Saint-Saens and the Highlands - We're Mystified!

A sad, sorry copy of Saint-Saens' Six Etudes pour la main gauche seule has us mystified. We clearly have a lot of left-handed pianists here, because the piece is worn out.  But as well as being a shadow of its former self, there are strange little doodles. Not recommended in library music, to be honest. 

There's the end of a piano - we'll spare you that - and this intriguing little Highlander. What does the second etude, Alla Fuga, have to do with the Highlands? It's not a particularly Scottish looking melody, that's for sure!
Anyway, please don't worry too much - we do already have a smart new copy, so this one can be bidden a respectful farewell.

Baroque Violin in the Highlands - read Michael Newton's paper on Academia.ed

This will interest Scottish fiddlers and Baroque violinists alike. It came up on the Academia.edu website (sometimes referred to as 'the thinking person's Facebook'):-

On the Introduction of the Baroque Violin into the Gàidhealtachd

by Michael Newton, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Michael has a Ph.D. in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh in 1998, with a dissertation on The Tree in Scottish Gaelic Literature and Tradition.

Something Old, Something New ... New in the Whittaker Library today

Today's cataloguing has included recent CDs contributed by Conservatoire colleagues, and the tail end of a batch of recorder music that we inherited from a local school. Very varied indeed!  To see what we've added to stock, just click here.  (It also gives you an idea of the varied performance repertoires of our teaching colleagues ... reminding us that they have lives as performers "out there", as well as respected instrumental teachers in the RCS.)

(Don't ask about the odd characters in the wordcloud - they don't appear in the catalogue!)

Contemporary CDs - Welcome to 2016!

We seem to have had a flurry of donations on the CD front in recent months.  A quick cataloguing blitz, and now they're all getting labelled, heading for the shelves.

So if you're interested in contemporary music from Finland or Belgium, electronic music with guitar, or an assortment of other exotica, you only need to look at our "recent acquisitions" list on the catalogue.  Click here.  We've also added our latest PhD student's thesis!

Frankenstein, Royal Ballet, and Ballet DVDs

Last week saw the world premiere of The Royal Ballet’s new production Frankenstein, a co-production with San Francisco Ballet, choreographed by Liam Scarlett. This is Scarlett’s first length work for the main stage where he teamed up with the American composer Lowell Liebermann and designer John Macfarlane to create a truly terrifying work. The ballet is based on the novel by Mary Shelley and Scarlett has focused on the theme of love throughout the work from Victor and Elizabeth, Victor and his mother and the craving of love from the creature to Victor that will never be returned. For more information about the production you can go to the Royal Ballet’s website where you can see clips of designer John Macfarlane showing you around the ballet's sets, including the full-size anatomy theatre, and Liam Scarlett in rehearsal with Laura Morera who talk about creating the character of Elizabeth.

As it happens, the Whittaker Library has just purchased a whole load of new Royal Ballet DVDs from classics such as Swan Lake and Giselle to more contemporary pieces like the Metamorphosis and the Winter’s Tale. What a coincidence! They feature the dancers Carlos Acosta, Tamara Rojo, Natalia Osipova, Edward Watson, Steven McRae and of course Darcey Bussell; as well as choreography from Ashton, Wheeldon and MacMillan. Take a look at our new additions to the collection here.