to support teaching and learning amongst our performers and technicians.
Seeking Ideas to Improve your Workflow and/or Writing?
Motivational writer James Clear offers some suggestions for improving your writing and how you go about it. These are so sensible, we thought we'd share them as we prepare for a new academic session here in the Whittaker Library:-
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to support the teaching and learning of our performing artists.
7 Improvements I Have Made to My Writing and Work
- JamesClear.com homepage
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to support the teaching and learning of our performing artists.
Guardian Culture Professionals Network Highlights Crisis for Composers
We noted this posting on the Guardian Culture Professionals Network earlier this week:-
The future of new music is at risk if we continue to undervalue composers
Susanna Eastburn
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
The One Perfect Book
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| Lydia the Librarian seeks the One Perfect Book |
New students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will nonetheless get reading-lists with required and suggested reading material. Some of it is hard-copy, "real books". Other reading is online, and the Whittaker Library has e-books and e-journals aplenty.
You'll find links to your reading-lists on the RCS library Mahara pages. These live links mean you can click on a book title and find out whether it's actually available in the Library right now. (If not, do pop into the library to reserve it at the issue desk.)
As for the One Perfect Book, that holy grail of all students - well, we're still working on it!
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to support the teaching and learning of our performing arts community.
- Our Library Catalogue http://capitadiscovery.co.uk/rcs/
- Our Library Website http://www.rcs.ac.uk/about_us/libraryandit/
- Our Electronic Resources http://www.rcs.ac.uk/about_us/libraryandit/databases/
- Our E-Journals http://www.rcs.ac.uk/about_us/libraryandit/e-journals/
Monday, 18 August 2014
Do You Know the Score? We do, when it comes to Free Sheetmusic!
Free scores online
- You may already know about the Petrucci Music Library, otherwise known as IMSLP. Watch out for copyright issues (different countries have different laws) but apart from that, it's a brilliant resource. http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page
- The Internet Archive is another useful place. Not very visually attractive, but it's the content that counts. Very handy for historic material. https://archive.org/
And now, free to our registered staff and students ...
What we really want our performers to know about, are the new offerings from Alexander Street Press:-We subscribe to Alexander Street Press Classical Scores Library Collections 1 and 2. That means our staff and students can download anything they find there. There's classical music for everyone, whatever they sing or play. Do take a look. (If you're off-campus, you'll need to login.)
- Classical Scores Library Advanced Search (one search searches all)
- Classical Scores Library Homepage
- Classical Scores Library 2 Homepage
We are the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - here to help our performing arts community with their information needs!
Networking Librarian: Connecting Performers with Reviews!
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| Networking Librarian |
Rob Adams Journalist
We thought our trad and jazz performers might be interested to visit this website by music journalist Rob Adams. He has attended a lot of events in Edinburgh recently, so you will spot names that you know.
Friday, 15 August 2014
New Opera Titles Added to Digital Theatre Plus
Three
more titles have been added to the Royal Opera House Collection:
Hansel and Gretel
Eugene Onegin
Dido and Aeneas
Staff and students of the RCS should ask at the library for username and password to log into Digital Theatre Plus
Hansel and Gretel
Eugene Onegin
Dido and Aeneas
Staff and students of the RCS should ask at the library for username and password to log into Digital Theatre Plus