The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland knows all about practice-based research, so it was interesting to see last week's Times Higher Education (7 March 2013) focusing on this very subject.
John Gill wrote the Leader, Untangling Creation Myths.
Matthew Reisz wrote the feature, Blurring the lines between art and research.
Nicholas Till wrote another feature, Opus versus output.
If you read THE online, there is the opportunity to comment at the end of articles, so why not join in the debate?!
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Library Treasures
'Whittaker' is looking forward to talking to some of the BA Scottish Music Students about old Scottish song collections in our own Library, on Friday this week.
If you see 'Whittaker' (aka Karen) staggering under a HUGE PILE of old music books on the way to class, smile indulgently and try not to bump into her. We do have quite a lot of Scottish song collections, and her challenge is to talk about as many of them as she can fit into an hour!
(She's also struggling with her two identities: a librarian who knows quite a bit about Scottish music. If she wasn't a librarian, she wouldn't be talking about them. If she didn't know about Scottish music, she couldn't say as much!)
Part of being a subject librarian is engaging with staff and students on our various courses, sharing information about what the Whittaker Library can offer, and how we can help. Course-leaders at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland are encouraged to invite us to come and speak to classes whenever we can be of assistance. Don't hesitate to ask us - it's one of best bits of the job!
(She's also struggling with her two identities: a librarian who knows quite a bit about Scottish music. If she wasn't a librarian, she wouldn't be talking about them. If she didn't know about Scottish music, she couldn't say as much!)
Part of being a subject librarian is engaging with staff and students on our various courses, sharing information about what the Whittaker Library can offer, and how we can help. Course-leaders at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland are encouraged to invite us to come and speak to classes whenever we can be of assistance. Don't hesitate to ask us - it's one of best bits of the job!
Monday, 11 March 2013
String Quartet Opportunity - but Hurry!
Barbican/Guildhall Creative Learning offers the opportunity for conservatoire-level string quartets to participate in a masterclass with Britten Sinfonia Lab.
29 Apr 10.30am - 5.30pm, Chat's Palace
1 May 10.30am - 5.30pm, Chat's Palace
4 May 10am - 1pm, Barbican Hall
Britten's String Quartet no.2 is the work being studied. For more info on how to apply, visit this link.
Deadline for applications: 12pm on Thursday 14 March 2013.
29 Apr 10.30am - 5.30pm, Chat's Palace
1 May 10.30am - 5.30pm, Chat's Palace
4 May 10am - 1pm, Barbican Hall
Britten's String Quartet no.2 is the work being studied. For more info on how to apply, visit this link.
Deadline for applications: 12pm on Thursday 14 March 2013.
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Musica Scotica Sat 27 April 2013 (Edinburgh)
Researching Scottish music - any aspect of it? The Musica Scotica annual conference is in Edinburgh this year, hosted by the Open University in Scotland. We have a great bunch of speakers and a very varied programme covering many different angles.
Date: Saturday 27 April
Fee:
Fee:
Full Day to include lunch,
morning and afternoon tea/coffee: £40
Full
Day (as above) Student Rate: £30
Morning or afternoon
session to include tea/coffee, but not lunch: £15
The registration form is available, at:-
Friday, 8 March 2013
96 years ago, before there was an International Women's Day
Whittaker is sorting through a donation, and encountered Rev H. R. Haweis' book, Music and Morals. Intrigued, we glanced at the contents page. The heading, 'People who play the piano' looked interesting. Are pianists more or less moral than other folk?
"Most young ladies play the piano as an accomplishment. A girl's education is as much based on the pianoforte as a boy's is on the Latin grammar, and too often with similar results." [...] " ... the piano makes a girl sit upright and pay attention to details ..."No, it's not being added to stock. Good to know that times have changed a bit, though! See my earlier posting, today.
Portfolio Careers (article spotted in the Guardian this week)
This came up via the Culture Professionals Network:-
Join the Guardian Culture Professionals Network to be advised of interesting articles, events, etc."Portfolio careers in the arts: one part pain, two parts pleasure
"Can the sum of your jobs make up more than the whole?
Rachel Nelken weighs up the pros and cons of portfolio working" Read the article here.
The Musical Times has a blog!
'Whittaker' discovered this link whilst checking a bibliographical detail ...
http://themusicaltimes.blogspot.co.uk/
Of course, staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland can also consult back copies of Musical Times on JSTOR.
International Women's Day in the Performing Arts
'Whittaker', being a performing arts library, wishes to commemorate International Women's Day as it particularly affects the performing arts. Do share any relevant links with us!
Here's the first - on the UN Women website, we find the One Woman Song.
Glasgow Women's Library is up early today with a blogpost by Magi. (Not, admittedly, performing arts, but certainly women and libraries.)
The Musicians' Union posts details of the Women of the World music festival on Sunday 9th March, here.
Have you come across Women in Music? It's a national organisation: http://www.womeninmusic.org.uk/
There's also an International Alliance for Women in Music:
http://iawm.org/
If you tweet, you might like to follow the #EverydaySexism hashtag, a project which was featured by the BBC a couple of days ago.
There's a London Concert for International Women's Day: the London Oriana Choir has a concert of music by women composers, at St Andrews Holborn tonight:-
http://www.londonoriana.com/current-season/
What's missing from this list? Drama and theatre! Please share any relevant links!
India Today features TV star Toral Rasputra aka Anandi of Balika Vadhu, telling us what International Women's Day means to her. Read it here.
Meanwhile, Bollywood salutes the spirit of women, in the Indian Express today. Here ...
At 9.45 pm on a Friday night, a good blogger doesn't just arbitrarily stop blogging. Three cheers for the collective of researchers at the University of Sussex, who this evening notified me of their Reframing Activism blog. Today they were highlighting the British Library's first oral history archive of the early days of feminism: Sisterhood and After. Not content with one good blogpost today, they also hosted a guest blogpost by film-maker, actor and musician Jodi Nelson: Feminist Social Media Praxis. Jodi was asked a provocative question: "re_activism:What do you think the 21st century feminist looks likes?"
Here's the first - on the UN Women website, we find the One Woman Song.
Glasgow Women's Library is up early today with a blogpost by Magi. (Not, admittedly, performing arts, but certainly women and libraries.)
Have you come across Women in Music? It's a national organisation: http://www.womeninmusic.org.uk/
http://iawm.org/
If you tweet, you might like to follow the #EverydaySexism hashtag, a project which was featured by the BBC a couple of days ago.
There's a London Concert for International Women's Day: the London Oriana Choir has a concert of music by women composers, at St Andrews Holborn tonight:-
http://www.londonoriana.com/current-season/
What's missing from this list? Drama and theatre! Please share any relevant links!
India Today features TV star Toral Rasputra aka Anandi of Balika Vadhu, telling us what International Women's Day means to her. Read it here.
Meanwhile, Bollywood salutes the spirit of women, in the Indian Express today. Here ...
At 9.45 pm on a Friday night, a good blogger doesn't just arbitrarily stop blogging. Three cheers for the collective of researchers at the University of Sussex, who this evening notified me of their Reframing Activism blog. Today they were highlighting the British Library's first oral history archive of the early days of feminism: Sisterhood and After. Not content with one good blogpost today, they also hosted a guest blogpost by film-maker, actor and musician Jodi Nelson: Feminist Social Media Praxis. Jodi was asked a provocative question: "re_activism:What do you think the 21st century feminist looks likes?"
Thursday, 7 March 2013
Gaelic names of Pibrochs : Concise Dictionary edited by Roderick D. Cannon
Gaelic names of pibrochs: Concise Dictionary
A very useful resource - uploaded February 2013. You'll find it here, on Ross Anderson's webpages.*
Now, there is also another document by Roderick Cannon, on the National Library of Scotland website. Don't be confused - it looks the same, but it's not! Headed, "Gaelic names of Piobearachds" online, the article is actually entitled 'Gaelic names of pibrochs' - just like the new concise dictionary. Barnaby Brown says that it is 'a companion publication, very different', and advises us that the Concise Dictionary complements the classification article. Here is the article.
* It's worth noting that Ross Anderson's website is extensive (to say the least); pipers will find a plethora of useful bagpipe information there, at www.piob.info.
Accordina profiled in Box and Fiddle this month
Said to be favoured by jazz and trad musicians alike ... introducing ....
'Whittaker' had never heard of an Accordina before. This is not the accordion, oh dear me no.
Find out more about this intriguing wind and free reed instrument on the Joseph Carrel website, or come and read Box and Fiddle for March 2013, where there's more about it, and details of a UK dealer.
The Accordina
'Whittaker' had never heard of an Accordina before. This is not the accordion, oh dear me no.Find out more about this intriguing wind and free reed instrument on the Joseph Carrel website, or come and read Box and Fiddle for March 2013, where there's more about it, and details of a UK dealer.
Performing arts links for all!
In the past week, 'Whittaker' has shared performing arts links on a talk about
Tannahill (the Paisley songwriter); costume
design; accordions; film music; a cover feature on Les Sirenes; and Signing music for the hearing impaired.
Read on!
Les Sirenes Hit Headlines
Winning Choir of the Year, our own Les Sirenes - under the baton of Director Andrew Nunn - have made it onto the front cover of Choir and Organ magazine (March/April 2013), and there's an article about them on pages 68-70.The latest issue is in the Whittaker Library - not available for loan yet, but do take a look next time you're in the Library!
Our thanks to Andrew for alerting us to this excellent article.
http://www.sirenes.co.uk/
Choir of the Year - Grand Final, on YouTube
Les Sirenes on Twitter
Monday, 4 March 2013
Fred Freeman - Recordings of Burns and Tannahill Songs
We have all three of his Tannahill recordings in the Whittaker Library - see here.
We also have his Robert Burns recordings - see here.
If you're interested in the old music publications that Fred referred to, we commend Geor Thomson's Scottish songbooks and R. A. Smith's Scotish Minstrel books, of which we have examples in our Special Collections. See our catalogue!
oooooooooOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo
Another scholar who has worked on Tannahill's poetic contribution is Jim Ferguson, whose PhD at the University of Glasgow was a study of Tannahill's correspondence. You can read this online, here:-
Ferguson, Jim (2011) - A weaver in wartime: a biographical study and the letters of Paisley weaver-poet Robert Tannahill (1774-1810). PhD thesis.
Signing concerts for the hearing impaired
The New York Times recently published a piece about signing for the hearing impaired, at the last night of the 2012 Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. Read more here.
This is of particular interest to us, since we are strongly committed to working with hearing impaired people. The Conservatoire and Solar Bear Theatre Company have just appointed three deaf theatre apprentices - it's the first project of its kind in the UK and is funded through Creative Scotland’s Talent Hub.
This is of particular interest to us, since we are strongly committed to working with hearing impaired people. The Conservatoire and Solar Bear Theatre Company have just appointed three deaf theatre apprentices - it's the first project of its kind in the UK and is funded through Creative Scotland’s Talent Hub.
Friday, 1 March 2013
19th Century Costume Design Website
Historical Sewing
Costume designers at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland might like to explore this website, offering instruction in designing and making 19th century costumes:-
http://historicalsewing.com/tutorials
Accordion Jokes From Bibliolore
Sorry, folks - these have to be shared!
Bibliolore is the blog posted by a music bibliography service called RILM. Genius with a light touch!
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Online Trials of LGBT Videos
"LGBT Studies in Video is a cinematic survey of the lives of lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual people and the cultural and political evolution of the LGBT community. This first-of-its-kind collection features award-winning documentaries, interviews, archival footage, and select feature films exploring LGBT history, gay culture and subcultures, civil rights, marriage equality, LGBT families, AIDS, transgender issues, religious perspectives on homosexuality, global comparative experiences, and other topics. The collection will have cross-disciplinary relevance beyond LGBT courses, serving research and teaching in different academic and performance fields. The plan is to expand the collection to 500 hours in the not too distant future."
Please make use of this while we have access to it. Do let Drama and Dance Librarian Alan Jones know what you think of it - you'll find his details on the Whittaker Library website.
Online Trials of Drama and Dance Resources
A Free In-House Trial for staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - use it now and let us know what you think of it!
Theatre in Video
From today through 13th March 2013, all students and staff may access Theatre in Video here. (The trial can only be accessed on-site.)
"Theatre in Video contains hundreds of the world’s most important plays and video documentaries online in streaming video. For the first time, students, instructors, and researchers can bookmark specific scenes, monologues, and staging examples and then include those online links in their papers and course dissertations. Theatre In Video contains more than 250 definitive performances of the world's leading plays, together with more than 100 film documentaries, online in streaming video - more than 500 hours in all, representing hundreds of leading playwrights, actors and directors.
This release includes 265 videos, equalling approximately 338 hours."
Dance in Video
From today through 13th March 2013, all students, faculty, and staff may access Dance in Video here.
"Dance in Video is the definitive video collection for the study of 20th Century concert dance, featuring the most influential performers and companies together with dozens of documentaries, interviews, and dance instruction videos. The collection provides coverage in breadth and depth for modern dance forms, and is relevant to dance history, dance analysis, dance instruction. It includes an overview of 20th Century concert dance, including the forerunners and pioneers of modern dance, covering ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental, and improvisation; an invaluable resource as dance is an inherently visual medium."
To get started, take a look at these custom playlists that feature samples of some of the great content included in this collection: Great Tappers, Partner dances, and CRWDSPCR.
These collections can be cross searched with all of our other video collections via video.alexanderstreet.com
Now that you're connected, please let us know what you think about it. Email Alan Jones, our Drama and Dance Librarian via the Library website.
Make use of it while it is there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)