Help With Auditions?

Sometimes a new take on something can be all that you need.
Do check our library catalogue! We have quite a selection of books that you might find useful. 

• Whittaker Library Catalogue at RCS

Do any Library Historians follow us? Here's an opportunity!

Bamburgh Library Fellowships at the University of Durham

Here's a reminder from Dr Danielle Westerhof, the Rare Books Librarian of the Bamburgh Library.  Note that there is music in the Bamburgh Library rare books collection, so the opportunity will appeal to musicologists too!

"This is a reminder to all library historians - academic, librarian or archivist - that the deadline for this unique opportunity to work with the Bamburgh library collection at Palace Green Library, Durham University is less than two weeks away. Applications should be in my inbox by noon (12PM) on 4 December and applicants will be notified by mid January about the outcome. 

"If you are interested in spending a month at Durham to make use of the Bamburgh collection as well as any of the other rich resources we hold, please have a look at the IMEMS research fellowships page for more information: http://bit.ly/BambLibfellows."

 

Women's Studies - Bursary for a History Project - Deadline Approaching

DEADLINE APPROACHING: 30 November 2017

Do you research any aspect of women's studies in a historical context?

 

Last year, the Women’s Studies Group 1558-1837 offered its first ever bursary to an early career researcher, independent scholar or PhD student who was a member of the Group to  “support research in any aspect of women’s studies in the period 1558-1837”.  The bursary was very popular, we had many applications and so this year we are pleased to be able to offer it again, but this time to make two awards, the first of £500 and the second of £250.  The money will be paid on presentation of receipts and the winners will be expected to give a paper at a WSG seminar the following year, or, if based abroad, write a report for the WSG website.

The grant may be awarded for a new or continuing interdisciplinary or single-discipline project.  For further information about the bursary, and to apply, please download the application form, which is available on the website.  The deadline for applications is November 30th 2017.  Applicants will be notified of the outcome by January 2018. 

 

Please consider applying!

https://womensstudiesgroup.org/2017/10/04/womens-studies-group-2017-anniversary-bursary/

Music Index Trial at the National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh and Kelvin Hall)

The National Library of Scotland currently has trial access to Music Index. If you are visiting NLS either in Edinburgh or at Glasgow Kelvin Hall, do please trial this new database ...  and help NLS to publicise the trial!

 

This resource can be accessed (onsite only) at: https://auth.nls.uk/eresources/goto/274

 

Access is available until 15th December 2017.

 

About Music Index

This resource contains cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts of articles about music, musicians and the music industry for over 600 titles, with selective coverage of approximately 200 further titles. In addition to journal articles, it provides citations for book reviews, obituaries and news articles.

 

Evaluation

Please help NLS evaluate Music Index by completing the online questionnaire – https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/W6YFNBF

 

If you have any queries regarding this trial please contact Diane Milligan, NLS Senior Digital Assets Librarian, on d.milligan@nls.uk.

 

 

Organists Events in Our Mailbox

We received some leaflets from the Incorporated Association of Organists today, so we'll share their content with you here!

• IAM Music Festival 29 July - 2 August 2018, Peterborough - Festival.iao.org.uk
• Oundle for Organists (music courses) - www.oundlefororganists.org.uk 
• Thirty-second London Organ Day: La France!  (Nineteenth and twentieth century

  

  Notre Dame, Leicester Square

  French music, and improvisations from Thomas Ospital (Saint-Eustache, Paris) and others, Saturday 3 March 2018 at Notre Dame, Leicester Square - www.londonorganday.co.uk

Accessing e-resources

We're experimenting with different ways of sharing information, so here's the first thing - a videoclip about accessing RCS e-resources.  It only takes six minutes - quick and functional!

An Invitation from the National Library of Scotland

Are you a postgraduate student at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland?  Here's an invitation that you won't want to miss ...

"... just wanted to pass on information about our National Library of Scotland post graduate inductions at Kelvin Hall on 9^th November ...

"The inductions will give post grad students an overview of the library resources available to them onsite at Kelvin Hall, in Edinburgh and online. The session will be hosted by a range of curators from across the collections so will be a great way for students to find out more details about what is available and to chat to curators about their study projects.

"Students can find out more and book via Eventbrite here: http://www.nls.uk/using-the-library/academic-research/events

"We would be delighted if your students could attend."

Learning Continues After Black History Month - Guest blogpost by Sanjay Lago

Sanjay Lago is a 3rd year Contemporary Performance Practice student at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He's also the SU Cultural Diversity Officer. Here in the UK we have been celebrating 30 years of Black History Month - a month where we "Celebrate, Commemorate and Educate" on the histories of The Slave Trade, Colonialism, The British Empire and The Diasporas that have made the UK a diverse place that we now live in, remembering the African, Arab, Asian and Caribbean communities around us that have shaped the UK.  Here in RCS, Sanjay explains that, "we open that up to celebrate cultures from far and wide and a chance to be creative and share our cultural backgrounds with each other."  At the end of Black History Month, he kindly wrote a guest blogpost for us, which we gladly share with you, below:-

Learning Continues After The Month

So another Black History Month has passed in RCS and it has been a month of learning for many people in the institution, but this is not the end, as Black History Month is more than just a month and every day we should be remembering, commemorating and educating on the histories of African, Arab, Asian and Caribbean people. I am deeply saddened that we weren’t able to get projects up and running but this is not the end even though the month has finished. Building on the networks and people we have met, sharing the stories and cultures we bring to this institution, continue to diversify and fight for a better society. But enough of dwelling in the past. We learn from difficulties and not everyone is on the same page and support comes in various ways.

But the reason I am posting this at the end of the month is to remind that we need to continue to do our research about this island that we are on. Continue to read up on the stories of people who came to this island to make it the diverse place that it is today, the connections from wars to diasporas. Looking at the artists in society from BAME (Black Asian Minority Ethnic) Backgrounds.

Read up on books such as:-

• The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla, a book that shares the experiences of being a person of colour in Britain today. 
• Why I No Longer Talk To White People About Race by Reni Addo-Lodge- talking about themes of White Privilege and her difficulties talking to white people about race. 
• Diversify: Six Degrees of Integration by June Sarpong – talking about what makes Diversity

There are so many books and articles out there to share knowledge about this city we are in and its connection to the slave trade, the ayahs being brought over from Indian, Tobacco Merchants. Go and find the books, plays, musicals, composers, artists of colour, use the library - any library - and read up on topics that celebrate and commemorate our multicultural history.

[In our own Whittaker Library, you could try exploring the catalogue using these terms: "Black history" "Black theatre".  And we have ordered the three books that Sanjay recommends - Ed.]

There is a real power in words and you really can grow by words and other experiences. I hope that the coming days we are able to get more events up and running and remember that it maybe a month but there is more than this month, it is every day and think of the people with the lived experiences.

From a recent reading done in class, Give the platform to the person who SHOULD be speaking and be the Ally listening that the person speaking needs for support.

Wishing you a great day and year ahead and feel free to contact me if you ever wish to!

Sanjay Lago

SU Cultural Diversity Officer & CPP 3

• http://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/ 

Danse Macabre - you heard it first here!

Here in the Whittaker Library, Twittaker has been helping find seasonal performance materials.  And now we can hear Saint Saens' Danse Macabre being practised downstairs!  Anything else we can help you find?  Bach's D minor Toccata and Fugue, maybe?  Nae problem!

https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/

 

Got 20 Seconds? Catalogue Searches Sorted!

Catalogue Searches Sorted! Here's our new catalogue link:- https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/



We have two simple tips for you today.  Don't forget - putting your search terms in inverted commas can be very helpful. Eg a song title.

And using Advanced Search really helps, too. (It's like using a knife and fork instead of a shovel!)

Happy Birthday to Rare Tunes Scottish Archive!

rareTunes - an archive of Scottish sound, is celebrating ten years as an independent internet sound archive of Scottish traditional music.

Do take a look - the website describes itself like this: "A curated audio scrapbook of recordings that range from near-studio quality to crowded and noisy house sessions, from digital media to old bits of tape, vinyl and obscure 78s."  And there are even some videos amongst the audio!

Home and Away: Other Libraries in Glasgow

We've got a great library, but sometimes circumstances might mean that you can't get to it.  You're at home for a few days?  Or (heaven forbid!), there are just too many people there for you to concentrate quietly?  Here's a posting we made earlier, just to remind you of all the other libraries in Glasgow that you can use, too.  And how to get there, and weblinks.  We think of (almost) everything.

Home and Away: Other Libraries in Glasgow

Wherever you stray, of course, we're still here for you.  Don't forget about us!  Check our own library hours, and much, much more:-

• https://www.rcs.ac.uk/about_us/libraryandit/
• Whittaker Library Catalogue - https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/

RCS 170 Celebrations with our colleague, Archives Officer Stuart Harris-Logan

Garcia - New Treatise on the Art of Singing, 1857 (Historically Informed Performance)

Another useful tome for students of historically-informed performance, we found Garcia's New Treatise on the Art of Singing freely available on Archive.org - what a happy find!

Read it here, and yes, it's also on the RCS Library Music portal!

Joaquim Quantz - On Playing Flute (Historically Informed Performance)

What could be nicer than finding what you want is available free online?  So, here's another for our historically informed performance students. You may not be able to read the whole of Quantz's flute treatise in English online, but you can read Chapter 13, on ornamentation.  

It must be a good source, if it's also picked up by the blog, Technology for the Classical Singer!

And yes, we've saved the link on our RCS Library portal too.

Dorottya Fabian - A Musicology of Performance: Theory and Method based on Bach's Solos for Violin

Maybe not yet ready for Bach Partitas!

Checking through reading lists, we found another useful book that isn't actually on the historical performance list, but might still be of interest.  It's a free e-book through Open Book Publishers.  If you're a violinist, you'll probably find this fascinating. Read it here!

Don't worry, we've also saved it to our library portal pages for musicians, so that's another way of finding it.  

Mental Attitude (User Education as a Performance Art)

 In a discussion about user education (that's when we librarians show you, the users, how our catalogue and online resources work), librarians discussed their private reservations about standing up and sharing info that is probably not the average student's most pressing preoccupation.  We know you'd rather be playing, or composing, or acting ... 
We do try to make it interesting ...  Yes, we realise someone would kill us if we actually danced on the piano! 

• Research it! (library resources for BMus 4) Powerpoint 

Ca' Canny With Your Catalogue Searches!

 https://rcs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/

SIMPLE SEARCH
You can search a library catalogue using the simple search box. You can also search our Catalogue Plus the same way,to get lots of electronic results along with the books, music and audiovisual material that we hold.
 
ADVANCED SEARCH
But you can get more precise results if you use the Advanced Search. It means you can pin down the author or composer's name, for example, or words that you know are in the title of a book or piece of music.  The Advanced Search function is available whether you're searching just the catalogue, or Catalogue Plus.
 
CATALOGUE PLUS + ADVANCED SEARCH
It's a good idea to be clear what you're looking for, especially with Catalogue Plus, which searches ALL the electronic resources available to RCS staff and students.

We searched for "Highland Piping" on Catalogue Plus. Loads of relevant hits appeared. We have a nifty little visual graphic which categorises all the results, and you can clearly see what is available.  (But look what else we found. If you're not canny with your searching, then you might - just might - find something completely different... )

Scholarship and Performance: Vanessa Tomlinson, Percussionist

The other day, we got notification of the latest issue of the Contemporary Music Review, just published.  We notified music colleagues about it, as we often do.  This particular issue contained an article by Vanessa Tomlinson.  Research Fellow Professor Roy Howat was particularly interested to read Vanessa's article - he has performed with her!  He tells us that she is a star percussionist in Brisbane.

Better still, he was able to share a YouTube recording of their collaboration, which we are pleased to share with you today:-

Bartok's Sonata for 2 pianos & percussion

Published on Sep 27, 2012

Bartok: Sonata for 2 Pianos & Percussion
Pianos: Stephen Emmerson & Roy Howat
Percussion: Vanessa Tomlinson & Brent Miller

The article we noticed:-

New for Contemporary Music Review and online now on Taylor and Francis Online:

On Listening: A Universe of Sound Vanessa Tomlinson Pages: 1-10

 

 

Musicians, If you are from Kirklees and Aged 16-25 ... a Competition

Young Musicians! Are you from the Kirklees Metropolitan Area?

2018 Contest!

We received a leaflet from The Kirklees Young Musician of the Year Contest 2018.  It takes place in Huddersfield on Sunday 18 February 2018.  Entries must be submitted by Saturday 11 November 2017.

You must be aged 16-25, born or resident in the Kirklees area.

More info at their website:- http://www.mrssunderlandfestival.com/