Since women's role in music is a topic that quite often crops up these days, we thought it was appropriate to add this new title to our book collection. The author looks at the importance of the piano in her own life, compares it with her grandmother's experience, and widens it out into a general discussion of girls' experience as pianists and as piano students.
You'll find the book at ML417 L in our music book collection. (Catalogue entry here, and publisher's book description here.)
You may also be interested to read an earlier blogpost that we wrote about women in music - here.
If you haven't come across Kanopy, it's well worth looking at. This on-demand video streaming service covers documentaries, on subjects such as music, dance productions and a range of indie, foreign and classic films. It's available on-site at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, via our electronic resources pages. Off-campus, we use the Shibboleth login process of identifying our institution then using the normal RCS login details.
Here's one about female jazz musicians of bygone ages! Just one example of a huge catalogue of films. Click the link below:-
We have a new CD in stock - Ethel Smyth's, The Boatswain's Mate.
The first complete recording is released by Retrospect Opera, and Cuban conductor Odaline de la Martinez conducts the Lontano Ensemble.
Smyth lived from 1858-1944. The opera is a comedy in one act and two parts. As well as a modern recording, there are also excerpts recorded in 1916, and additionally, the overture to The Wreckers, recorded in 1930 and conducted by Ethel Smyth herself.
Don't underestimate the power of those early 20th century ladies!
*Boatswain is pronounced, and sometimes spelled, Bosun. We made sure you could find it either way in the Whittaker Library Catalogue. Here.
Today we received a CD of music by Emily Howard - Magnetite. There's orchestral, vocal and string quartet repertoire from this innovative composer. The CD was supported by the Trust, who tell us that Emily has a rare ability to combine musical ideas with extra-musical interests including science, mathematics, philosophy and sport. The CD was favourably reviewed on Radio 3's Record Review recently.
It is a lovely addition to stock, and also gives us the opportunity to tell you about this worthy charitable trust.
Take a look:- www.ambachecharitabletrust.org
- Magnetite (the most recent donation), a CD of Emily Howard's music
- A Triple
Portrait: Chamber music by Elena Firsova, played by the Marsyas Trio.
Soviet composer Elena Firsova has composed 150+ pieces, yet is little
known in the UK.
Have you visited the Claimed From Stationers' Hall music research network website recently? Anyone would think it
was all about women, when they look at the blog today – a big
list of Georgian-era women composers has just been uploaded. They might only have written a couple of pieces, or in some cases, perhaps they weren’t as much authors as arrangers, but there are a surprising number of women contributors, nonetheless! 
