It's Not a Bank Holiday in Glasgow!

Right Now, Today

Just thought we'd let you know - the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is open all day today.  It isn't a Bank Holiday here!

Our opening hours during Trimester 3 ("the summer holidays" to most of you) are as follows:-

• Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 09.00-17.00
• Tuesdays we're open 09.00-20.00

Advance Notice

Trimester 1 begins on 21 September, when our evening openings will extend to 20.30 pm Monday to Thursday, with Fridays 09.00-17.00.  Our Trimester 1 weekend openings will appear on our website and we'll also share them here, in due course.

Remembering Mascagni, 70 years on (by Roger Flury)

Famed for his Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci ...

On the 70th anniversary of Pietro Mascagni's death, music librarian Roger Flury wrote this piece commemorating him. The original posting is on the IAML website.

Remembering Pietro Mascagni

• Check out our Mascagni holdings here in the Whittaker Library catalogue at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
• International Association of Music Libraries homepage.

Up There With the Greats - Cello Suites and Hot Jazz

The Whittaker Library thinks it's rather nice that this week the collection has acquired CDs by our own celebrities:-

• David Watkin, Head of Strings, plays the Bach Cello Suites - a recording receiving rave reviews;
• and our Jazz department releases RCS Jazz Road West

Find them on the new accessions shelf next week.  Or look up details online, here.

We are the very helpful Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, here to help our community of performing artists with their information needs.

Students with Disabilities ... New Book in Whittaker Library

College for Students with Disabilities: We do Belong

This new book is a series of chapters by different authors, and the ultimate endorsement is a foreword by the autistic 'Animal Professor', Dr Temple Grandin.

It'll reach the shelves of the Whittaker Library in the next few days - look out for it on the new books display.

• Book details - click here

A Constant Stream of Sound - RCS Community gets New Naxos Password

We have many electronic resources for the use of our staff and students here at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  There's a list on our website, here.

Most are accessed using our usual login. 

Not Naxos, though!  We change the external Naxos password every year.  Current staff and students who use Naxos Music Library from home should email the library (or drop in), to be advised of the new one.

Physicality in Performance: Transcripts of Choreography

Digital Theatre Plus is one of our premium electronic resources. Visit it via our Library/IT web-pages, or via Moodle.

Staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland can now explore these transcripts on Digital Theatre Plus.  Watch these newly-released interviews about directing, choreographing theatre, and stage fights.

Transcripts: Practitioners in Practice

"Today on Digital Theatre Plus we release three more transcripts sourced from our Making Theatre library that enable: independent learning, skills development and the understanding of key themes pertinent to the teaching of English and Drama.

"This week we focus on interviews that showcase the value of physicality in performance. Whether it’s stirring the body to an explosion of violence or making a gentle caress peel back the years of a love affair, these three theatre artists understand that it’s often what’s unspoken that communicates the most powerful story.

Now available On Directing: Scott Graham
Lovesong, Lyric Hammersmith

"Frantic Assembly work in a very particular fashion and Scott Graham, the company’s Artistic Director, discusses how he and his collaborators think about making theatre and the influences they draw upon when creating a piece for performance.

On Choreography: Quinny Sacks
A Doll's House, Young Vic

"Esteemed choreographer Quinny Sacks discusses the art of choreography on the stage. We learn the broad range of movement that the term has come to define and the ways in which a choreographer nurtures and enhances the physical language
of the play.

On Fight Directing: Terry King
King Lear, Almeida Theatre

"Terry King, a veteran in stage combat, discusses the complexity of creating violence onstage. As fight director on King Lear he unearths the tasks and responsibilities that his role demands.

What's a Big Band Chart? Jazz Musicians Know!

A little bit of knowledge goes a long way!

And we now know that big band music is NOT wind band, concert wind band, symphonic wind band, or indeed brass band music.

We also know that a 'big band chart' is a set containing the score and parts.  And there we were, talking of orchestral, wind or brass sets.  We knew what we meant, but it wasn't helpful to our jazz community.

Jazz students and tutors at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will soon be able to check the catalogue on their own terms - literally - because all the jazz charts are being indexed in a way that jazzers will recognise!

Search for big band chart, and that's exactly what you'll find.

• Click here to see what has been updated so far in our Whittaker Library catalogue.  113 charts and counting, at lunchtime today ...

Try out Europeana - Multimedia Portal for Images, Audio, Video, Books ...

http://www.europeana.eu/portal/

Europeana is best described as a multimedia gateway or portal to all sorts of European digital collections.  You can look for images, music, video, books and more, all digitised and uploaded from different libraries, museums and other initiatives.

Folk music, photography, recording technology and first world war archival material are just a few of the subjects covered.  There's a lot about field recording Irish traditional music, and the Irish Traditional Music Archive.

Test Phase Music Channel - Feedback requested!

Right now there's an experimental portal for music, and Europeana wants feedback.  So make yourself a coffee, and do spend a few minutes exploring.  Your feedback is encouraged and welcomed.  Anyone can respond, with institutional comments particularly welcome, so if you lead a course or department, please do make the most of this pilot phase.

• http://test.europeana.eu/portal/channels/music

British Sign Language Dictionary

British Sign Language Dictionary

 

Search and compare thousands of words and phrases in British Sign Language (BSL). The largest collection of free video signs online.

Ballet Online: RCS opportunity to watch Le Corsaire ballet via Digital Theatre Plus

Staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland are invited to follow this link on Digital Theatre Plus, to watch a video of the ballet, Le Corsaire .

Digital Theatre Plus are thrilled to release our first production in our new Collection from world-renowned dance company English National Ballet.

Le Corsaire (The Pirate) is a thrilling ballet about Conrad, a dashing pirate, and his love for Medora, a beautiful harem girl. It is a swashbuckling drama of captive maidens, rich sultans, kidnap and rescue, disguise and conspiracy, love and betrayal, culminating in a shipwreck that is one of the most breathtaking
spectacles in ballet. English National Ballet is the first UK company to perform the complete work, which showcases some of the most bravura male dancing in the ballet repertoire.

Reviews of Le Corsaire
"A roaring madcap success." - The Financial Times

"Any production that gives us Alina Cojocaru as Medora is worth paying good money to see." - The Guardian

Watch Le Corsaire now using your RCS entitlement!

Tuesday Nights At the Whittaker Library

It's Trimester 3.  It's Tuesday.  And the Whittaker Library is open until 8 pm - and will be open every Tuesday evening until the undergraduates return for Trimester 1.

What are you waiting for?! If RCS staff or students need books, scores, music, playscripts, or advice about our online resources ... please do drop in.

• Tuesday music
• Tuesday plays
• Tuesday themed audio

Copyright Free Images! Music to your Ears (and Delight to your Eyes)

Free Images!

How to access a million stunning, copyright-free antique illustrations released by the British Library

The British Library is making millions of images available to you, copyright free.

When there's so much doom and gloom about copyright, isn't it nice to read about something free for a change?  Click here to find out more!

Edinburgh Festival Voice Workshop

Work with Ros Steen

Wednesday 12 and 19 August

Prof. Ros Steen at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Click the link above to book a place on one of these Wednesday workshops - but hurry, places are limited!

Finding the Big Band Charts

We have quite a few big band charts in the Whittaker Library collection.  All beautifully catalogued, too, but there was a problem.  

What our jazz musicians asked for, was 'big band charts'.  But although our catalogue gave details of composer, arranger, title, publisher, instrumentation - the words big band chart just weren't there. 

It felt like a summer project for Trimester 3.  Although it hasn't felt much like summer here, we're proud to say that the big band chart project is now under way.  All the wind and brass sets are being checked to ensure there aren't any big band charts hiding away, undiscovered and/or undiscoverable.  And all the big band charts are getting their catalogue entries revised to make them more accessible.

You want to find big band charts?  Type big band chart in the catalogue search box!  So far, it looks like this (click here).  Keep coming back - there will be more by the end of next week!

What They Played at Paris Conservatoire Competitions

There's a new series of instrumental anthologies, just published by A-R Editions:-

Music from the Paris Conservatoire

We've ordered a set for the Whittaker Library, and the first copies will hit our new books display next week.  Each book contains the best late 19th century contest repertoire for an orchestral instrument accompanied by piano.

• Check out the publishers' page
• Check out what's been added to the Whittaker Library collection

Transcripts: Character Study will "enable a comedic situation to occur on stage"

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland actors have access to Digital Theatre Plus, and that means they can view the latest DTP offering online:-

Transcripts: Character Study

"This week we focus on interviews that emphasise the importance of detailed character work in order to enable a comedic situation to occur on stage. William Shakespeare and Noël Coward are centuries apart but share a common bond in their ability to take some of the most sensitive and delicate of life's moments and garner humour from them. Life is funny: they both know how to write it as it is. Our featured performers are accomplished at getting the most from their wordplay."

On Acting: Toby Stephens Private Lives, Chichester Festival Theatre Elyot Chase is an impulsive, funny, erratic, passionate man. Toby Stephens reveals how he gets under his skin in performance.
On Acting: Anna Chancellor Private Lives, Chichester Festival Theatre Anna Chancellor shares her feelings about the character of Amanda in Private Lives and what she does to prepare to bring her to life in all her glory on stage.
Q&A: The Comedy of Errors The Comedy of Errors, Royal Shakespeare Company
Each performance of a play is subtly different depending on the connection between the actors on stage and the audience. Actors from the RSC’s The Comedy of Errors discuss their work immediately after the show.

• RCS registered readers should ask at the Library for the latest password to Digital Theatre Plus.

So Copyright Doesn't Affect You? Even BBC gets in Trouble

Spotted in the Daily Mail, this surprising story ....

"Bake Off's Sound of Music advert is axed after BBC is accused of breaching copyright"

Read more here.

(Daily Mail Social Media links @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook")