January 2019 Archives

Oral History of American Music is happy to announce a new research guide entitled “An African American Studies Critical Guide to Oral History of American Music.” This guide was created by Clara Wilson-Hawkins, PhD ’21, in fulfillment of a research fellowship through Yale’s Department of African-American Studies. It highlights the voices of people of color represented in OHAM’s oral histories, with a focus on African American figures and music, as well as those whose work has been influenced by and/or shaped African American music from the early twentieth century through today. The interview listings are arranged and cross-reference by genre, and link to transcript tables of contents whenever available. Requests for transcripts and streaming audio may be made through the guide, or from OHAM’s primary research guide. 

When Yale was established in 1701, its founders took for granted that it was an institution by and for men. It remained so for a very long time, but women had begun to make an impact well before co-education finally came to Yale College in 1969. The School of Music, which was established in 1894, admitted women from its inception; by the early 20th century, they made up about half of its students.

The Music Library's latest exhibit (Feb 25th - Apr 30th 2019), Musical Daughters of Eli: Women Pioneers at Yale, highlights just a few of the many women who have blazed trails in music at Yale. Some of them made music as performers or composers, while others were active behind the scenes, building institutions as administrators or philanthropists. These women were not always welcomed, but they persisted, and they accomplished great things. The exhibit will feature a variety of materials, such as music manuscripts by two early composers (including one of the first African-American students at the School of Music), a book based on the dissertation of one of the first women to earn the Ph.D. in music history at Yale, concert programs by the Yale Glee Club during its transition to co-education, and a Yale Daily News article about a performance by New Blue (pictured here in 1973), Yale’s first female a cappella group. At the Music Library, we take special pride in our first head librarian, Eva Judd O’Meara, as well as Vivian Perlis, a music librarian who founded Oral History of American Music.

An online version of this exhibition is also available. 

Each year the Music Library subscribes to a number of databases so that music students and faculty have free access to online scores, recordings, video, books, and articles. This article highlights a couple of databases that feature contemporary music.

BabelScores, based in France, promotes contemporary music from the past few decades. The composers are international, though there is an emphasis on composers from Europe. Users may browse by composer name or date, or search by performing forces, publisher, world region, and technical difficulty. Yale users have access to online scores (over 130,000 pages) and streaming audio. 

DRAM is a non-profit resource for streaming audio at CD-quality. At the heart of DRAM lies a diverse catalog of American music previously published by New World Records and CRI. In addition, DRAM provides access to the archives of 42 independent labels, such as Albany and New Haven’s own Firehouse 12. DRAM is an important source of contemporary music and jazz, as well as music of America’s historical past. It is easy to browse by composer, performers, ensembles, instruments, and record labels, or to search within these categories as well as by album title, work title, or track title. DRAM also reproduces complete liner notes for the recordings, which provide information on the creation of the works and performances.

We’d like to know what you think of these databases – send us your comments!

Oral History of American Music (OHAM) was delighted to recently welcome students from the New Haven Academy, a nearby public high school. This year, the theme of their studies is “The American Experience." The students came to the Music Library to learn about OHAM and its documentation of major figures in American music.  Since most teenagers are experts at social media, OHAM invited them to study some interview transcripts and recommend excerpts for OHAM's Instagram and Facebook.  OHAM staff expect to post these excerpts in the weeks ahead.

While Charles Ives is known mostly as a composer, he was also a successful life insurance agent. He and Julian Myrick started their own life insurance agency in 1907, “Ives and Myrick”, which was owned by Mutual Life Insurance Company. Ives held firm beliefs about the purpose and value of life insurance. Although he was rather reserved, Ives played an active role in training their insurance agents.

The AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company Papers Related to Charles Ives, were transferred to the Gilmore Music Library from the AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company archives in 2018. The newly processed collection contains correspondence, company memos, and insurance documents. Also included are programs, biographical information, clippings and press releases. Of particular interest is Charles Ives' own life insurance policy, and training materials that Ives created for his employees. The collection is now open for research.

A trial for a Chinese language database, Modern Chinese Books Database 中国近代华文书籍数据库, has been set up for Yale University users from now to March 31, 2019. The database has been added to the Library’s Chinese studies research guide. Since the access is controlled by Yale IP ranges, you must login Yale VPN first to get access from off-campus locations. User’s guide is available.

The database includes more than 120,000 books published in Mainland China during the period of 1900-1949. The digital contents will be eventually expanded to more than 150,000 from more than 40 major libraries in China. The subjects covered not only the humanistic and social sciences, but also sciences and technology.

Please feel free to contact Michael Meng, Librarian for Chinese Studies, if you have any questions about the trial.

Faculty, students and staff are invited to a presentation on the upcoming renovation of the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Library on Wednesday, Jan. 23, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., in the Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall. Project architects will show designs for the space, and librarians will share a proposal for the content, organization and management of the library’s post-renovation collection.

“The proposed design and collections have been based on extensive research into the habits and preferences of Bass library users,” said Assessment Librarian Sarah Tudesco, chair of the planning committee. “As we approach key decision points, we are excited to share our plans with faculty, students and staff for any additional comments and questions."

The goal of the project is to expand study space in Bass, a popular destination for Yale College students. Since two new colleges opened in August 2017, the number of undergraduates at Yale has grown, for a total increase of 800 students by fall 2019.

On Jan. 23, Providence-based DBVW Architects will show a proposed design that will increase the library’s current 365 seats by at least 20 percent and reconfigure the layout to include more individual study spaces. Shelving will be reduced to make room for seating and to let natural light from the courtyards reach more of the upper level.

The Bass collection currently holds about 150,000 items, including scholarly works related to the undergraduate curriculum, English-language literature, graphic novels, DVDs and audiobooks. The renovation will reduce the collection to about 40 percent of its current size. DVDs and audiobooks—formats with declining use—will be integrated into university library collections as appropriate. Books removed from Bass will be integrated into the collection held in Sterling Memorial Library’s stack tower.

Going forward, the collection in Bass will be developed, arranged and presented with the goal of encouraging students to explore and engage with the materials. The upper level will showcase specialized collections, such as graphic novels, and themed displays of books related to a current topic or issue.  Faculty, students, and librarians will be invited to develop sub-collections related to a specific course, subject area or intellectual concept, with related events and programming. The lower level will house a dynamic, high-use collection of newer books.

“A library collection is essentially a conversation between the library and its users,” Tudesco said. “We are excited about the opportunities to partner with faculty and students to make the Bass collection more dynamic and interactive.”

Last year, before design work began, the library commissioned a study of how the campus community uses and perceives Bass. The study revealed that students choose Bass primarily to work on class assignments rather than to access the collection. While valuing the communal study experience at Bass, students showed a strong preference for carrels and other individual study spaces that limit visual distraction. Faculty responses to the study, on the other hand, focused on the prospect of changing the collection, expressing concern that students would have fewer opportunities to make serendipitous discoveries while browsing in the stacks.

“We have worked hard to address the interests and issues raised by the research,” Tudesco said. “We are eager to present the proposals to the campus community on Jan. 23 and receive as much feedback as possible.”

Construction is scheduled to begin after Commencement with a goal of finishing by year end. Planning is now under way for the temporary relocation of course reserves, equipment borrowing, scan-and-deliver and other Bass services during construction. Ongoing project updates will be posted at guides.library.yale.edu/bass2019. Questions about the Jan. 23 meeting may be addressed to sarah.tudesco@yale.edu.

A mad scientist steals the dreams of children in Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's The City of Lost Children. Described as a "macabre fairy tale" (Steven Rea), a "dark phantasmagoria" (Peter Stack), and "a fable of longing and danger" (Kevin Thomas), The City of Lost Children gave Ron Perlman his first leading film role and features music by Angelo Badalamenti and costumes by Jean-Paul Gaultier. 35mm print from the Yale Film Archive.

Visit the event page.

Time/Date:
2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17

Location:
Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium
53 Wall Street
New Haven, CT

What is Treasures from the Yale Film Archive?
Treasures from the Yale Film Archive is an ongoing series of classic and contemporary films in 35mm curated by the Yale Film Study Center and screened at the Whitney Humanities Center.