A Symphonic Tale
Once upon a time, Brahms wrote a symphony - his first, as it happens. Later on, Simrock publishers in Berlin produced a piano duet version - these were all the rage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of our early Principals, William Gillies Whittaker, later bought a copy and signed it.
Eventually, he gifted it to the library of the Scottish National Academy of Music.In the early days, the janitors had time to catalogue the music and add it to stock,giving each item a shelf, box and item number so it could be found again.
Well, as time went by, the college acquired a drama school, and more and more staff and students. In 1987, the Royal Scottish Academy of Drama moved from the Athenaeum building (in what is now Nelson Mandela Place) to Renfrew Street, and eventually the score was recatalogued with a new shelf-number. By this stage we were using a standardized classification scheme, so "M209 B" meant the score would sit alongside other symphonic duet arrangements. And then it got a barcode when we computerised the issue system back in the 1990s.
In its new guise, the score got well used, and grew gracefully and then
disgracefully old. Today it reached the end of its life. We discovered
there's a nice new
Urtext Henle edition, which will enable today's pianists to go on enjoying playing Brahms's First Symphony, op.68, in C minor. Before too long, there will be another entry in our catalogue. And the old one can rest in pieces!
Our Biteable animations went down well at the Learning and Teaching Conference, so we thought we'd share a couple we made earlier! See what the library has to offer, and keep abreast of new developments - each clip takes less than two minutes to watch. Perfect while you're enjoying your next cuppa! (If you fancy playing with Biteable animations yourself, just visit https://biteable.com/ )
The final day of our RCS staff Learning and Teaching Conference saw a variety of updates from different departments. Information Services took their turn after lunch. We thought we'd just share with our readers some of the library highlights.
Help with introducing suitable online resources
Today's the day everyone has to return their library books and music here at the Whittaker Library. (Why is it always someone else's fault that a music part has gone astray?!)
To clarify, this concerns our traditional Scottish and Irish fiddle music, not our classical violin music. 
We think we've cracked the library tour conundrum, with this idea! Here's a Storify about our library. If you're a trad musician, this shows you much of what you need to know. For the rest - look out for the trad music guide or the expert staff to assist you find what you're looking for!
Our new students are warmly encouraged to come and hear about how we support our learners and their teachers. There's a timetable by the door, but we usually run a couple of extra sessions the following week in case anyone missed out.
Once upon a time, Brahms wrote a symphony - his first, as it happens. Later on, Simrock publishers in Berlin produced a piano duet version - these were all the rage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of our early Principals, William Gillies Whittaker, later bought a copy and signed it.
Well, as time went by, the college acquired a drama school, and more and more staff and students. In 1987, the Royal Scottish Academy of Drama moved from the Athenaeum building (in what is now Nelson Mandela Place) to Renfrew Street, and eventually the score was recatalogued with a new shelf-number. By this stage we were using a standardized classification scheme, so "M209 B" meant the score would sit alongside other symphonic duet arrangements. And then it got a barcode when we computerised the issue system back in the 1990s.
In its new guise, the score got well used, and grew gracefully and then
disgracefully old. Today it reached the end of its life. We discovered
there's a nice new Urtext Henle edition, which will enable today's pianists to go on enjoying playing Brahms's First Symphony, op.68, in C minor. Before too long, there will be another entry in our catalogue. And the old one can rest in pieces! 
