American Popular Song Sheet Covers, 1890-1922 December 4, 2008

The American Popular Song Sheet Covers collection can be found at the New York Public Library.  This collection came to the library from the estate of George Goodwin, a radio station director.  The collection contains over 400,000 sheet music covers with 4,000 of them digitized and available online.

The collection is arranged so that the user can browse by year of publication or search by keyword.  Once you click on an item of interest, you have the option to enlarge the image or print.  You may click through each page of the sheet music to view before printing.  There are also image details attached to each music cover that gives information, such as the composer, year of publication, and brief description of the condition.

American Variety Stage December 4, 2008

The American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress has many diverse digital collections.  The American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment 1870-1920 takes a look at the popular form of entertainment that took America by storm around the turn of the 20th century.  This collection is comprised of numerous multimedia holdings that include motion pictures, photographs, sound recordings, playscripts, and playbills.  There is also a portion of the collection devoted to Harry Houdini.

The collection is set up where the user can search the collection by keyword or browse by author or subject.  The collection contains many interesting things, such as the playbill for Ziegfeld Follies in 1914. Each section of the collection is given special attention, and background information is provided.  Also within each section, the collections are divided by subject.  If the user is looking for something on a particular subject, this makes it easy to locate.

Within the collection of motion pictures, the user can click on a specific picture.  Once the motion picture is brought up, the site gives further information about the picture itself, such as plot summary, when and where it was filmed, and other facts of interest.  This collection provides a great resource to the public that is interested in turn-of-the-century entertainment.

The Willard Suitcase Exhibit December 4, 2008

This digital collection has to be the most heart-felt collection I have run across.  Although I have been trying to stick with digital collections pertaining to music, this one begged to be written about.  The Willard Suitcase Exhibit is based on the contents found in suitcases that were brought to the Willard Psychiatric Center in  New York when the patients were first checked in.  When the center closed in 1995, some of the staff members wanted to save the historical artifacts that were left behind.  They found over 400 suitcases tucked away in the attic that were lined up alphabetically with tags identifying to whom they belonged.  They chose 9 different people and tell their stories to bring awareness to mental disorders.  The original exhibit was made possible by the van Amerigen Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.  The display has been made into a traveling exhibit entitled: The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic.

The online exhibit does a wonderful job of capturing the essence by giving the background of the project and the institution.  The stories are told of all 9 patients they chose; however, due to privacy reasons they only give the person’s first name and patient number.  This is a very heartbreaking exhibit, because many of the patients did not have any mental disorder but were instead sent there for various other reasons.  This exhibit will make you appreciate the differences in the society where we live today.

Joseph Muller Collection of Music and Other Portraits December 3, 2008

The Joseph Muller Collection of Music and Other Portraits can be found at the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.  This collection includes thousands of images that date between the 16th century and the early 20th century.  Most of the engravings and lithographs within the collection are of musicians and composers; however, there are some images of other famous persons that include actors, politicians, and nobility.

Joseph Muller (1877?-1939) was a violin student that studied at the Brussels Conservatory under the direction of Alexandre Cornélis. He began his collection due to his interest in music.  He travelled the world buying up prints from different dealers.  In 1934, Muller joined the staff at the Music Division in an attempt to strengthen the iconography department.  Through the efforts of Carlton Sprague Smith, Joseph Muller bequeathed his private collection to the Music Division at NYPL upon his death in 1939, where it was incorporated into a separate collection in 1940.

The collection that he amassed is astounding.  Although all of the items have not been digitized at this point, there are currently 4,907 items on display.  The collection is divided by the individual names.  The names are listed alphabetically, so that the user can scroll down to the desired portrait or can just browse.  After clicking on an individual name, a separate page pops up that contains all of the portraits of that particular person.  For instance, when I click on John Field, four portraits are displayed.  However, when I click on Franz Joseph Haydn, a total of 71 images are displayed.  Also there is a search box, so that the user may enter a particular person of interest.

Mozart’s Musical Diary December 2, 2008

The British Library has developed an interactive collection of several great masterpieces of literature and other works.  As part of their great collection known as Turning the Pages, they have included Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Thematic Catalogue.  This catalogue includes a brief description of each piece of music that he wrote along with the beginning measures so that the reader may identify the music.  One of the reasons that this collection is so great is that not only do they provide the entire catalogue in digital format that allows the reader to “turn the pages,” but they also include an excerpt of the music that is found on each page, a translation of the text on the page, and audio that gives in-depth historical background of the music that is found on each page. In addition to those aspects, the site also includes a magnify option.  Once this option is chosen, a “magnifying lens” appears on the screen, and the reader can drag the magnifying lens to any portion of the page.

This resource is one of the most fascinating that I have ever seen.  It is absolutely incredible to see the actual handwriting of a great composer, but with the extra bells and whistles that the British Library have attached to the collection it makes this collection a very enriching experience for any music lover.  For those not particularly interested in music, they have other additional digital works, including Lewis Carroll’s original copy of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground and the Diamond Sutra, which is the oldest dated, printed book from A.D. 868.

Inventions of Note December 2, 2008

Inventions of Note is a sheet music collection that was established in 1997 as part of the Lewis Music Library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  This collection is a very unusual collection of sheet music, because all of the music that it contains is about inventions, such as telephones, airplanes, and automobiles.  The collection was funded by the MIT Council for the Arts.  Most of the collection dates from 1890 to 1920 and is popular music of that time period.  The collection contains approximately 50 pieces of music that are in PDF format but has links to the Levy Sheet Music Collection at Johns Hopkins University, the Music of the Nation collection at the Library of Congress, and the Sam DeVincent Collection at the Smithsonian Institute.  All of these collections contain music about inventions in the United States.

The collection is set up so that the user can either browse the collection or can scan an alphabetical list of titles.  I was a little disappointed that I could not find a search option.  Also, there are a couple of pieces of music that have an audio recording as well as the PDF of the sheet music.  There is a helpful section that tells the user how to print the music and download the audio recordings, if they need help.  Although the collection is small, the uniqueness of it makes it very valuable along with links to other similar collections.

Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collection November 28, 2008

The Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collection is maintained by the Louisiana Digital Library and contains photographs, audio recordings, and musical instruments that pertain to jazz.  The main focus of the collection is New Orleans Jazz.  The photographs and audio recordings are primarily of jazz musicians in New Orleans that traveled throughout the United States.  The musical instruments are those that belonged to these musicians.  The collection is part of a project entitled LaGumbo: A Recipe for Empowerment that is an effort to provide resources to those students K-12.  However, other students can greatly benefit from this collection.

The collection is set up where the user can browse the collection by subject, creator, or title.  The user can click on each group and browse the collection or can search by keyword.  One of the many great items in this collection is a recording of Weatherbird by Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines from 1928.  The recording is a broadcast of the New Orleans Jazz Club Radio Program in 1977.  There are also numerous photographs that are interesting that feature the musicians that are known for making New Orleans Jazz famous.  This is a great resource for anyone interested in Jazz.

The Leonard Bernstein Collection November 28, 2008

The Leonard Bernstein Collection is part of the massive American Memory Collection from the Library of Congress.  The physical collection contains over 400,000 items that amass the greatest variety of any collection from the Library of Congress.  The online portion of this collection contains 85 photographs, 177 scripts from the Young People’s Concerts, 74 scripts from the Thursday Evening Previews, and over 1,100 pieces of correspondence.

The collection of photographs are divided into years based on periods in the composer’s life; the first photograph was taken when he was around 3 years old, and the last was taken three years before he died.  Each photograph has a date and a brief description of the photograph. 

From 1958-72, Bernstein gave a series of lecture-recitals with the purpose of educating children on music and how to become good listeners.  These concerts were known as the Young People’s Concerts.  In the collection, there are 177 scripts that include a handwritten copy and what has been determined as the final script (or close to it). 

The 74 scripts from the Thursday Evening Previews, also include a handwritten copy and a typed copy.  The Thursday Evening Previews was a series that Bernstein began as an informal talk before the concerts of the New York Philharmonic.  These talks were used to inform the audience of the composer’s lives, the composer’s compositional style, and other aspects of the music.

The correspondence that is available online is only a small portion of the 15,500 pieces of correspondence that is available at the Library of Congress physical collection.  The selection of correspondence that is available online was written between 1932-1990 and is mainly correspondence from family members; his piano teacher and assistant, Helen Coates; the composer, Aaron Copland; and conductor, Serge Koussevitzky. 

This collection provides great insight into the life of Leonard Bernstein.  This is an excellent resource for research papers or simply for personal enrichment.  This collection is well-rounded and reminds the visitors that this is a work in progress.  They plan to make everything available online, eventually.  A finding aid is provided to make the user’s research easier.  Also, there is a list of publications by Leonard Bernstein and publications about him.

Piano 300-An Exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute November 28, 2008

Piano 300: Celebrating Three Centuries of People and Pianos was an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute from March 9, 2000 to October 21, 2001.  Although this exhibit is no longer on display, the exhibit information and photos are still available at the Smithsonian website. 

The exhibit was opened in order to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the piano.  Before entering the exhibit, a timeline is given of important dates in the history of the piano, and a music booth is provided with short excerpts of music throughout the years.  Twenty-five pianos were on display; pictures of those pianos are available at the website.  Along with the photos, there is a brief walk through the history associated with each piano.  A list of other resources is also available on the website.

This is an excellent site for piano teachers to use for their piano students.  In addition, this would also be a great site for music appreciation students.  The site gives the history of the piano and provides numerous photos for the visitor to see the evolution of the piano through the years.  I would highly recommend this site to anyone interested in learning more about the piano.

The Mutopia Project November 28, 2008

The Mutopia Project was brought to my attention by Dr. Martens at the beginning of the semester, and I had forgotten about it until recently when I was trying to decide what to blog about. This website offers free sheet music that can be downloaded and printed out for several instruments: Piano, Voice, Guitar, Violin, and Organ, to name a few. As of this writing, they have 1496 pieces of music available.  The site is constantly adding new pieces, and it is open for the public to contribute as well.  They use a software called LilyPond to typeset the music.  This software is designed to make the music easier to read and better to look at.

Overall, I think that this site is a wonderful way to make music available to the public.  For those that are interested in finding a certain piece of music for a one-time occasion, this would be an excellent way to obtain the music in a relatively quick and easy way.  Also, it would be great for piano teachers to direct their students to, if they did not have the money to go out and buy a copy of the music.  The files are available as PDF, so you could save the music on your computer and come back to it at a later date.

However, there are a couple of major drawbacks to a website of this kind.  First of all, the selection is limited.  Since I have a background in piano, the selection of piano music was the one section that I looked at carefully.  The selection does carry a lot of J.S. Bach’s music. However, there were only a couple of pieces available for other composers.  In addition, some pieces did not have the whole piece available.  For instance, there were some sonatas by Beethoven, where only one movement was available and not the other two.  This could become an issue if someone was relying on this site for their music.  Secondly, because several people are contributing to the site, there were differences in the quality of the editions.  Some of the pieces had fingerings, dynamics, and other markings, while some of them had none.  The quality of an edition of music is very important to the performer, so it would not be a site that could be relied on for quality music.  Overall, I think that a site that has free sheet music is perfect for an amateur musician, but for a serious musician that needs quality music, it would not be a good resource.