Snow Queen Melts Away

We've been happy to have the Snow Queen costume exhibited in the library during December and January, but this is her final week watching over staff and students at the issue desk.  We've blogged and tweeted about her, in the context of costume design and creation. Click here if you missed the blogpost first time round:- https://whittakerlive.blogspot.com/2018/12/cool-new-library-colleague-meet-our.html
 

We had an Item of the Month displayed from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Archives, too - the
2016 programme of the production by Stuart Paterson and Dougie Irvine. 

Don't forget, there's a wealth of interesting performance related material in our archives up at Speirs Locks!  It's best to make an appointment with Stuart Harris-Logan, our Archives Officer.   (Ask us, if you need to know how to get there.)

Watch out for our February display theme!!

Trainee Teacher at RCS? Here's a Helpful Library Reminder

At the beginning of the year, we made a very short animation to summarise some tips about searching for things both IN the library, and electronically.

Here is the 90-second reminder in the version delivered to our Education students.  Watch it again, and see how much you remember!
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We Found an Event for Young Trad Musicians ...

We picked this competition up at a trad music conference not long ago.  You'll have to be quick, but this is certainly worth a look if you're a trad musician under the age of 24!  It's promoted by St Albans folk music with support from Hertfordshire Folk Association.
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New Roots - An event for young musicians

"This annual event is for young performers of all styles of traditional or contemporary folk, roots or world music, whether you play traditional material or write your own. Categories are under 18 and 18-24."

Interested? We thought you might be!  Follow this link.

Wheesht! Happening here and now, right where you are ..

What would be the most perfect piece of music to hear in a library? Surely, John Cage's 4'33", that famous piece celebrating the sound of ....

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.well, silence.  The sounds of the environment around you.

Did you know it has been performed on orchestra? Yes indeed, here is a YouTube recording of

   4’33”by John Cage, performed live at the Barbican [orchestral version]

But then, we thought, what about all our wonderful electronic resources? Can we find anything there? Oh, you'd be surprised by what we found! 

• For example, there's Floraleda Sacchi, harpist:- we found her interpretation on Naxos Music Library.  
• Then we found a video of an organ interpretation on Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company. 
• Or, if you need some commentary, start here on Wiley Online Library: "This is the piece that everyone here has come to experience: the challenges to copyright of John Cage's 4′33″ - Seymour - 2013 - Legal Studies - Wiley Online Library 
• And of course you'll also find plenty of information on Oxford Music Online (aka Grove Music). 
• And - wait for it - the publisher, Peters, has made an i-phone app for it!

We'd love to stage the first live library performance of 4'33".  We'd surely make it into the Guinness Book of Records, if our patrons would only sit perfectly still for four minutes, thirty-three seconds!  Sadly, there are copyright issues.  Yes, even for silence.

Composers! Four Calls for Scores - Milan, March 2019

From our inbox this morning:-

NB the DEADLINE is 1 March 2019, and the festival takes place the same month. You would be well-advised to liaise carefully with the organisers, since there's not much time for last-minute adjustments.

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"announcement for the Call for Scores promoted by Ned Ensemble in collaboration with Edizioni Suvini Zerboni in Milano.

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1) Music applied to images

2) Piano solo

3) Ensemble from 1 to 6 instruments

4) Voice and piano

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The NED Ensemble, during its 12th Contemporary Music Festival “Crossroads, strade incrociate” announces four "Call for scores" to find new compositions to be included in the 12th Contemporary Music Festival, scheduled in March 2019 in the concert hall "Andrea Celesti", located in Desenzano del Garda (Italy).

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Info nedensemble@gmail.com www.nedensemble.com

Twitter https://twitter.com/nedensemble 

Library and Archive News from Friends at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library

Trad musicians, do you subscribe to the newsletter from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House in London?  We think you'd enjoy it!

Take a look at the latest online news.  And note, there's a broadside ballad day at the University of Strathclyde coming up in February 2019!

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE NEWS from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

Working Behind the Scenes - Our ERA Licence

Quite a lot goes on behind the scenes in a library.  You don't see us ordering and cataloguing the stuff, deciding the best format, the best edition, the best place to put it ... or helping people find online or hard copies of information, or showing them how best to reference it ...

But you also don't see some of the resources we subscribe to.  Not just databases and journals.

 ERA = Educational Recording Agency

Today, we introduce to you ... our ERA Licence.  "A licence?", we hear you ask. What's that to do with me, a library user?

In a conservatoire, we need that licence to enable our teachers to share recorded clips for teaching purposes.  The ERA website tells you much more about this, but the summary just about says it all:-

"The ERA Licence enables educational establishments in the UK to legally make recordings or copies of our Members' TV and Radio programmes and clips for educational use."  Read more ...

•  ERA  Homepage:- https://era.org.uk/

Musica Scotica 14th Annual Conference Registration Opens

Musica Scotica 14th Annual Conference Friday 3 - Sunday 5 May 2019 Tolbooth, Stirling Registration for the Musica Scotica conference is now open. It is posted on Musica Scotica's Facebook page:- https://www.facebook.com/events/374235653379262/

Musica Scotica homepage: http://www.musicascotica.org.uk/

Longer Whittaker Library Opening Hours

Welcome back to the new term. We are delighted to announce our extended opening hours from January 2019.

Our new hours are posted on the Library website, and are as follows:-

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During Term - Time
Mon to Thurs - 8.45am to 8.30pm
Friday - 8.45am to 5pm
Saturday - 9am to 4pm
Sunday - 11am to 3pm
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Wishing you all a wonderful and successful 2019!

Best wishes,

The Library Team