224 years ago, this is what German Children Sang!

 Please Meet Placidus Partsch!

 We're attacking our cataloguing piles today!  Karen assigned herself a big pile of collected editions and rolled her sleeves up. At the bottom of the heap was Liedersammlung fur Kinder und Kinderfreunde am Clavier: Fruhlingslieder and Winterlieder, dating from 1791.  The introduction explains that the collection was compiled for children to sing, or for older children and adults to sing to younger ones.  So - this is intended as nursery repertoire, 1791-style!

It's fascinating!  The very first song is one set by Mozart - not the only one - and you might recognise the names of Vanhal and Hoffmann.  (The others are no longer exactly mainstream.)  The compiler, a man with the enviable name of Placidus Partsch, set himself the task of assembling 30 songs for each season, but only the spring and winter volumes survive.

You can find them in our catalogue HERE, and they're shelved as part of the Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era series, vol.95, published by A-R Editions.

• AR Editions book details
• Whittaker Library catalogue entry

Awesome! Free Lieder Scores for RCS Staff and Students!

We subscribe to Alexander Street Press Classical Scores Library Collections 1 and 2.  That means you can download anything you find there.

We did an Advanced Search for Lieder.  Just that one word - and look what we found!

But it's not just vocal music - there's classical music for everyone, whatever they sing or play.  Do take a look.  (If you're accessing these links from off-campus, you'll need to login.)

• Classical Scores Library Advanced Search (one search searches all)

• Classical Scores Library Homepage
•  Classical Scores Library 2 Homepage

The Oracle Speaks (well, translates)

Song and Lieder translation sources

It's official - I'm an oracle! 

But it's tough being an oracle, so here are a couple of DIY song translation websites!  They might help you get the translations you need for your recital programme.

The one we subscribe to is IPA Source - it's on our database page, and it's accessible on-site only, to staff and students of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  No notes, just pronunciation and translations.

However, there's another database called the Lied, Art Song and Choral Texts Archive - worth a look if you haven't found the song you're looking for.  Same idea as above.

Lastly, you could always look for recordings in the library, to see if there are translations in the sleeve-notes. 

Or try IMSLP (The Petrucci Music Library).  These are digitised old scores.  You might only get the original words and quite possibly no translation, but if you need words for a programme, this is better than nothing.

(Of course, you know the moral of the story?  Start looking for your translations nice and early, to assist the people typing up your programmes for you!)

Lost for words?

Where can you find the words to thousands of songs and poems?

A useful free database, The Lied, Art Song and Choral Texts Archive contains the words of thousands of songs. 

Take the Romantic Scottish poet, Allan Cunningham, for example.  (Well, today's his birthday, so it's a good day to focus on him!) 

Allan Cunningham (1784-1842) was a bit of a prankster, to be honest. He invented some Borders songs for Cromek's collection called Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song.  (He admitted this to close friends.)  And he was thought to have done the same for his own larger collection, Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern.  (This is a collection of poetry, not music.)  Plenty of composers have drawn upon his lyrics, all the same.  As you'll see in The Lied, Art Song and Choral Texts Archive.  Here's his page.

• Wikipedia entry on Allan Cunningham (born on this day, 7th December 1784)

Looking for Scottish verse? Allan Cunningham might not be quite what you're looking for, but you can find plenty of source-material at the Scottish Poetry Library.  Here's their catalogue.  Learn a poem, or set one to music. 

• If you're using a poem as lyrics, do remember to check if the poet is still in copyright.  Poets have feelings (and rights!), but they'll be flattered to be asked ...  

NB this post is one of Whittaker Live's 'On this day' series about Scotland's song history.

Schubert competition, Kunst Uni Graz, February 2012

Franz Schubert and Modern Music

8th International Competition, 8-16 February 2012

4 classes:-

• Duo for Voice and Piano (Lied)
• Trio for Piano, Violin and Violoncello
• String Quartet
• Composition competition

Visit the website here. (English pages here.)