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Mark Applebaum, Associate Professor of Composition and Theory in the Department of Music, composed The Metaphysics of Notation specifically for installation at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford. The complete work includes a full hand-drawn score (72’ in length, in twelve 6’ panels), two corresponding mobiles, and the print now hanging in the Music Library, which reproduces the entire drawn score. These physical elements provided visual information for musicians, ranging from Stanford students to seasoned professionals from around the world, to give 45 weekly public performances (Fridays at noon) from April 3, 2009 throughFebruary 26, 2010. Documents of the project include audio recordings and still photographs of every performance, and a short video and documentary DVD commissioned by the composer.

To herald the arrival at the Music Library of this beautiful work, violinist and Lecturer in Music Erik Ulman performed an excerpt from the score on Tuesday, March 1, 2011. Both composer Applebaum and performer Ulman answered questions from an appreciative audience of students, faculty and staff.

For more about the work, see the video, The Metaphysics of Notation, MDVD 1289.

There are also several performances posted on YouTube, including one by Sam Adams, and one by the Quadrophonnes.

“To please the taste of the public”

Early American Tune Books

(1761 – 1808)

Five early American tune books and one facsimile edition are on display in the Music Library through December 2012. Items include William Billings' The Singing Master's Assistant (Boston, 1781); Andrew Law's The Art of Singing (Cheshire, Conn., 1794); and, Jeremiah Ingalls' The Christian Harmony (Exeter, 1805).

Over the course of the 18^th century, congregational singing in Protestant churches suffered a slow deterioration as colonists distanced themselves from European traditions and practices. The typical call-and-response hymn singing, in which the congregation mimicked lines sung by the preacher, had devolved into a cacophony due to the congregation’s lack of vocal skill and musical training, combined with increasingly individualized interpretations of traditional European tunes, poorly remembered. In order to strengthen participation in worship, a “new” way of singing from notes, as opposed to the “old” way of singing from memory, was needed.

Enter the singing master and the singing school. The singing master was an itinerant teacher who set up schools in communities where people desired to learn to sing from printed music. This was one of few avenues for a musician to make a living at that time. Singing schools, which charged modest fees and were open to both men and women, were the first form of public music education in the fledgling United States.

That the sexes could mingle in approved communal (supervised) surroundings was a bonus for many of the younger participants. Learning music through psalm singing was also a way to cultivate a young person’s talent while at the same time saving them from the negative moral influences suspected in Italian opera music, also popular at the time.

A market for tune books, which included rudimentary music instruction and 3- and 4- part hymns, anthems, and other tunes, quickly developed. Around the turn of the 19th century, over 300 editions representing 150 titles were in circulation. Music making had become a vital part of life in the new nation. These books also represented the first flowering of indigenous American composition, including many pieces by William Billings, Andrew Law, Samuel Holyoke, and Jeremiah Ingalls.

The first part of two-part exhibition Scripting the Sacred opens today, Monday, September 17, in Green Library's Peterson Gallery and Munger Rotunda. According to its website, the exhibition features "Western European manuscripts and fragments, showcases the medieval experience of reading."

From the exhibition's website: 

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Bible remained the paradigmatic text for reading and studying. The exhibited biblical items highlight different preferences pertaining to legibility. Indeed, scribes designed manuscripts to guide, assist, and sometimes challenge readers, as medieval versions of biblical commentary and patristic works exemplify. The liturgical genres on display contain written and visual markers that instruct readers in the proper performance of the Mass, music, and specific feast days. The text portion of the liturgy helped stage the clergy's ceremonial duties. Liturgical fragments with musical notation assisted ritual actors in the memorization of stylized speech. Both components show how customized manuscripts promoted reading aloud. Miniature prayer books and books of hours demonstrate a late medieval trend toward privatized and personalized lay devotion.

Additional materials on exhibition include fine facsimiles from the Art & Architecture Library portraying the national origins of late antique and medieval scripts and illustration, fragments of ancient Egyptian papyri highlighting the gradual transition from papyrus to parchment and from scroll to codex, and a selection of codices and fragments - mainly recovered from the bindings of early printed books - from Stanford's paleography collections.

Far from being a static process, reading in the Middle Ages necessitated a dynamic relationship between manuscripts and their readers, at a much more deliberate and contemplative pace than most modern reading. As we encounter radical changes in our own digital age, this exhibit encourages us to think critically about how we interact with the text, and how these interactions condition the way we acquire knowledge.

Scripting the Sacred will be on display through January 6, 2013.