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MUSI 29500: Honors Seminar

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This page has been created for students in the course Music 295: Honors Seminar. 

Online Audio Databases

  • Naxos Music Library  
      
    Naxos Music Library offers over 820,000 streamed audio tracks of classical music from nearly 700 different labels.
  • Music Online (Alexander Street Press)  
      
    When opening Music Online, use the "Go To" down-arrow menu to select Classical Music Library, Contemporary World Music, American Song, Jazz Music Library, Smithsonian Global Sound, and the multi-volume text source, Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, which includes numerous audio clips. Unlimited simultaneous users.
  • Classical Music Library (Part of Music Online)  
      
    Classical Music Library, which is part of Music Online by Alexander Street Press, includes over 90,000 individual tracks and nearly 6,000 full albums.
  • Contemporary World Music (Part of Music Online  
      
    Contemporary World Music, part of Music Online by Alexander Street Press, includes music from multiple regions and from every continent.
  • American Song (Part of Music Online)  
      
    American Song is a historical database featuring music from America's past. Included are songs by and about Native Americans, miners, immigrants, African slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys.
  • Jazz Music Library (Part of Music Online)  
      
    Jazz Music Library is the largest and most comprehensive collection of streamed jazz audio files available online, including thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.
  • Smithsonian Global Sound (Part of Music Online)  
      
    Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries, produced in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions.
  • DRAM (Database of Recorded American Music)  
      
    A scholarly database of 20th and 21st music, including CD quality audio, liner notes and essays from New World, Composers Recordings/CRI, and other important labels for contemporary music.
  • Internet Archive: Live Music (Free - Open Source)
    Provides high quality live concerts in a downloadable format. The Internet Archive has teamed up with etree.org to preserve and archive as many live concerts as possible for current and future listeners.

Music Collections

Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company. Collection

The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company is a Hyde Park-based theatre company devoted exclusively to performing the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. They have been in operation since 1960, generally producing one operetta annually. The collection contains a small amount of administrative material, but the bulk of the collection is comprised of set and costume designs, flyers, programs, posters, and other material pertaining to specific productions. Of particular interest are 11 set models. The collection spans the years 1960-2010, with the bulk of the material from 1980-2008.

Hyde Park Youth Symphony. Records

This is a collection of the administrative records of the Hyde Park Youth Symphony. The records of the Symphony include administrative, budget, and fund raising material arranged by year, dating back to 1983. Also included are recordings of concerts, newspaper clippings and a scrapbook of photographs and programs.

Kauder, Hugo. Papers

Hugo Kauder, composer, musician. The Hugo Kauder Papers and Addenda includes records, holograph manuscript scores, reproduced manuscript scores, and published scores. Many of the scores reproduced by blueprint process bear holograph revisions or dynamic markings in pen or pencil, and a number of scores are inscribed to Edward E. Lowinsky and his family. This collection has been assigned Codex Manuscript #1399.

Levy, Ernst. Papers

Ernst Levy (1895-1981), composer and professor of music at the University of Chicago (1951-54). Papers include musical scores and many significant written academic works, including a French manuscript of his book A Theory of Harmony. Public and biographical items include an extensive radio broadcast interview, late interest and news articles mentioning Levy and significant correspondence, biographical information, catalogs of released recordings and copies of catalogued records from European libraries.

Lincoln Collection. Sheet Music

The Lincoln Collection, Sheet Music contains sheet music relating to Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and the American nation in general during the nineteenth century. It forms a part of the William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana.

Lowinsky, Edward E. Papers

Edward Elias Lowinsky (January 12, 1908 – October 11, 1985), musicologist, served on the faculty of University of Chicago's Department of Music from 1961 until his retirement in 1976. An innovative scholar of sixteenth-century music, Lowinsky set academic and editorial standards in the field of musicology, and provoked debate and discussion that elevated the field. The collection documents Lowinsky's education and early career in Germany and Holland; his work at Black Mountain College, Queens College, University of California, and the University of Chicago; his activities with the American Musicological Society; and his family and personal life. The collection contains personal and professional correspondence, administrative records, manuscripts, scores, teaching materials, audio recordings, and photographs.

Meyer, Leonard B. Papers

Leonard B. Meyer (1918-2007), composer, author and professor of music at the University of Chicago (1946-1974). Papers include correspondence, notes and drafts for published and unpublished works, notebooks, photographs, and recordings.

Moore, James H. Papers

James H. Moore taught music at the University of Chicago from 1976 to 1984. The Papers contains Moore's correspondence, lectures and articles, publications and musical editions related to scholarly research into Venetian music and culture, research notes, teaching materials, photocopies of sacred and secular sources for the study of seventeenth-century Venetian music, audio tapes, and musical scores.

Music Relating to the University of Chicago. Records

This collection consists of sheet music and band scores for several songs featured at band events, mainly, at the University of Chicago.

Pollak, Robert. Papers

Robert Pollak, composer, music and theatre critic. The Robert Pollak Papers consist of materials relating to the faculty revels at the Quadrangle Club of the University of Chicago, including: scores, scripts, photographs, clippings, and press releases. The collection also includes clippings from Pollak's column "The Lively Arts," published in the Hyde Park Herald between 1961 and 1970.

Sheet Music. Collection

The collection consists of approximately 4,300 printed songs, folksongs, ballads, and piano music from the late 18th to the mid-20th century. The materials are predominately English and American, but the collection includes songs of other countries, some of which are in French or German. Includes the Starshack Collection of American Sheet Music and music of the Midway Minstrel, a male singing group named after the Midway in Hyde Park, Chicago.

Shortall, Harrington. Papers

Harrington Shortall (1895-1984) was a music composer and educator. Shortall studied under Nadia Boulanger, and went on to compose a diverse body of musical work. As an educator, Shortall taught at the Chicago Theological Seminary, and Rosary College. Shortall's papers contain a collection of material related to Nadia Boulanger, including correspondence; also included are teaching materials, compositions, journals and publicity material.

Song Plugger Cards. Collection

The Song Plugger Cards collection contains 55 advertising cards from Chicago and other locations in Illinois, and one from Indiana. These advertising cards were used to promote a dance, celebration or other event and included new songs lyrics on the back of the card.

Song Sheet and Broadside Poem. Collection

Contains song sheets, poems in broadside format, and lyric books. Predominantly British, but also includes a limited number of Scottish, Irish, Italian, and American items. Subjects range from the evils and benefits of drink, romance and marriage, to satirical commentary on political and social events. Many items are illustrated with vignettes or small panels representation a variety of printing techniques, such as woodcut, engraving, and lithography.

Thomson, Virgil. Papers

Virgil Thomson, composer, journalist, author. The Virgil Thomson papers consist of correspondence regarding a piece of choral music commissioned from Thomson for the seventy-fifth anniversary of the University of Chicago, an invitation and a press release (photocopies) for the event, as well as a letter to Bernard Weinberg from Virgil Thomson.

University of Chicago. Contemporary Chamber Players. Records

The Contemporary Chamber Players, a music collective based at University of Chicago, was founded in 1964 by Ralph Shapey (1921-2002), a composer and member of the university’s Department of Music. The Contemporary Chamber Players performed new works by 20th century composers, and under Shapey’s guidance became one of the nation’s premier ensembles for contemporary art music. This collection includes the ensemble's correspondence, financial records, touring information, publicity material, performance information, and audio recordings of performances.

Varro, Margit. Papers

Margit Varro (1892-1978), music teacher and author. The Papers document Varro's career as an educator and music historian, and her association with Hungarian composers Bela Bartok and Leo Weiner.

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