One hundred years ago in November 1909, the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland presented its 1000th free organ recital. Yes, that’s the correct number of zeroes. Starting in 1895, when the library and the music hall were built, a series of organ recitals was begun. By 1909, they had reached one thousand.
From November 6, 1895 [...]
Last time around, the Pittsburgh Symphony Book Club included a bassoon solo by the PSO’s James Rodgers and an almost hour long phone call from Vivaldi’s Virgins author Barbara Quick!
The Pittsburgh Symphony Book Club’s second session will be about the book 1791, Mozart’s Last Year by H. C. Robbins Landon. Read it and find out [...]
Recently, Kathie (illustrious manager of our Music Department) introduced me to our collection of bulletins, announcements, and programs from the Pittsburgh Musical Institute.
Among the 38 volumes of assorted stuff representing the years 1915 to 1955 is this gem of a rejection letter, from the 1948-49 school year.
If you’d like to learn more about the history of [...]
After seventeen straight losing seasons for our Pittsburgh Pirates, Benny Benack (1921-1986), we need you now. Decades ago, trumpeter Benny Benack’s Iron City Six used to play “Beat ‘Em, Bucs” at Pittsburgh Pirates games at Forbes Field. The raucous Dixieland song helped lead the Buccos to a world championship in 1960.
Okay, it [...]
Today is the birthday of one of Australia’s premier exports, Nick Cave. Cave has made his mark in many arenas: music, novels, poetry, and film, and probably a few more. His work with his band, The Bad Seeds, changed the landscape of literate rock. Their appearance in one of my favorite films of all times, [...]
In a previous post, I talked about how the clanging, banging music of Einstürzende Neubauten was the perfect soundtrack to urban living. Well, since John Keats published his sonnet “To one who has long been in city pent” in 1817, it is certainly not a new sentiment to want instead to escape the urban environment [...]
One of the most heartbreaking story types in music, film, and literature is when a character is so obsessed with a lost (i.e., dead) love that he (and it is usually a male protagonist in this situation) begins to see her take form in another living being. Three of my favorites follow.
Edgar Allan Poe’s short [...]
Recently, heavy rains and a traffic-snarling, water main break in front of the library made me think of the Sisters of Mercy album Floodland. Its songs “Flood I” and “Flood II” have brooding refrains of “and the water comes rushing over, and the water comes rushing in.” (Unfortunately, that also reminded me of [...]
In The Anatomy of Melancholy, the early 17th-century English churchman and scholar, Robert Burton, wrote:
Many Men are melancholy by hearing Musick, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth.¹
Someone like me, a fan of opera, black metal, death metal, punk, folk laments, early blues, dark ambient, etc., would have to agree.
Naturally, those who are [...]
One of the things a librarian might tell you, if you managed to ply her with a preferred libation or two while off duty, is that serendipity is one of her favorite forms of searching. Similarly, for customers, one of the favorite ways of searching is browsing our extensive shelves. Hardly a day goes by when [...]
Read Our Feed!
|
