Paddington Bear Visits the Whittaker Library

Going through a batch of music for beginners, we've found what must be the most enchanting title of the day - 

Paddington Bear's First Concert (story by Michael Bond, music by Herbert Chappell).  It's arranged by the composer for narrator and piano.  To be truthful, it's for an experienced pianist and a speaker - we're not sure how it got in a batch of beginners' music!

We just can't resist adding it to stock.Check the new book display next week.

RCS Researcher Rachel Drury at the Two Moors Festival

Opera for Babies?  Why, Yes!

 RCS researcher Rachel Drury has been interviewed for the official Two Moors Festival Blog.  We spotted the blogposting and thought we'd share it with you here!

An Interval with Rachel Drury of BabyO

Rachel's doctoral research was on Kodaly music education, and she has also played saxophone in 'The Farmer's Cheese', a musical work for use with hearing impaired children.  See both her thesis and the music score here in the Whittaker Library (book details).

Can I Download Illegal Music? The UK Law on Piracy

Sunday Times Cover story: How Piracy is Killing Creativity, by Jonathan Dean 

We spotted an interesting cover story in the Sunday Times magazine recently.  The author, Jonathan Dean, argues that piracy is killing creativity, but that the younger generation maybe doesn't recognize the problem.

You can read the article online here.

• http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/music/article1547025.ece

Our Scottish Music Graded Exams (not sold by the Library, but here's the Link!)

We're regularly asked whether the Whittaker Library sells the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Scottish Music Graded Exam music.  Actually, we don't, but "we know a man who can ...."

Visit the RCS website for the Scottish Music exams here, and you'll find a link to the suppliers.

https://www.rcs.ac.uk/traditional-music-graded-exams/

Mozart Sonata K.331 (Alla Turca finale) Autograph Fragment Online

Newly discovered autograph fragment 

Mozart's famous Sonata in A major, K. 331 (with 'Alla Turca' finale)

The Hungarian National Széchényi Library has just launched a website to make this precious manuscript freely accessible to all:- http://mozart.oszk.hu/index_en.html

Balázs Mikusi (mikusi@oszk.hu)

Head of Music

National Széchényi Library, Budapest 

You will also be delighted to hear that Henle is producing a new Urtext edition of the sonata - there's a video about it here.

Who, What, Where, When? The Concert Programmes Database

Here's another useful database for music historians!  Have you looked at the Concert Programmes Database?

You'll be astonished what's there.

http://www.concertprogrammes.org.uk/

Royal Opera House Collections Online

If you're interested in operatic history, you'll find this invaluable.  It's a database of Royal Opera House performances, going back in time ...

Royal Opera House Collections - click here

Alumna Robyn Stapleton to sing on Dundee's Frigate Unicorn

Since Robyn is an alumna of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, we thought we'd help promote her forthcoming performance in Dundee:-

Frigate Unicorn, Victoria Dock, Dundee - Robyn Stapleton

Scotland’s finest young traditional singer, BBC Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician 2014, Scots Singer of the Year nominee, will be singing on board the Unicorn on Friday 10th July.

Robyn, who hails from Stranraer, is touring Scotland to celebrate her debut album “Fickle Fortune” which was released in May to critical acclaim.

Recent career highlights include being commissioned to record “Coming Thro The Rye” for Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, and performances at the Trad Music Awards and, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, at Proms in the Park!

Robyn is no stranger to Dundee having given two recitals at the Wighton Heritage Centre. Sheena Wellington, who tutored Robyn during her honours year at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, said of her former student:-

‘Robyn was gifted with a beautiful voice, warm, rich, flexible and distinctive. Couple this with a true love and respect for her material and the ability to engage an audience anywhere from a care home to a Prom concert hall and you have a very special singer indeed.’

Robyn will be accompanied by band members Kristan Harvey of Blazin Fiddles (Young Traditional Musician 2011), David McNee in guitar and bouzouki and Alistair Iain Paterson on piano and harmonium (Young Traditional Musician Finalist 2014).

• Doors open at 6:15 for performance at 7:00pm
• Tickets £9 (£7 concession) 
• Online booking: https://www.gammabookings.com/FrigateUnicorn/
• Or available at the door.

Friends of Wighton, Wighton Heritage Centre
Central Library, Wellgate
Dundee DD1 1DB

www.friendsofwighton.com

Friends of Wighton gratefully acknowledge the support of Leisure & Communities Dundee, MMG Archbold, Chartered Accountants and The Weavers Café, Dundee Central Library

Referencing Just Got Easier!

RefME - Have You Discovered It Yet?

We all have our favourite apps when it comes to regularly-performed tasks like referencing.  Karen swears by Mendeley.  Others use Zotero - both are freeware.  (Some institutions offer institutional  access to EndNote, which saves you money.)  Diigo is great freeware for saving hyperlinks to the cloud.

So why try another?  Well, we read a review of RefME in the Times Higher Education magazine, and it looks impressively simple.  Most of us just want to keep a list of what we've read, and a way of pulling it into whatever we're writing, whether for footnotes, endnotes or a bibliography.

That's what RefME does.  Find your book via the search box, and save it.  Exporting couldn't be simpler - it provides a box of text for you to copy and paste into your paper, in a wide range of formats.

•  RefME
• THE review of RefME by Chris Havergal

Ambache - Raising the Profile of Music by Women

We received a gift of three CDs from Ambache Charitable Trust, today.

Not only are the CDs a lovely addition to stock, but we also learned about a charitable trust that we hadn't heard of before.

Take a look:- http://ambache.co.uk/

Our new CDs:-

• American classics series: Louise Talma
• American classics series: Marion Bauer
• A Triple Portrait: Chamber music by Elena Firsova, played by the Marsyas Trio.  Soviet composer Elena Firsova has composed 150+ pieces, yet is little known in the UK.

Find the CDs on our shelves here.  (And more about women composers here!)