Information Bulletin
16 April 2007
A feast for music lovers at the library
Shetland Library has just invested in a major reference work: the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Generally considered to be the best single source of music information available in English, it runs to 20 volumes and contains over 29.000 articles covering 5000 years of musical history. This edition replaces the 1980 edition and has been entirely revised and expanded.
The library is currently blessed with some exceptionally musical staff, so they got first chance to browse the new acquisition and to give their informed opinions. While slightly disappointed by the lack of Shetland references, they were very impressed with the set.
Trevor Jamieson of the legendary Corbies said: "Fascinating. It not only informs about musicians, their lives and works, but also provides invaluable information to the researcher regarding musical histories of regions, countries and ethnic groups. Dip into Grove for a short time and take a journey from the music of nomadic Fulani cattle owners of West Africa to Italy's Monteverdi through to rock legends Def Leppard. For those who need to know it is truly indispensable".
Margaret Cheriyan, talented local soprano, said "Before I started working at the Library I studied for a music diploma, and I spent many happy hours reading from the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. These volumes provided me with a wealth of background information on the lives of J. S. Bach, Chopin and Benjamin Britten and helped to put the works I was studying into context. But be warned, it is very easy to get sidetracked and go off in a whole new direction".
Milford Georgeson, guitarist with The Peatles, said "Whatever your interest in music, musicians and musical instruments there’s something in here for you, from blues to bluegrass, Clapton to Callas, guitars to grand pianos and more ethnic music, musicians and instruments than you ever imagined could exist. You end up browsing for hours through thousands of fascinating articles. Look up Nirvana and find yourself checking out exactly what a “ninth” chord is (along with when and how it and similar chords were used) refer to the Beach Boys and find yourself drawn to the Beastie Boys then the Beatles. It’s also extremely well written making it a pleasure to read and easy to understand".
You can browse the Grove music dictionary in the reference section on the mezzanine of the library.
Contact: Karen Fraser, Customer Service Librarian, tel. 01595 473868
Ends.