The 24:7 Student? E-resources make it easier

 G is for Gesamtkunstwerk (Stephen Moss, A to Z of Wagner) 

 

RCS students working on their essays for Music in History 3 will already be very familiar with the term, Gesamtkunstwerk, introduced by Richard Wagner.   (It's not an easy word to spell!)

Gesamt - Together (Total)

Kunst - Art

Werk - Work

Depending on the spelling you use, of course, your search results will vary.  And almost inevitably, you'll arrive at Wikipedia.  Do we like Wikipedia?  Well, it's a good enough starting point, so long as you approach it with a questioning mentality. Do you know who wrote the article, for example?

Doing a web search using the spelling given here, however, takes you to a great page in the Guardian newspaper - G is for Gesamtkunstwerk, from Stephen Moss's A to Z of Wagner.

Online Resources Whenever and Wherever Needed

So now we know what we're looking for! Students and Staff of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland have access to premium online content on websites like JSTOR (back copies of scholarly journals), Oxford Music Online (Grove Dictionary of Music) and RILM (abstracts of music articles etc).  We also have streamed music and videos.  You'll know about Naxos and Alexander Street Press Classical Music Library, but did you know Alexander Street Press also offers Classical Music in Video?  We get that, too.  The link takes you to Wagner operas.  So don't just listen - look!

Find Wagner operas: http://tinyurl.com/o6x7vyh

All this content is stuff that we subscribe to on our users' behalf -it isn't universally available, but is paid for by your library so you can use it freely.  Take a look at our e-resources page on the RCS website or on Moodle/Mahara.  There are loads of e-journals, too.  (If you're in the RCS buildings, you'll get the resources directly, but off-site you'll need to login as an RCS members.)

Gesamtkunstwerk is correct, not Gesammtkunstwerk, Gesamtkunstwerke, Gesamkunstwerk ... do use the proper German spelling for best results searching our online resources.