Graduating this summer..?

If you're a music student graduating this year you're most likely coming to the end of your written exams this week. We hope they went well and that you'll be able to enjoy your last couple of weeks as undergraduates!

Before you disappear for the summer please make sure you've returned all your books, scores and recordings to the library and that you've paid off all of your library fines. Otherwise you may not be able to graduate, which would be a shame after having put in so much work over the last 3 years...

You can pay off fines owed to a Bodleian Library in any Bodleian lending library.

If you have lost something don't worry, just let us know as soon as possible and we can sort it out.

Don't forget to use up any PCAS credit you have left if you don't think you'll be coming back to the Bodleian Libraries to use the printers or photocopier any time in the next 2 years. Refunds are not available but credit can be transferred to another account if requested. Email: pcas@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. It can also be used to pay for Bodleian Library Postal Photocopying orders that can be requested by anyone, from anywhere in the world.

And finally, good luck to those of you doing recitals! I'll look forward to coming along to hear some of them!

JM

Comb binding at the MFL

Since submission deadlines are fast approaching, this seems like a good time to remind you that the Bodleian Music Faculty Library offers a comb binding service. A4 (£2 per copy) and A3 (£3 per copy) binding is available. It is not necessary to book an appointment and we can bind while you wait. However, when bringing your submissions to the library for binding, please be aware of the following:

• We can only bind submissions between 9am and 5pm during our fully staffed hours.
• If the submission is A3 and portrait it may take us a little bit longer so please allow plenty of time and we may ask you to leave it with us and come back to collect it later.
• On submission days we can be very busy and there is often a queue for binding. In order to avoid undue stress, please ensure that you allow at least an hour for binding if you're coming into the library in the morning on deadline day.

And remember: 

• If you're intending to print a declaration form in the library you'll need to have a PCAS account with some credit on it.
• You'll need a large envelope and a small envelope to place your work and declaration form in respectively.
• You need to know your candidate number. If you don't know what it is, it's a good idea to find out what it is in advance of deadline day.
• Don't put your name on your work!

Good luck!

JM

Changes to SOLO: improvements to display of records and clustering.

Over the weekend of the 28th-29th July, as a result of feedback from readers, several improvements to SOLO were implemented. The most significant of these from a musical perspective is the alteration to the way that SOLO clusters search results

Before these recent developments SOLO would cluster materials that it considered to be versions of the same work into 1 search result, regardless of their format. This is a very useful feature for books as it means that all editions of the same book are clustered together, making what might otherwise be a very long list of results appear much shorter. However, for a musical work it became a little confusing as SOLO would group both scores and sound recordings into one cluster, often making what was available somewhat unclear.

As a result of the changes that were implemented over the weekend, SOLO will now exclude early printed books (pre-1830), maps, music and audio-visual items from the clustering so that they will be visible in the main results list, separate from any clustered records.

Other changes to SOLO include the consolidation of the 'Request' and 'Locations' tabs into a single 'Find & Request' tab, which has streamlined the requesting process.

In addition to this, it is now possible to limit searches to 'Physical Resources (not online)' in the dropdown menu next to the main search box. Further information about all of the changes to SOLO can be found here.

We think the new features make searching for music scores and sound recordings much easier, do you? We'd welcome any feedback.

JMcP

Happy Birthday Percy!

Today marks the 146th birthday of the little-known Anglo-German composer Percy Sherwood (1866-1939). Having languished in obscurity since the First World War, his music is now being rediscovered and two recordings have been released in the last few weeks, drawing upon sources in the Bodleian Library, which holds virtually all his surviving manuscripts.

Born in Dresden on 23rd May 1866, Sherwood’s father (John) was a university lecturer in English and his mother a singer (Auguste Koch). Percy studied piano and composition at the Dresden Conservatoire under Bertrand Roth and Felix Draeske respectively and subsequently taught there, rising to a Professorship in 1893.

He was evidently well-regarded as a pianist, composer and conductor and, during the course of his life composed five symphonies, concertos for piano, violin and cello, a significant body of chamber music and a prize-winning Requiem, along with smaller-scale piano pieces. Some of the piano and chamber music was published in Germany towards the end of the 19th century and in the early years of the 20th.

Finding himself in England with his family at the outbreak of war in 1914, Sherwood was unable to return to Germany and remained in this country until his death on 15th May 1939, just a few months before the outbreak of the Second World War. The successful career he had enjoyed in pre-war Germany was not to be continued in England and he seems to have vanished almost without trace. Living in Hampstead, he devoted himself to more composing and teaching including, for a while, weekly visits to Oxford and Cambridge. However, his music – lyrical, passionate and firmly in the late-romantic tradition – was out of step with contemporary trends and performances, if any, would have been few and far between.

Sadly, not all his music has survived but virtually all the known extant manuscripts are now in the Bodleian and have attracted the attention of several scholars and performers in the last couple of years. The recent recordings are of the 2nd Piano Concerto, played by Hiroaki Takenouchi with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Martin Yates (http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7287) and the complete music for cello and piano, played by Joseph Spooner and David Owen Norris (http://www.toccataclassics.com/cddetail.php?CN=TOCC0145).  It is to be hoped that they will begin to draw attention to a musical voice which has been silent for too long and bring to Percy Sherwood the recognition he deserves.

MH

JSTOR Arts & Sciences VIII now available

We are pleased to announce that we now have access to the JSTOR e-journal package 'Arts and Sciences VIII'.  This includes several key music titles, including Musica Disciplina, Music Perception, College Music Symposium and Music and the Moving Image. For a full list of the titles included in A&S VIII click here.

Don’t forget that JSTOR’s coverage is primarily retrospective and we have access to many other titles, including current issues, from other publishers. Always check the title list in OU e-Journals or SOLO.

MH

Haydn à l’anglaise

Next time you are heading for Duke Humfrey’s Library, do spare a moment to look at the latest display in the Proscholium exhibition case. Haydn à l’anglaise explores the way in which Haydn’s two collections of Lieder, published by Artaria in Vienna in 1781 and 1784 respectively, reached England and how London publishers sought to capitalise on the popularity of Haydn’s music which had taken England by storm, even before the composer’s first visit to this country in 1791.

English versions of Haydn’s two original sets of Lieder were produced, the first adapted by William Shield to English poetry by a number of different named English poets in his collection of ‘Twelve ballads’, published by Longman & Broderip in 1786. Versions of the second set of Lieder were published in an anonymous collection of 1789. In many cases, the English words bore little or no relationship to their German originals.

There was evidently a market for the music of the composer whom the London press had dubbed ‘the Shakespeare of Music’. The 24 original songs proved to be not enough for the musical public so, in order to satisfy the demands of the amateur market, the London publishers turned to Haydn’s instrumental music and set words to tunes from the string quartets and symphonies which were widely played in this country at the time. Two such collections appeared, in 1787 and 1789, one arranged by the eminent English composer, Samuel Arnold. The opposite process also took place and the composer, Thomas Haigh, who had received lessons from Haydn on his first visit to England, turned some of Haydn’s songs into keyboard pieces.

The Proscholium display includes early English editions of Haydn’s songs and related works, and a couple of autograph manuscripts from the Bodleian’s collections. It also features the fine portrait of the 67-year-old composer by the young artist Johann Carl Rössler (1775-1845) which formerly belonged to Mendelssohn but now normally hangs in the Bate Collection in the Faculty of Music. The exhibition is designed to illustrate a lecture being given by Dr Derek McCulloch on 30th March and a short concert by his ensemble Caf€ Mozart, featuring some of the music which they have recently recorded on a CD, also entitled Haydn à l’anglaise. The exhibition runs until 8th April.

MH

Easter vacation borrowing

Books and scores taken out of the library from Monday 5th March onwards will be due back on Tuesday 24th April. Plan your vacation work early to make sure you get all of the books you need!


Short Loan books needed for the Easter break?


We need to keep one copy of all Short Loan Collection books here for the vacation so that people who stay in Oxford have access to the whole collection.  However, you CAN take Short Loan items if there are two copies of the item that you need on the shelf.  From Friday of 8th week, 9th March, duplicated Short Loan books will be available for loan until Friday 20th April (Week 0).  You will need to bring two copies of the book you want to the library counter to prove that there’s a spare to leave on the shelf.  There’s usually a bit of a rush, so come early if you want to take one of the “doubles” available. 


You will need to be here in person if you want to do this; you may not just renew online a Short Loan that you have already borrowed. Don’t despair if there is only a single copy left on Friday morning.  By Saturday (we’re open 10am till 1pm), all two day Short Loans will have to have been returned and often you can harvest a "double” on the Saturday.


Easter vacation opening hours:


12th - 16th March:         9:00am - 5:00pm
19th March - 4th April:   9:30am - 4:30pm 
**** 5th - 15th April:     CLOSED ****
16th - 20th April:           9:00am - 5:00pm


JMcP