Author Archives: mj263

About mj263

Music Collections Supervisor at Cambridge University Library. Wide musical interests. Often to be found stuck in a composer's archive, or enthusing about antiquarian music.

Holidays

Posted on 10 August 2018

It’s been sticky work here at the UL over the last few weeks, especially in the non-air conditioned Anderson Room office, where even with a fan working like crazy, and most of the doors and windows open, the MusiCB3 staff … Continue reading →

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Before and after they were famous

Posted on 20 July 2018

Most musicians don’t become stars immediately. There are always exceptions – Yehudi Menuhin, who in the hideous Nazi-sponsored Encyclopedia of Jews in Music (Berlin 1940), was sarcastically labelled a “wunderkind”, the sarcasm failing woefully as he truly was a child wonder; then … Continue reading →

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Canzonette veneziane

Posted on 13 July 2018

Last October the second hand and antiquarian music dealer Travis & Emery circulated their occasional antiquarian music catalogue Sarum no. 58. One item caught my eye because in the last year or so I had updated the online records for … Continue reading →

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Song writing for beginners

Posted on 29 June 2018

Included in a batch of recent antiquarian additions to the Music Department here at the UL is a fascinating volume entitled The Melographicon (MR574.c.80.15). Published in 1826, The Melographicon claims to be “An entirely new and highly amusing musical work, by which an … Continue reading →

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I opened a box…

Posted on 1 June 2018

As has previously been mentioned on MusiCB3, my colleague Susi has, until relatively recently, been busy cataloguing some of the many concert programmes that we hold here at the UL. Those catalogued so far can be found on the Concert … Continue reading →

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Schenker Documents Online

Posted on 18 May 2018

Schenker, Dr. Heinrich, born Wisniowczyk [Galicia], 19 Jun 1868; died Vienna, 14 Jan 1935. Writer on music, composer, chief representative of the abstract music theory of Jewish philosophy that disavows the existence of any spiritual content in music, and limits … Continue reading →

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A box of parts

Posted on 11 May 2018

Sometimes, it’s only too easy to forget what a wealth of musical material we have here at the UL. I was reminded forcibly of this the other day, when a reader expressed an interest in John Marsh‘s 7th Symphony, usually … Continue reading →

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