I came across this miniature book, Duke Ellington Remembered: New York Notes, by Whitney Balliett, and thought it perfect for a miniature blog post. It is by far the tiniest book in the Music Library. Balliett (1926-2007) was a journalist and jazz critic who wrote for a number of publications, including for the New Yorker under famed editor William Shawn. His essays on jazz and jazz musicians have been collected into a number of monographs, many of which are available in the Stanford Libraries.
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Over the past year this blog has covered a wide variety of piano roll topics: conjoined rolls, archival storage issues, publication dates, illustrations on rolls, piano roll lending libraries, Welte-Mignon at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and Hupfeld piano rolls. Many thoughtful comments from members of the player piano and mechanical music communities came to us through email, blog comments, or in-person visits during our listening parties.
For your browsing pleasure, we present the following list of new scores added to composer complete editions, historical sets, and facsimiles:
Modern editions
Bach, C.P.E. Einführungsmusiken V / Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach ; edited by Anja Morgenstern.
Buxtehude. The collected works / Dieterich Buxtehude ; [Kerala J. Snyder, general editor].
v. 10. Sacred works for five voices and instruments, part 1 : membra Jesu nostri ;
v. 11. Sacred works for five voices and instruments, part 2 [vocal works]
Cantiones sacrae : 1575 / Thomas Tallis & William Byrd ; transcribed and edited by John Milsom.
Elgar. Short orchestral works. Elgar complete edition, vol. 23.
Pachelbel. Ingressus II / Johann Pachelbel ; herausgegeben von Katharina Larissa Paech.
Porter. Kiss Me, Kate.
Now available through Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound: individually cataloged Ludwig Hupfeld piano rolls from the Denis Condon Collection of Reproducing Pianos and Rolls. Find all of these rolls in our online catalog.
On September 2nd, 2015, I had the great privilege of conducting an oral history interview with John Chowning, Professor Emeritus at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). Chowning, a pioneer in the world of computer music, is perhaps best known as the inventor of Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis. His discovery was eventually licensed to Yamaha who integrated it into a number of instruments, most importantly, the DX7, the world’s first mass-produced digital synthesizer, released in 1983. The DX7 is generally regarded as one of the most important musical instrument inventions of the past 50 years, and was widely adopted by artists across multiple genres in the 1980s. My interview with Chowning is now available via the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR). Chowning and I principally sat down to discuss Leon Theremin’s visit to Stanford in 1991, which Chowning organized and oversaw. Stanford University Libraries recently digitize video footage of this visit which included a day long symposium at CCRMA and an evening concert in Frost Amphiteatre at which Theremin, Max Mathews, and many other notable figures from the world of electronic and computer music at the time performed. However, Professor Chowning and I also discussed additional topics including Chowning's background in computer music, his history at Stanford and the inception of CCRMA, and his close personal and professional relationship with Max Mathews.
The most visually striking part of a Welte-Mignon purple seal roll is its colorful leader. Seen below, it proudly displays the various awards that the company received from fairs and exhibitions around the world.
This includes the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), held in San Francisco to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal and demonstrate San Francisco’s recovery from its 1906 earthquake. Held from February 20 - December 4, 1915, the fair welcomed over 18 million visitors in the current Marina District of San Francisco. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the PPIE, which the Bay Area celebrated with events and exhibits throughout 2015.
What was the role of Welte-Mignon at the PPIE? Did the company have its own exhibit? Could visitors watch the perforation of new rolls, learn about the recording process, or just enjoy a musical demonstration?
Work on the Player Piano Project (PPP) continues at an impressive pace. Recent achievements include the completed cataloging, by Project cataloger Alyssa Hislop, of the Welte Mignon rolls in the Denis Condon Collection of Reproducing Pianos and Rolls, which can now be viewed in Searchworks; a full house at the project’s listening party last Friday; and most recently the launch of a subproject entitled the Piano Roll Scanner Project (PRSP). The PRSP formally marks the start of the digitization phase of the PPP.
Music librarians from across California descended on the stately Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale at the end of October for our annual chapter meeting. Presentations were given on a variety of current topics over two full meeting days. Topics included: a survey of student attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge of copyright as it affects music performance and study; how to develop a chamber music collection with strategic purchases; an introduction to the Center for New Music in San Francisco; creating a thematic catalog using Filemaker Pro; an introduction to the Women’s Song collection at UC Davis; progress on a longitudinal study of first-year music major information literacy skills; and a presentation on the nuts and bolts of the music appraisal business.
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