Smith College has proposed consolidating its performing arts library into its main library

Smith College, a private women's liberal arts college in Northampton, Massachusetts, has proposed eliminating its renowned Werner Josten Performing Arts Library and consolidating its collection into its William Allan Neilson Library (its main library). See the College's "Proposed Budget Reduction Plan", and particularly the section on libraries. This has, not surprisingly, generated quite a conversation on MLA-L, the Music Library Association's e-mail discussion list. Smith College students have set up a Facebook group (Save Smith College's Josten Library) and a blog (Don't Shelve Josten) in protest of this development.

Terry Riley's In C will be performed at Carnegie Hall on April 24

Read Jason Victor Serinus's interview with Terry Riley and David Harrington about the history of In C on PlaybillArts, entitled "A Stoned Mozart? Terry Riley and David Harrington Discuss In C". The article ends with an announcement of the upcoming Carnegie Hall performance.

Rodgers and Hammerstein songs have new rights holder

See Patrick Healy's article, "Rodgers and Hammerstein Catalog Sold" in The New York Times yesterday.

Steve Reich wins the Pulitzer prize for Music

According to the Web site for the Pulitzer Prizes, today Steve Reich was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer prize for music, for his composition, Double Sextet.

YouTube Symphony Orchestra

Assembling an orchestra of musicians scattered all over the world for a live performance via YouTube is quite an endeavor. Michael Tilson Thomas did just that for a performance at Carnegie Hall yesterday. Read Anthony Tommasini's review for The New York Times here.

NIU Music Library acquires recording by Mark Ponzo

The NIU Music Library has acquired The Trumpet Music of Verne Reynolds (Mark Masters 4843-MCD) by Mark Ponzo, professor of trumpet in the Northern Illinois University School of Music. It is available under call no. MUB CDisc. M3.1.R496 T7 2006.

Glenn Gould and recording technology

Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times wrote an interesting column on April 6 about Glenn Gould and his vision of how technology would transform how consumers experience music. I saw this in Arts & Letters Daily.

New book of source material in the music of the United States

The Music Library recently received Judith Tick's compilation, Music in the USA: A Documentary Companion, with Paul Beaudoin, assistant editor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). This is a broad collection of source writings on American music from 1540 to 2000. It is illustrated, and its subject range is wide. The compilation begins with a sixteenth-century account of Native American music in present-day New Mexico and ends with Shawn Fanning's (of Napster) testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

This book is shelved under call no. MUX ML200 .M89 2008.