Music Library Exhibit – Jazz at NIU

Hello! My name is Danielle Spalenka, and I am the Curator at the NIU Regional History Center and University Archives. I am happy to be a guest blogger and to announce that a new exhibit has been installed in the Music Library. The exhibit celebrates the legacy of Jazz at Northern Illinois University and features photographs from the University Archives. The images will be on display for the rest of the spring semester.

Shortly after the jazz program began in 1969, a number of legendary jazz artists made appearances with the jazz ensemble in concerts, clinics, and recording sessions. The photos displayed in this exhibit highlight just a few of the jazz dignitaries that have visited campus in the past four decades. Be sure to stop in and see the image of jazz pianist Marian McPartland in 1972 with Ron Modell, the founding director of the NIU jazz program. You will also see images of jazz drummer Louis Bellson (a northern Illinois native) receiving an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from NIU in 1985. And finally, photos from Duke Ellington’s final public performance – which took place in what is now the Ellington Ballroom at NIU – are on display.

Duke Ellington's final public performance, 1974.

To learn more about the history of the NIU jazz program, or to find other jazz legends that have visited campus over the years, be sure to visit the NIU Regional History Center located on the 4^th floor of Founders Memorial Library. You can also search for materials related to the jazz program on the Northern Illinois University Regional History Center and University Archives website.

Thanks again to the Michael Duffy and the Music Library for letting us display these wonderful photographs for the remainder of the Spring 2014 semester! 

John Cage Centennial Exhibit in the NIU Music Library

The Music Library just installed an exhibit to mark John Cage's centennial year. Here is the text from the main exhibit label:

John Cage Centennial

September 5, 2012 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912-1992). This exhibit showcases some of the NIU Music Library’s holdings of Cage-related material. More holdings on John Cage can be found by searching the library catalog, and more information can be found at the New York Public Library’s online exhibit, “John Cage Unbound: A Living Archive,” available at http://exhibitions.nypl.org/johncage/, and John Cage’s official website at http://johncage.org/.

Music Library Exhibit: "Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated"

The situation of Western Art Music in contemporary culture has long been a topic of both cocktail conversation and more recently, book-length academic musing. Is "classical music" dead? Has it been irretrievably marginalized, the rarified province of a few? Or is art music actually as healthy as ever? Defenders, apologists, and the occasional naysayer are all weighing in. Can classical music really be in danger of disappearing through neglect--or have our habits changed as patrons and consumers? This exhibit displays several recent books on the subject, as well as items which signal the ascendent role of the internet in the propagation of art music today.

Music Library Exhibit: Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto turns 100!

On his first tour in the United States, Sergei Rachmaninoff gave the first performance of his Third Piano Concerto, op. 30, on November 28, 1909, with the New York Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Walter Damrosch. The initial critical response to the work was not exclusively positive. Over time, this work has developed a reputation as a very difficult masterpiece. It has been recorded many pianists, including Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz, Van Cliburn, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Andre Watts. As would be expected, these pianists have recorded their own interpretations of the work. Some have performed the work with cuts, including the composer himself.

This exhibit displays some of the materials related to Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto from the collection of the Northern Illinois University Music Library.
For more information, you might choose to consult the following sources:

Huscher, Phillip. “Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Program Notes – Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 3.” Chicago Symphony Orchestra, http://www.cso.org/main.taf?p=5,5,7,8 (accessed November 4, 2009).

Martyn, Barrie. Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor. Aldershot, Hants, England: Scholar Press, 1990.

Norris, Geoffrey. "Rachmaninoff, Serge." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/50146 (accessed November 4, 2009).

Piggot, Patrick. Rachmaninov Orchestral Music. BBC Music Guides. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1974.

A recording via streaming audio (Naxos Music Library) of this performance of Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto (this link goes to the NIU Libraries catalog record for the recording) with Bernd Glemser and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antoni Wit, is available online, restricted to NIU Libraries users.

Olivier Messiaen Centennial Exhibit

If you are in the Music Library, please feel free to check out our exhibit on Olivier Messiaen. December 10, 2008, will mark the 100th birthday of the French composer. He enjoyed a reputation during his life as one of the major composers of the Twentieth Century, and this reputation continues.

If you would like to read more about Olivier Messiaen, please consult the article in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, available online:

Paul Griffiths. "Messiaen, Olivier." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/18497 (accessed October 17, 2008).

You may also search for articles about Messiaen in the International Index to Music Periodicals, RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, or The Music Index. Finally, our collection of books on Messiaen can be found by searching the NIU Library catalog for “messiaen, olivier” as a subject.