Inaugural Lenore Coral Memorial Lecture a success

In addition to Prof. Will’s wide-ranging and thought provoking talk, which I will not try to encapsulate here (except to note that he makes an interesting preliminary stab at problematizing Taruskin’s construction of “modernism” in 20th century performance practice), David Yearsley gave a generous introduction explaining the reasoning behind the Lenore Coral Memorial Lectures. He said that each lecture will feature a distinguished Cornell alumnus, and the lectures were named for Lenore because of her unstinting support for graduate music education at Cornell. She served as an adviser, as director of graduate studies, and for many years as chair of the musicology colloquium series. Yearsley also noted the Lenore Coral Festschrift, “Music, Libraries and the Academy (A-R Editions, 2007) edited by Jim Cassaro. Most flattering for us in the music library (and for her) he described her active role in the redesign of Lincoln Hall, making it into a “music library with a music school around it,”  which Yearsley noted was just fine with him.

Music Lib. Blog progress

Thus far, we’re getting Music Library staff started on the whole blogging idea. We’re working on ideas for content, including CD reviews, discussions of new audio and video formats, news in the music library, staff news, and musical staff participation in outside musical events. Also, I’ve got some learning to do in order to make the whole “moderation” process easier for myself; I have no interest in having to OK every post multiple times before it’s added to the list.

Other music library developments in no particular order:

• The inaugural Lenore Coral Memorial Lecture will be given today by Cornell alumnus Richard Will.  Prof. Will will deliver a talk entitled “Mozart’s _Topoi_ in Performance” in LH 124at 4:15 pm (the usual colloquium time and place.)

• Ken Fung, music tech. services supervisor extraordinaire, will be playing with the Petits Violons de Cornell, participating in the “Harequin’s Capers” performance, Sunday, Nov. 19, 3:00 at Bailey Hall.

• Cataloging of the Stasolla gift of mainly-Capitol LPs from the 50s-60s is progressing faster than we anticipated. Many thanks to Cayenna Ponchione for keeping up with the physical processing of these items. Given what I’ve been cataloging lately, I foresee Cornell becoming a 21st-century center for the study of Jackie Gleason’s musical output; what with the whole interest in space age lounge music, imagine the possibility of articles on e.g. Gleason’s appropriation of the sitar and tabla for his “Music for Today’s Lovers” project… :-). In all seriousness, we now have a large and growing trove of LPs that will interest practically anyone with a research interest in American popular music, from Dixieland to commercial folk groups like The New Seekers and The Kingston Trio, along with a substantial chunk or Frank Sinatra’s recorded output and unreleased live recordings, radio checks, and alternate takes.

Thanks for setting up the blog

This is a great idea, and I hope it works!

Welcome to the Cornell Music Library blog…

This should be a forum for announcements relating to the Music Library, reviews and review/essays of new (and older) Library materials of interest, and upcoming events. Also, I’d like the Music Library staff and possibly students in the Music Department to drive content and use this as a resource for news about the Music Library.