Library closed this Saturday

The library will be closed this Saturday, 19th December. We will be open again as usual on Monday.

Christmas Opening Hours

The library will close for Christmas at lunchtime on Wednesday, 23rd December.

We will be closed Thursday, 24th December – Sunday, 3rd January, 2010.

Normal opening hours will resume at 9:30 am Monday, 4th January, 2010. 

The Library staff would like to wish all DIT staff and students a very Happy Christmas and New Year.

Virtual Manuscript of Handel’s Messiah

The British Library have added the original manuscript of Handel’s Messiah to their Turning the Pages or virtual books facility. The manuscript is accompanied by extracts from 2006 Naxos recording of the 1751 version of Messiah, as well as audio and text commentaries.

The Turning the Pages collection also contains sixteenth century manuscripts of compositions by William Byrd and Mozart’s musical diary.

Library Development

You may have noticed some building work in the library. A new facility – a quiet reference area – is being created beyond the Listening Room. Entrance is through the Listening Room.

The new facility will be for quiet study only. It will house the Reference collection, the dissertations, current and bound journals and the Bach library of the late Anne Leahy.

Structural work will finish before Christmas. Shelving and desking will be installed some weeks into the new year.

We hope you will like it.

16th century Shakespeare papers now online

The Archive of Dulwich College in London, England, which consists of the personal and professional papers of theatre-owner and impresario Philip Henslowe and his actor son-in-law Edward Alleyn has been digitised and published online. The archive includes bills, box-office receipts, scripts and prompt notes from the age of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, Middleton, Heywood, Dekker and Chettle.

The archive is available at http://www.henslowe-alleyn.org.uk/index.html. A link has also been added to our Drama Internet Links page.

An article about the archive also appeared in the Irish Times on Thursday, November 26th.

Trial Databases

The library now has trial access to the Cambridge Dictionary if Irish Biography and Project Muse. Please see below for more information.

Cambridge Dictionary of Irish  Biography

The Dictionary of Irish Biography, a collaborative project between Cambridge University Press and the Royal Irish Academy, is the most comprehensive and authoritative biographical dictionary yet published for Ireland. It contains 9,014 signed biographical articles which describe and assess the careers of subjects in all fields of endeavour, including politics, law, religion, literature, journalism, architecture, painting, music, the stage, science, medicine, engineering, entertainment and sport.

Project Muse

Project MUSE is a unique collaboration between libraries and publishers, providing 100% full-text, affordable and user-friendly online access to a comprehensive selection of prestigious humanities and social sciences journals.

New Database

IPA Source

The library now  subscribes to IPA Source. IPA Source is the web’s largest library of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts. It contains over 4400 texts including 714 aria texts and is available through the library database page. For details on accessing this new resource from home click here.

In the News

Seven simple steps to a classical education

“Do you know your arias from your Elgar? Your lieder from your Grieg? When Louise East found that knowledge of classical music didn’t come with age, she embarked on a DIY appreciation course” Saturday, October 10, 2009

Going solo on the side

“Multi-instrumentalist David Geraghty may be married to his band Bell X1, but it’s far from a monogamous relationship, as his burgeoning solo career proves, writes KEVIN COURTNEY” Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Culture Night

For Culture Night, the DIT Conservatory of Music & Drama will open its doors between 7.30–9.30pm for an evening of musical performances by the ensembles and soloists studying at the Conservatory.

Culture Night Webiste

John McCormack Exhibition

A new temporary exhibition exploring the life and times of John McCormack opened in the National Museum of Ireland Collins Barracks on the 14th September.  The exhibition, which marks the 125th anniversary of his birth, includes musical material, personal memorabilia, photographs and the famous poratrait of the tenor by Orpen. For further information visit the Museum website.

Events/Conferences

Call for Papers

Women in Music in Ireland Conference, NUIM, 17 April 2010, in association with The Society for Musicology in Ireland and An Foras Feasa .

Women’s involvement in music in Ireland has been evident since the eighteenth century but their contribution has often been neglected or forgotten. This Conference hopes to begin to highlight their involvement across the centuries in all genres of music in Ireland. The Conference will also include two concerts featuring music by female composers from the nineteenth-, twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. The keynote address will be given by Dr. Ita Beausang.

Proposals for papers exploring all areas of women in music in Ireland are welcomed and suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• Female singers in the eighteenth century
• Women and domestic music-making throughout the centuries
• Female contributions to pedagogy and performance in Ireland
• The treatment of female composers
• Women and gender studies
• Women and traditional music
• Women and the Irish Harp
• Women and the promotion of Irish music
• Irish women working in music internationally

Proposals of 200 words are invited for presentations of 20 minutes maximum. Submission: by email to the Conference organizer, Jennifer O’Connor, jenny.m.oconnor@gmail.com , by the 31 October 2009.

The editorial board of the JSMI has expressed an interest in the publication of papers presented at this Conference subject to its normal peer-review process.

Abstracts should include the following information:

• Name and Title
• Institutional Affiliation
• Contact details
• Any special technical requirements (piano, OHP, PowerPoint, audio/visual, etc)

All queries should be emailed to jenny.m.oconnor@gmail.com

Those making successful proposals will be notified by the end of November and the draft programme will be available from mid-December.

Information on registration and accommodation will be available on the SMI website and the NUI Maynooth Music Department website http://www.music.nuim.ie in early January 2010.