Blog topic: Music

KZSU Stanford students at a house on Page Mill Road, 1949

The Chuck Black Collection for Early Jazz and Blues

The Archive of Recorded Sound is developing rich collections of early and traditional jazz. In 2014 the Chuck Black Collection of 224 jazz recordings was donated to the Archive along with funds for cataloging and digitizing all of the discs. In addition, the Black family established the Chuck Black Endowment for Early Jazz and Blues to promote the study of early and traditional jazz, blues, and similar musical styles as they emerged and evolved from 1900-1950.

J.A. Bazin reed organ patent

Collection of piano, player piano, organ, and player organ patents now available

February 16, 2018
by Gurudarshan Khalsa

The Archive of Recorded Sound is happy to announce that the Strong Museum Collection (ARS-0190) of bound volumes of patents from the Aeolian Company, the Amphion Piano Player Company, and the Mason & Hamlin Piano Company is processed and is now open for research. The volumes cover piano, player piano, organ, and player organ patents filed with the United States Patent Office and the British Patent Office from 1825 to 1926. The volumes provide an extensive technical and historical overview of the inventions, innovations, and improvements in the musical instrument industry during this time period.

MLA President Mark McKnight presents the Hill award to Kevin Kishimoto and Tracey Snyder

Kevin Kishimoto wins publication award

February 7, 2018
by Ray Heigemeir

Kevin Kishimoto, Music Metadata Librarian, Stanford University Libraries, and Tracey Snyder, Music Catalog and Instruction Librarian, Cornell University Libraries, were presented with the Richard S. Hill Award for the best article on music librarianship or article of a music-bibliographic nature, at the 2018 annual meeting of the Music Library Association in Portland, Oregon.  Their article, “Popular Music in FRBR and RDA: Toward User-Friendly and Cataloger-Friendly Identification of Works,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly  54, no. 1 (2016): 60-86 is available online to the Stanford community.

Detail, CD cover of Korean People's Army Band

North Korean music, peace, propaganda

January 23, 2018
by Ray Heigemeir

The approaching XXIII Olympic Winter Games shine a spotlight on the Korean Peninsula, and the very tentative steps toward cooperation between the two Koreas in the current highly-charged political climate. Music is playing a role in that arena.

Jenny Lind paper doll set and box, ca. 1846-48

The Jenny Lind paper doll set

November 22, 2017
by Ray Heigemeir

The Jenny Lind paper doll set is a somewhat unusual and most charming recent acquisition by the Stanford Libraries. The doll, measuring just 10 cm in height, comes with costumes from eight of Lind’s notable opera roles, a “concert-toilette” (recital) gown, and five hair pieces.  The chromolithographed opera costumes may reference actual outfits worn by Lind, or, more likely, originate from the designer’s imagination. We do know that the designer took liberties with the doll’s hair color—Lind was decidedly a brunette.

Monod and his grandson (1998)

Stanford University Libraries receives music collection of Jacques-Louis Monod

The Stanford University Libraries received a collection of documents and manuscripts from the conductor, pianist, composer, and music editor, Jacques-Louis Monod. He was born at Asnières-sur-Seine, France on 25 February 1927 and, as a child prodigy, began his education at the Paris Conservatory in 1935. He studied composition principally with René Leibowitz, who was a major influence on his work, and also with composers Olivier Messiaen, Bernard Wagenaar, Boris Blacher, and Josef Rufer.

Rare music materials on display

Summer students encounter rare music

June 28, 2017
by Ray Heigemeir

It was my distinct pleasure to offer a window into Stanford Libraries’ rare music collections to students in the “Why Music Matters” course from the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institute, and performers in the St. Lawrence String Quartet’s Chamber Music Course.  We gathered in Special Collections for an up-close examination of manuscripts and early print materials, dating from 1942 (Irving Berlin’s White Christmas) all the way back to the 12th century (a sacred chant fragment).

Tchaikovsky piano concerto no. 1, complete works edition

Composers and their works

June 23, 2017
by Ray Heigemeir

The scholarly edition of the famous Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 1 just landed in my lap (ouch!), which got me thinking about the impressive publications we in the music world know as “composer complete works editions,” or, “composer collected works.” These often lavish, multi-volume sets of music scores are painstakingly produced by scholars, based on all available source material, and published over time following a pre-determined order, and as the name implies, present the complete output of a particular composer.

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