Celebrate the arrival of Kirill Petrenko as the new conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. His inaugural concert with the orchestra, conducting the Lulu suite by Berg and the Symphony no. 9 by Beethoven is now available in the Archive
Author Archives: Suzanne Bratt
CCM Library elevator access restored
Stairs-free Access to CCM Library–Directions
While the elevator not working, library patrons may be interested in knowing if there is an alternative way of reaching the CCM Library from CCM without having to negotiate flights of stairs or steep inclines. Here is a tested route (printable pdf):
- In CCM, on level 3, go to the elevator opposite the Bauer Room. (From the Atrium, go left of the Box Office, then right down the corridor. The elevator is a short way down on the right).
- Take the elevator to the P3 level of the CCM Garage and enter the garage.
- Turn left and leave the CCM Garage via the small single-lane entrance. Go across Backstage Drive to the dropped-curb path opposite.
- Either take the steps up to the door into the Dyer’s Complex (CECH) or over to the left there is a ramp leading up to that door. Entering Dyer’s Complex, you will be on level 1.
- Go straight down the hallway until you come to elevators on your left. Take the elevator up to level 4.
- Leaving the elevator, turn left and go to the end of the hallway. Either take the half-flight of steps down or take the elevator found over to the right down to level 4L.
(NB: the elevator can be slow). - Exit the Dyer’s Complex through the exit on the left and go toward Blegen Library.
- Turn left up the ramp to enter Blegen Library on the 4th floor.
- When you enter Blegen, you will see the Classics Department office directly in front of you. Go across the lobby, then to the left of the office and around to the right behind it, where you find a short corridor. (At the entrance to this corridor, a sign points to the Archives and Rare Books Library.) Blegen’s south elevator is at the end of this corridor.
Call the CCM Library Circulation Desk (513-556-1966). A student working at the Desk will come down the south elevator and give you access to the CCM Library on the 6th floor
Music in the Gorno Library Fri. April 20, 2018
Join us Fri. April 20 at 1:30 PM in the Gorno Library for a concert of songs by Henri Duparc performed by members of the Collaborative Piano Seminar in conjunction with the Special Topics Voice students. View program (pdf). The event is free and open to all.
About the concert:
Henri Duparc (1848 – 1933) is a unique composer in that his entire international reputation rests upon the sixteen songs for one voice and piano as well as the solitary duet for two voices and piano. These songs were composed between 1868 and 1884. He chose to orchestrate some of them for symphonic concert performances in the following decade but failed to compose anything new for the remainder of his life. This phenomenon was caused by a neurasthenic condition that struck in the mid 1880’s and consistently worsened as the decades went by.
He was very strongly influenced by César Franck’s teaching in his productive decades and it was Franck who encouraged him to make pilgrimages to Munich and Bayreuth in order to hear the Wagner operas not being presented in Paris. The unstable chromatic harmonies of Franck and Wagner are clearly audible in some of the more mature songs. From at least two of the songs, it would appear Duparc was also familiar with the darker influences of Edgar Allan Poe’s world of the macabre.
When taken as a whole, this limited output contains a surprisingly broad variety of songs and at least two of which (to poems of Baudelaire) count among the greatest merging of poet and composer in the history of French song.
Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall is back!
Access to Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall is restored. UC patrons now have two options: “Direct Access” or to “Login” by creating a personal account that will enable additional features like playlists and email notifications. BOTH OPTIONS WORK for UC patrons. Please contact Jenny Doctor (jenny.doctor@uc.edu) or Paul Cauthen (paul.cauthen@uc.edu) with any questions or comments.
Oxford Music Online interface has changed
No. You are not suffering from sleep deprivation or over-study. As of Dec. 7, the Oxford Music Online interface has changed. First observation: works lists are integrated into the main article (no more “works” tab). To navigate to a works list, use the outline in the left column. It is going to take time for all of us to adjust. If there is something you are sure must be there, but you simply cannot find now, please contact one of the music librarians, and we will do our best to assist: Jenny Doctor: jenny.doctor@uc.edu or Paul Cauthen: paul.cauthen@uc.edu.
Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall trial has ended
Our trial access to Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall has ended. Please send us your final thoughts as soon as possible so that we may begin the process of securing permanent funding! Please contact Jenny Doctor (jenny.doctor@uc.edu) or Paul Cauthen (paul.cauthen@uc.edu).
Finding Music Materials in the Music Library
By its very nature music can be a challenge to find in any organized space, not just the music library. The Library has two guides that we hope will help make your searches for music in our library easier and more often successful. In the menu of our Library Guides they are Finding Music Materials and How to Use Online Catalog.
And as always, feel free to ask our library staff for assistance whenever you have a question or for help finding anything you need or are looking for in our Library.
Beethoven’s “Life Mask” now in the Gorno Memorial Music Library
The Gorno Memorial Music Library is delighted that a woodcut, dating from 18 December 1920, of Beethoven’s “Life Mask” by August Becker (1878–1942), German artist and Holzschneider, now hangs in the north end of the Reading Room. This work was presumably prepared in celebration of Beethoven’s 150th birthday celebrations, which had occurred two days before its creation.
As Professor Emeritus Edward Nowacki observes: “The image is Beethoven’s life mask surrounded with laurel leaves painted in gold with the motto of the Fifth Symphony across the bottom and Becker’s monogram, AB, at the top. The story of the mask is well known in the Beethoven literature. In 1812 Beethoven’s friend Andreas Streicher, a manufacturer of pianos whose showroom was decorated with portraits of composers, commissioned the sculptor Franz Klein to create a bust of the composer. As a preliminary step, Klein asked Beethoven to sit for a plaster casting of his face. Midway through the sitting Beethoven panicked and tore off the cast before it had set. The sculptor then persuaded him to permit a second attempt, which was successful. The bronze bust made from this cast is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is considered the most accurate likeness of the adult Beethoven, and several artists have made their own images based on it.”
The woodcut is part of the University of Cincinnati’s Fine Arts Collection. It hung in the offices of the College-Conservatory of Music since 1989, but will now reside in the Gorno Memorial Music Library.
Music in the Gorno Library Thu. April 13, 2017
Join us Thu. April 13 at 5:00 PM in the Gorno Library for a concert of sonatas for cello and piano by Beethoven and Brahms performed by Leah Plave and Fabio Menchetti. View program (pdf). The event is free and open to all.