Elliott Carter dies at 103

I was sad to hear about the death of Elliott Carter last Monday. He was a living legend and a link to the roots of the canon of Western art music. Allan Kozinn wrote Carter's obituary in the New York Times, published on Monday, November 5.

More discussion of the cause of Beethoven's death

As reported by James Barron in the New York Times, Ludwig van Beethoven may not have died from lead poisoning. The lead poisoning hypotheses has been widely reported for several years.

Musical roundup from the New York Times

I read several interesting articles from the New York Times this morning as I checked my Google Reader account. All of these articles were published in April 2010, and I recommend them for your reading.

Several notable personalities died this month, as seen in the obituaries for critics Mike Zwerin (by Mark McDonald), Gene Lees (by Peter Keepnews), and Alan Rich (by Allan Kozinn); and Afro-Cuban singer Graciela Peréz-Gutierrez (by Ben Ratliff).

The eruption from Eyjafjallajökull volcano made the news for its disruption of airline travel earlier this month. Daniel Wakin reports on how this phenomenon affected several musical performance schedules in his article, "Europe's Cloud of Ash Casts Pall Over World of Music."

Musicologist Richard Taruskin wrote an interesting piece on the Russian-ness of Igor Stravinsky in response to the New York Philharmonic's festival, "The Russian Stravinsky."

Finally, Dave Itzkoff reported on conductor Leonard Slatkin's decision to withdraw from his scheduled performances of Verdi's La Traviata with the Metropolitan Opera.

Earl Wild Obituary

Allan Kozinn's obituary of pianist Earl Wild was published in the New York Times on January 23. Wild was 94.

New Manuscripts to be added to the Juilliard Manuscript Collection

James Oestreich reported the acquisition of two important sources for the Juilliard Manuscript Collection in his article "Beethoven and Mendelssohn’s Scribbles for the Ages Enhance Juilliard Trove" in yesterday's New York Times. The manuscripts from the Juilliard Manuscript Collection that have been digitized are available for study on its Web site.

Article on Pandora Radio

Guido's Hand, the blog of the Oberlin Conservatory Library, posted a link to an article by Rob Walker in the New York Times Magazine entitled, "The Song Decoders." This article documents the history of Pandora Radio and process used by the Music Genome Project to classify music.

28-year old Gustavo Dudamel takes over leadership of the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Anthony Tommasini reviews Gustavo Dudamel's first performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the New York Times.

Mary Travers dies

Mary Travers, known as "Mary" of the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, has died at the age of 72. See her obituary in the New York Times, by William Grimes.

Two obituaries

Within a week, the music world saw the passing of two prominent figures. Click here to see the New York Times obituaries of folk singer Mike Seeger, by Ben Sisario, and solid body electric guitar inventor Les Paul, by Jon Pareles, respectively.

New York Times article on textbook rental

In the course of my blog reading, I came across an article by Miguel Helft in the New York Times on the Chegg textbook rental service, posted on the Library Stuff blog. This looks like it could be an economical solution for students.

New York Philharmonic Historical Data now available online

The New York Philharmonic has launched a new Web site that will allow users to search for historical data about the orchestra. You can read Daniel J. Wakin's article in the New York Times, "Philharmonic Puts Its History by the Numbers Online," here. Thanks to Kirstin Dougan of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for bringing attention to this article by posting about it as well.

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.

A Discussion of Bel Canto

Here is an interesting article on the term "Bel Canto":

Bel Canto: Audiences Love It, but What Is It? by Anthony Tommasini (New York Times, November 28, 2008).

Lists of Recent Recordings

If you are looking for lists of critically acclaimed recordings, here are several:

The Year In Jazz: Best CDs Of 2008 by Gary Walker. (NPR.org)

'World Cafe' Picks 2008's Top 10 CDs by David Dye. (NPR.org)

Holiday Gift Guide: Classical Music by Vivien Schweitzer, James R. Oestreich, Anthony Tommasini and Allan Kozinn. (New York Times)

Holiday Gift Guide: Pop and Jazz by Jon Pareles, Ben Ratliff and Jon Caramanica. (New York Times)

Digitized Medieval Manuscripts

I read today on Guido's Hand, the blog of the Oberlin Conservatory Library, a syndicated article by John Tagliabue from the New York Times entitled, "Bringing a Trove of Medieval Manuscripts Online for the Ages." This article describes the
"Codices Electronici Sangallenses," or Digital Abbey Library of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Currently, this database contains 144 digitized manuscripts, with updates added continually. There are links to this database from the NIU Libraries History and Library Science pages.

Historical recordings released on compact disc

I saw a reference to the New York Times article, "Classical Ghosts, Audible Once Again" by Daniel Wakin in today's Arts and Letters Daily. The article describes the discovery of a large collection of wax cylinders recorded by Julius Block from the dawn of the recording age, over one hundred years ago, and plans to release selections from this collection on compact disc.

Hard Times for Professional Music Organizations

According to Daniel J. Wakin's story, "Bracing for Bad Days, Operas and Orchestras Batten Down Hatches," in today's New York Times, professional music organizations are cutting back in response to our current financial crisis.