New Music Databases

The library added 10 new music databases this week! These databases contain streaming music files, videos, scores, discographies, and musician biographies, as well as more traditional reference materials. They cover a variety of genres from throughout time and around the world, from medieval motets and early american folk music to jazz and hip-hop. There are also databases specifically devoted to dance and opera. Basically, no matter your musical tastes or academic interest, you can find something in these new databases.

One of the most interesting new databases to me is Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries. This database contains streaming music from the Smithsonian's Folkways Recordings, which collects diverse, traditional musical forms from around the world. It also contains music from archives in Africa and Asia.

Music students and faculty will probably find a lot to use in the Classical Scores Library. This database contains over 45,000 scores. They include everything from individual instrumental parts to full orchestral arrangements. They are presented in an easy-to read format and can be printed.

Halloween in the Library's Catalog

With Halloween in just a few days, I thought it would be interesting to see what I would find if I just searched "Halloween" in the library's catalog.  The result is 72 hits with various items such as cookbooks, videos, films, histories of hoaxes and other historical accounts of gruesome happenings, as well as children's books and math exercises using literature.  One particular hit is that of a musical offering: Sabla Tolo II by Hossam Ramz which includes a piece called, "Halloween".

This item is streaming sound file through which patrons may simply open up the record and listen to a song by clicking on the name of the piece. 

The song, "Halloween", is nothing like we would imagine a song entitled "Halloween" to sound like - no screeching cats, claps of thunder, or howling ghosts.
Give it try; click here to listen.