Book Now! Scottish Music! Musica Scotica Conference 2016.

There are going to be lots of speakers, talking about new Scottish music and research into many other angles on the subject:-

Musica Scotica 2016: 800 years of Scottish Music

Musica Scotica's Eleventh Annual Conference 

Saturday 23 April 2016 and Sunday 24 April, 2016 

 Venue:
Stirling Court Hotel
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK

• The programme is being drawn up, and speakers will very soon hear when their papers are scheduled. 
• The registration form is here, now!
• Full link to registration form:- http://www.n-ism.org/musicascotica.org.uk/conferences.shtml
• On Twitter, follow @MusicaScotica
• Practicalities:- if travelling from Glasgow, use Central Station and allow extra time. (Queen Street is undergoing extensive rail works.)
• Details of campus hotel on the Musica Scotica website. Delegates self-book accomodation.

WATCH THIS SPACE!

http://www.musicascotica.org.uk/conferences.shtml

What Will You Be Learning During Independent Learning Week?

Then (the old Athenaeum Library)

And now (the Whittaker Library)

Here at the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, we can't predict how busy it might be in the library next week.  It's our Independent Learning Week - will students be learning independently in the library, or elsewhere?!  (Staff might be doing some independent learning, practising or writing, too. We know someone who is!)

Staff and students are reminded that we're still open, and if you're not coming into the Conservatoire, you can still access virtually all our electronic resources. If you're off-campus, then you usually need to select RCS from a range of institutions, before using your usual staff/student login.

Everything - databases, e-journals, and e-books - is available via our library website, here.  Additionally, many e-books are catalogued into the main catalogue system, so you'll find them just by checking the catalogue.  Find the book, click on the link and use the login procedure outlined above, and you're off. Easy-peasy.

If you're puzzled about any RCS e-resource, or struggling to find resources for a vital piece of work, students and staff are warmly encouraged to contact the library.

• Library website:    https://www.rcs.ac.uk/about_us/libraryandit/ 
• Library catalogue: http://capitadiscovery.co.uk/rcs/
• Did you know we have Library Chat facilities on the catalogue homepage?  We man it at peak times - give it a try!

Happy St Patrick's Day from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland!

The Whittaker Library has a micro, table-top exhibition (it's a small table) of Irish materials that might interest our readers on St Patrick's Day.

In particular, we have a copy of Thomas Moore's Irish melodies, which has already interested one of our opera students, who explained that the famous song, "The Minstrel Boy", is mentioned in the opera that the opera students are currently working on.  Many of Moore's songs were highly political at the time - don't be deceived into thinking that they're all just cute Georgian/Victorian parlour songs!
 
There's Irish drama to look at too.  The exhibition is only on this week, so don't miss it!  Also, visit our Facebook page for more pictures.

And the leprechaun?  Why, that's Lafferty the Library Leprechaun, to be sure!  (He's exhausted after his busy day ...)

Hear a rare opera - Koanga, by Delius

Delius's opera Koanga is rarely heard, so we were delighted when the Delius Society told us about a forthcoming broadcast.

"BBC Radio 3 will broadcast on Thursday 17th March a recording of Koanga from the Wexford Festival last October. Stephen Barlow and his forces give us a fine performance of this work, as anyone who attended the performances in person or who heard the broadcast on the RTE Lyric FM radio last year."

Delius Society - http://www.delius.org.uk/

Glee Clubs? A very long history, as this Cambridge blog reveals ...

This is the latest blogpost by Cambridge University Music Library - it's about a celebrated glee composer, John Wall Callcott.  Not just celebrated - prolific, too!

Take a look (click on the heading below):-

To celebrate to commemorate: John Wall Callcott (1766 – 1821)

• We have music by Callcott, too (though not so much) - look here;
• And we have historic glees by Callcott and others like him - here.

World Book Day - the Whittaker Library recalls the LGBT Human Library

Last year, as part of LGBT History Month and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's own Bridge Week, the RCS's Gender Equality Society ran a Human Library. This was to get people talking openly together about their sexual orientations, gender presentations and identifications. It also increased the visibility of LGBT students and staff within RCS.

A Human Library is one made up of people, instead of books. Visitors came along and picked a person to “loan out” i.e. chat to for 10 minutes. There were 15 “books”, who all identified as part of, or are an ally of, the LGBTQI+ community.* They all chose a title for themselves as a book for a “conversation starter”, e.g. “Binary Breaker”, and these were displayed on the wall around the library.

Both the “books” and the people who visited the library experienced meaningful conversations around gender and sexuality. This also allowed a space for those who are part of the RCS LGBTQI+ community to connect and talk about their shared experiences.

These conversations were captured in an informal setting, after the project, with all the books listening to each other. We hope the openness, frankness and complexity of each individual book comes across, as it really was an enriching process for all who took part.

You can have a look at one or all of the books by visiting the Human Library here.

* LQBTQI+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Questioning and Intersex