Stockhausen, Imbrie, Hitchcock Obituaries

All in all, Dec. 5 was a difficult day for modern music.

Two major composers passed from the scene on Dec. 5: Karlheinz Stockhausen and Andrew Imbrie. The distinguished musicologist H. Wiley Hitchcock also died at the age of 84.

Here is Imbrie’s NYT obituary (may not work for non-Cornell users) and one from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Stockhausen’s numerous obituary notices include one from the Times Online and the New York Times. A representative list of Stockhausen obituaries from newspapers and music blogs can be found here.

H. Wiley Hitchcock, past president of the American Musicological Society and a pathbreaking scholar of American music also passed away last week; his NYT obituary can be found here. Hitchcock’s official obituary from the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, provided by Warren Stewart, is posted on Stewart’s blog.

Cornell starts trial of World Pop Music database

From now to Feb. 5, 2008, the Music Library is making Alexander Street’s World Pop Music database available to all Cornell registered users on a trial basis. Please check it out at http://womu.alexanderstreet.com/ and let any of the Music Library staff know what you think.

Here’s a description from Alexander Street’s press release:

Contemporary World Music will contain 50,000 tracks that deliver the sounds of all regions from every continent. The database will contain important genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music – Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more. A complementary database to Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries – it includes a blend of contemporary and traditional world music recordings from many labels throughout the world. The focus is concentrated on contemporary genres, such as fusion and world beat.

Many of the titles are encyclopedic in their breadth of coverage. For example, The Voice of the People from the Topic label, a 20-volume series of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh traditional music, will be here in its entirety, as will be the Passage to India Series from Navras.

The first release includes 446 albums — over 6000 tracks from many labels, including: Topic, Playasound, Budamusique, Air Mail Music, Manuiti, Crossing Records, and Lyrichord World Music. Bela Lakatos & The Gypsy Youth Project, Etran Finatawa, Daby Balde, Sukke, Nuru Kane, Don Shiva, Moussa Sissoko, Musafir, Lulendo, and Yan Kadi Faso are just a few of the artists and ensembles contributing to the collection. Future additions include music from Blue Flame Records and World Music Network. Sample albums include:

Andalusian Flamenco Song & Dance
Didgeridoo-Mania
Folk music of Albania
Guinée: Chants & Percussions Des Femmes Baga (Guinea: Songs and Drums of Baga women)
Hindustani Classical Vocal: Shruti Sodolikar
Indian World Music Fusion
Vocal Music of Contemporary China, Vol. 1: The Han People
Spirit of Polynesia
Russian Balalaika Orchestra
A Taste of Ireland: Irish Traditional Music
Africa-New York
Best of Yiddish, Klezmer, and Sephardic Music- The Burning Bush

Liner notes to all the albums are included (in PDF format) as well as static URLs to each track and album in the database.

Library Staff perform with Petits Violons de Cornell

Two library staff members, Ken Fung and Dorian Bandy, will be performing with the Petits Violons de Cornell under the direction of Neal Zaslaw in a noontime concert today at 12:30 (!!) in B20 Lincoln Hall. The program will include works by Handel and Telemann.

The Music Library has laptops to loan!

The CU Library System has expanded the laptop loan program, and we have three laptops (Dells) available for use in the Music Library. They have wireless access and the same standard productivity software as our desktop workstations. They must remain in the music library; the loan period is for 3 hours (renewable); they are available on a first-come/first-served basis, as the library has no reservation system. The full policy is posted at the circulation desk. Please contact Lenora Schneller or call 5-4011 for more information.