Blog topic: Music

The Stanford East Asia Library has recently obtained a small collection of Japanese manuscripts used in the Buddhist ritual practice of kōshiki 講式. Most of the manuscripts are from the 17th-19th centuries, but the oldest is believed to date to 1304 CE.

The following titles have been added to the Music Library Reference Room.  In no particular order:

Latin American classical composers : a biographical dictionary / [edited by] Martha Furman Schleifer and Gary Galván (3rd ed.)

El legado musical griego en España : manuscritos griegos de música bizantina en bibliotecas españolas / Paraskevi Gatsioufa.

The encyclöpedia of heavy metal / Daniel Bukszpan ; foreword by Ronnie James Dio.

Carl Maria von Weber, 6 Lieder und Gesänge, op. 66

Memorial Library of Music, MLM 1141

Guest blogger: David Wilson

Carl Maria von Weber is remembered today primarily for his opera Der Freischütz, almost to the exclusion of all else. Yet Weber was, in fact, a prolific, and widely respected composer—even Chopin, a notoriously cantankerous critic of other composers, admired Weber’s work. His compositional output includes several symphonies, chamber music, piano music, and dozens of art songs. While a few of the examples of this latter category are still performed today, many of Weber’s songs are almost completely unknown to contemporary audiences.