Monthly Archives: August 2012

Hundreds of Jazz LPs (vinyls, 33 1/3s) being catalogued this summer!!!

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Many of you know Scott Kingsley as a Montreal jazz bass player and grad. student at McGill.  This summer he has been helping the Music Library staff go through its large collection of jazz LPs preparing cataloguing information so everyone can have access to these important resources.  We just noticed that Scott is about to reach the 2,000 LPs mark – and so we thought we should tell you how to browse this collection in the library catalogue.

Of course, you can look up your favourite jazz artist(s) in the classic catalogue and find cds, dvds, LPs and even some 78s.  But if you want to get a sense of the “big picture” and you are keen to use slightly more sophisticated searching techniques, here is one approach:

In the classic catalogue, go to the advanced search tab.

  1. Under “select field” choose “textural call number” and type in “LP.”
  2. Under “select field” choose “keyword” and type “jazz”
  3. Under “location” choose “Marvin Duchow Music Library” from the drop-down box.
  4. Under “type of material” choose “Recorded Music.”

Once you find what you are looking for you can listen to LPs in the MDML or if you have a turntable at home you can borrow them and listen there.

Scott says he has been finding some pretty interesting recordings this summer.  Come by and see if you agree.

 

 

 

 

Repair into Rare!!!

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All summer long Marvin Duchow Music Library (MDML) staff and student assistants have been working their way through the repair shelves.  They have been located in the technical services area on the third floor and have held score and book collections in need of repair… or so we thought.  Many of the “to-be-repaired” items were actually materials that should have gone into MDML storage or MDML Rare Book and Special Collections.  Additionally, a fair number of the books have been digitized and are available on the following websites:

  • Gallica
  • Hathi Trust (be sure to log in)
  • Internet Archive
As of today, the repair shelves are empty.  Soon they will be used for sorting other collections…stay tuned!!!

 

 

Music laptops have Final Cut Pro X update!

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The specialized music software MAC laptops have recently been updated with drivers for the Canon XF 100 and XF 305 HD video cameras. Importing video from the cameras directly into Final Cut Pro X is now possible. Please note that the MAC desktops in the Music Student Computer Room still run Final Cut Pro 7, so the import process is different on those machines.

To import your video clips into Final Cut Pro X, follow these steps:

1. Open Final Cut Pro X.

2. Connect the CompactFlash card to the laptop. (Either use the USB card-reader, or the USB cable to connect the camera directly)

3. Click “Import from Camera” from the file menu or upper left browser window.

4. Select which clips you want to import.

  • To import all clips: Without selecting any clip, click the Import All button.
  • To import multiple clips: Select desired clips and click the Import Selected button.
  • To import only part of a clip: Click and drag the thumbnail to highlight the portion of the clip to import and click the Import Selected button.

5. In the window that appears, select the event to which the imported clips will be added.

  • Change the transcoding, video and audio settings as necessary.

6. Click the Import button.

7. Close the Camera Import window.

8. Safely eject the CompactFlash card from the laptop by either dragging the CompactFlash card’s icon to the trash, or clicking the eject symbol next to its icon.

 

Questions about importing videos to Final Cut?  Please consult a full-time Music Library staff member: http://www.mcgill.ca/library/library-using/branches/music-library/staff/

Unfortunately, due to staffing limitation, we can only respond to questions about these procedures from members of the McGill community.

Summer Archival Project!

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Hi there!

If you’ve been in and out of Music Library this summer, you might have wondered, who is that girl sequestered behind the old information desk and why on earth is she surrounded by mounds of paper, boxes, photographs and old sketches of what look like compositions? Or perhaps you might not have wondered at all! 😉 Either way, that girl is me… Michaela. I am a Masters student in opera and voice performance at McGill University. And I have been spending my summer at the Library, thanks to a Young Canada Works Grant,  working on a special project for the MDML.

"Look at those beauties!"

Full colour facsimile of 14th century Squarcialupi Codex (1992 re-print) and an ORIGINAL mid-18th century printed edition of G.F. Händel’s Judas Maccabaeus!!! Photo credit: Owen Egan

 

Over the past couple of months, I have been sorting through the personal and professional papers, photographs, sketches, scores and literary writings, etc. of celebrated, Montreal-based musicians and former McGill faculty members, Paul Pedersen, Kelsey Jones and Donald Mackey.

This special project has given me an inside look into the lives and careers of these accomplished musical figures. More importantly, working on this project has shown me the great importance of the preservation of our Canadian artists’ works and the context in which they were created. The archival protection of these collections, along with the creation of detailed finding aids, will ensure future scholars have access to information about these key figures as they write the history of post-WWII music in Canada.

We are so excited, the finding aids are almost complete! Soon we will be able to post information about these amazing collections on our new blog, facebook and twitter pages, so please stay tuned!

Looking for music theoretical treatises?

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When looking for music theoretical texts, translations, and secondary literature about theorists and their writings, Music Library staff frequently recommend the following sources:

Music theory from Boethius to Zarlino : a bibliography and guide / by C. Matthew Balensuela and David Russell Williams.

AND

Music theory from Zarlino to Schenker : a bibliography and guide / by David Damschroder and David Russell Williams.