- demonstrate our hospitality (as a prelude to 1999)
- visit with colleagues in a more congenial setting than the national ALA meeting
- see the latest developments at the USC Music Library
- party with other MLA/SCC members and catch up on happenings
- Jill Conner, Library Manager, Brand Library
- Jeff Earnest, Asst. Director for Technical Services, National University
- Lynn Edington-Hogg, Music Dept. Record Library and Computer Lab, San Diego State University
- Bessie Gianakos, Head of Periodicals, Honnold Library Periodicals Dept., Claremont Colleges (Institutional)
- Ralph Ives, Santa Monica
- John Koegel, Ph.D. student (musicology), Claremont Graduate School
- Alline H. Merchant, Library Manager, Brand Library
- Jaroslav Mracek, Music Dept. (Musicology), San Diego State University
- Edward St. John,Head of Technical Services, Loyola Law School
- Jan. 21: MLA/SCC Executive Board meeting, Brand Library,
10:00 A.M.
- Feb. 4-10: ALA Midwinter Conference, Los Angeles
- Feb. 5: ALA Arts Section All Committees Meeting, 9:30 A.M.-12:30 P.M.; presentation on Music Thesaurus Project; MLA/SCC reception, USC Music Library, 6/6:30 P.M.
- Feb. 11-16: ARLIS/NA 22nd Annual Conference, Providence, RI
- Feb. 19: Pacific Southwest Chapter, American Musicological Society (PSC-AMS) meeting, University of California, Los Angeles
- Feb. 26-27: Southern California Chapter, Society for Ethnomusicology (SEMSCC) meeting, Dept. of Ethnomusicology & Systematic Musicology, University of California, Los Angeles
- Mar. 2: Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG) Annual Meeting, Kansas City, MO
- Mar. 2-6: MLA Annual Meeting, Kansas City, MO
- Mar. 17-20: Society for the Preservation of Film Music Third Annual International Film Music Conference, Los Angeles
- Mar. 18: copy due for issue no. 59 to MLA/SCC Newsletter editor
- Apr. 23-24: Joint meeting of the Pacific Southwest and Northern California Chapters, American Musicological Society, University of California, Berkeley
- Feb. 4-10: ALA Midwinter Conference, Los Angeles
December 1993 Number 58
Note: The online and printed editions of this newsletter may differ in content.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Message from the Chapter Chair
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAPTER CHAIR
This past summer and fall were busy, productive seasons for the Chapter. In November, our membership made a fine showing at the Joint Northern/Southern Chapter meeting in San Jose-I think there were more people there from our Chapter than from the North! Darwin Scott reports on the program elsewhere in this issue, but I do wish to thank Patricia Elliott and our Northern colleagues for hosting such a varied and interesting meeting. They have rebounded from hosting the San Francisco national conference with energies and dedication obviously intact. Our Board felt that it would be impractical to hold a formal business meeting in San Jose, since many members could not be present; but NCC members kindly invited us to participate at their business meeting, providing an opportunity to make announcements and share news with the members in attendance. The Northern Chapter is considering the establishment of a scholarship/support fund in honor of Kevin Freeman. The members were especially interested in our comments on this proposal and will be keeping us informed as their plans develop.
We have at last received official notification of our tax- exempt status as a subsidiary of the National Association. We have been working towards this goal for several years, and it is good to have the issue finally resolved. Our Chapter certainly qualifies for this status and for the advantages it offers for Chapter operations and activities.
A draft revision of our Chapter by-laws has been submitted to the Board by the ad hoc committee of Marsha Berman, Debbie Smith, John Thornbury, and chair Danette Adamson. The Board has reviewed the changes and will present the proposed new by-laws for the membership's vote at the spring business meeting. The Committee and board member Kathy Glennan deserve tremendous credit for the time and care they have devoted to this project. I would also like to acknowledge the many members of our Chapter who have participated in this arduous process in the past, and who know better than anyone that the need for revision of the by-laws reflects changes in MLA/SCC's organizational structure and operations.
MLA President Michael Ochs has informed us that the Board has accepted MLA/SCC's invitation to host the 1999 MLA Annual Meeting in the greater Los Angeles area, contingent on MLA's ability to make satisfactory hotel arrangements. Past chapter president Kathy Glennan is serving as chair of the 1999 Local Arrangements Committee. 1999!! As MLA Assistant Convention manager, I can attest that the planning process does indeed start years ahead- just last month Ned Quist and I were in New Orleans to look at venues for the 1997 conference. I recommend that all SCC members reactivate their memberships at Nautilus or wherever to get into shape for this upcoming challenge. We'll be following New Orleans (an incredible city!), then Boston in 1998 (enough said!), so we really have our work cut out to make L.A. shine! Ned and I were also in Kansas City to make some final arrangements. The Ritz Carlton Hotel is as elegant as it sounds, and across the street is the oldest shopping mall in the country-now occupied by stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Eddie Bauer, and Gucci. Between these attractions, the program, and some wild music activities planned by the Local Arrangements and Program Committees, this is going to be one memorable week!
Finally, I'd like to thank all the members of the 1993/94 Chapter Board for their hard work and dedication-especially Kathy, who advises and helps me in so many ways. And a word of appreciation to the many members who have expressed willingness to serve the Chapter through committee work or running for office. As I said in San Jose, you will be hearing from me. I'm a generous guy who likes to spread around the wealth. What a Chapter we have! What an outstanding group of members! Color me impressed-and honored to be your chairman this year.
--Joe Fuchs
RECEPTION FOR MUSIC LIBRARIANS ATTENDING ALA MIDWINTER
MLA/SCC will host a reception for all music librarians attending the ALA Midwinter conference. The Executive Board invites all MLA/SCC members and their guests to welcome our colleagues on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 6 or 6:30 P.M. (exact time not yet fixed) in the USC Music Library. This reception provides opportunities to:We hope to see you there!
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIANS IN MONTREAL
Annual meetings of the American Musicological Society (59th) and the Society for Music Theory (16th) convened jointly on 3-7 November 1993 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. An unexpected early snowfall, frosty weather, and a beautiful, welcoming city created a memorable venue for the conference. Featured throughout the large and varied program were many speakers from Southern California.
Presenting papers were Paul Attinello (UCLA): "Paradox, Alienation, Violence: The Rhetoric of Affect in the Avant-Garde"; Elaine Barkin (UCLA): "Rules of One's Own" (in the SMT Committee on the Status of Women session "Making a Place for Women IX: Women, Music, and the Nature of Research"); Bruce Alan Brown (USC): "Zephire et Flore: A 'Galant' Early Ballet by Angiolini and Gluck"; Dorothy Crawford (UCLA Extension): "Bartok's Expressionism in Its Intellectual and Psychological Context"; Mitchell Morris (UCSD): "Tchaikovsky's Songs and the Circuit of the Sentimental"; Giulio Ongaro (USC): "Instrumentalists and Instrumental Music at St. Mark's, Venice, in the Late Sixteenth Century"; H. Colin Slim (UCI): "Multiple Images of Bartolommeo Veneto's Lute-Playing Woman (1520): Saint or Sinner?"; Beverly Stein (Westchester): "Carissimi's Tonal System: The Expansion of Tonality through Transposition of Mode"; and James Westby (UCLA): "The Genesis Project: Schoenberg and Stravinsky in Los Angeles."
Chairing sessions were Michael Beckerman (UCSB): "National Identity in the Early Twentieth Century," and Margaret Murata (UCI): "Con'structing Venetian Opera." Paper respondents included Elizabeth Teviotdale (J. Paul Getty Museum) in the session on 13th- and 14th-century sources and Pieter van den Toorn (UCSB) in the session "Musical Modernism in the Early Twentieth Century." Leonard Stein (Arnold Schoenberg Institute) participated in the SMT special session "A New Picture of Schoenberg as Theorist: His Manuscripts on the 'Musical Idea'." Among the panelists and respondents in the special session "Hispanic Music and Its Challenges to Accepted Historiography" were chair Alejandro Planchart (UCSB) and John Koegel (Claremont Graduate School), James Radomski (UCLA), and Craig Russell (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo).
--Darwin Scott, UCLA
JUDITH KAUFMAN STARTS NEW JOB AT UC IRVINE
Judith Kaufman, former Music Librarian and Personnel Librarian at SUNY Stony Brook, is now the new AUL for Personnel at UC Irvine. Judith starts her new job at the beginning of January.
ADDIO, MARSHA!
After 27 extraordinary years at the UCLA Music Library, Marsha Berman retired in November, leaving a major research library whose fine collections and services owe an enormous amount to her dedication and professionalism. On 19 November friends and colleagues throughout California came to celebrate with Marsha at a gala party held in her honor at the Music Library. Members of MLA/SCC will remember Marsha not only as an enjoyable colleague and an articulate representative of UCLA at our Chapter meetings, but also as an enthusiastic and productive member of MLA and IAML. We will look forward to maintaining our associations with Marsha- who is moving into the book selling trade and continues as editor of the Cue Sheet-at future meetings and musical gatherings.
--Gordon Theil, UCLA
JOINT MLA/SCC MLA/NCC MEETING IN SAN JOSE
On 12-13 November 1993 the Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University hosted a joint meeting of the Northern and Southern California Chapters of the Music Library Association. The welcoming atmosphere of the Beethoven Center and the careful attention shown to every detail by the Center's staff made it clear from the beginning that this was to be a special event. Kudos to the Center's curator Patricia Elliott for a superb job of planning! Following a day-long meeting of the UC/Stanford Music Librarians-which concluded with a toast to retiring UC librarians Marsha Berman (UCLA) and Marion Taylor (UC Santa Cruz, who was unable to attend)-the joint meeting opened late Friday afternoon with a reception for all members and guests. Among the attendees was former Yale music librarian Michael Keller, freshly relocated on the West Coast as Stanford University's new Director of Libraries. The festive atmosphere and lively conversation of the reception continued during the ensuing informal banquet at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant.
Pat Elliott formally opened the joint meeting on Saturday morning with a brief, informative talking tour of the Beethoven Center. She highlighted the many changes that had occurred since the last time the MLA had met at the Center in 1986-only nine months after its opening. Built upon Ira Brilliant's love and fascination for Beethoven (focused first on collecting letters and later extending to first editions), the Center became the first library in the United States to specialize in Beethoven. A supportive administration at San Jose State University, plus benefits and fund raising events, have enabled the Center to thrive and expand its comprehensive collection of Beethoven literature to some 2,000 books, 1,600 scores, and 200 first editions, plus many photocopies of manuscripts and first and early editions (including the former Berlin sources now housed in Crakow). Of note, the Center is willing to send copies of these copies to any interested party. The Center's current quarters were gleaned from the adjacent Library School, but space problems have insured the Center's relocation in the new addition to the Clark Library upon its completion. The major users of the collection are performers, with scholars, students, and the simply curious rounding out a diverse clientele. In addition to housing and caring for the collection, the Center presents three to four performances a year, arranges lectures, and sponsors special events, including master classes. Major projects currently underway include the compilation of the Beethoven Bibliography Database (supported by NEH funding) and translating into English articles on Beethoven from old German periodicals. There are also other joint projects with the Beethovenhaus in Bonn. Publications by the Center include the Beethoven Newsletter and a Beethoven study series.
After a warm welcome-and a proud note that this was the most people to ever attend a professional meeting at the Center-William Meredith, Director of the Beethoven Center, presented an informative paper entitled "A Pilgrimage to Beethoven: Wagner's Contributions to the Beethoven Myth." Wagner's 1841 novella (published in an English translation in 1896) describes a visit between an admiring composer (in fact, Wagner himself) and the aged Beethoven. Drawing heavily from unsubstantiated Beethoven lore, Wagner created a sensation with his little book and helped perpetuate many of the Beethoven myths. For Wagner himself, the novella fulfilled a great longing to have met Beethoven. It also laid the groundwork for Wagner's vision of himself as Beethoven's successor, which found its full expression in Wagner's 1870 essay on the composer. Meredith's paper reflected the broad scope of the Beethoven Center's collection and emphasis.
Turning to more contemporary events, Libor Zajicek, a graduate student from the San Jose State University Music Department, offered a unique perspective on "Archival Research in Electro- Acoustic Music Studios of the Czech Republic and Slovakia." A native of Czechoslovakia, Zajicek was stimulated by his study of electro-acoustic music with Allen Strange and the 1992 International Computer Music Conference held at San Jose State to focus his graduate studies on chronicling electro-acoustic music in the former Czechoslovakia. A questionnaire given to 27 Czech and Slovak composers produced 24 sixty-minute tapes documenting the studios, the composers, and their works. A skilled photographer as well, Zajicek presented many slides of Prague and the electro-acoustic studios located there and in Pilsen and Bratislava. To conclude his lecture, Zajicek played a recently composed electro-acoustic collage that hauntingly combined the chants of demonstrators recorded during 1989 revolution with persistent rhythmic patterns, the Czech national anthem, and tolling bells.
Following lunch, the meeting reassembled in the Clark Library for two computer demonstrations. Pat Elliott introduced and demonstrated the ongoing Beethoven Bibliography Database. Particularly noteworthy are the easy accessibility of works by opus (or other identifying) numbers and the eight hierarchies of the Beethoven thesaurus that facilitate extremely specific searches. Among the hierarchies are free floaters (Beethoven- specific terms describing his physical appearance, character traits, relationships with other people, views on musical and non- musical subjects, and events from his life); musical terms describing Beethoven's compositions (e.g., heroic style, metronome markings, motivic relationships); documents (manuscripts, published scores, records of his life and work, as well as examinations of these documents); geographical subjects; general topical subjects that are external to the field of music; work subdivisions further categorizing the particular aspect of analysis, history, or criticism applied to each work; musical genres; and book genres (e.g., academic dissertations, iconographies, and bibliographies). The Beethoven Center has recently published a user manual and the Beethoven Thesaurus. The database is still in its early stages but promises to be an extraordinary source of information on Beethoven as well as a model for other composer-specific databases.
Explaining how this database and myriad others are now (or will soon be) available in every music library, Philip Schreur and Judy Tsou (UC Berkeley Music Library) followed with a brief overview of "Music on the Internet." Schreur emphasized the exponential increases in the amount of virtually any type of information now available via the Internet. Useful handouts included definitions by network (yet another bevy of acronyms, initialisms, nicknames, and other library jargon-e.g., "Archie and Veronica MARVEL at the WAIS of the Gopher" [ed.]), resources by network (including some helpful guides and recommendations), and a guide to finding 63 music-related directories on the Gopher. Tsou's Internet demonstration suffered from technical problems and poor visibility, but her handout offered useful logon tips. What was clear, however, was the need for further database demonstrations at subsequent Chapter meetings to help keep members up to date on the proliferating online music sources.
Business meetings of the two chapters followed the Internet demonstrations (see Joe Fuch's report for MLA/SCC essentials), concluding with a long joint discussion of possible tributes for Kevin Freeman. Keen interest was shown for some type of minority scholarship or stipend. An auction of two books donated by Ann Basart produced a sizable contribution from successful bidders Beth Rebman and Steve Fry to the growing memorial fund. Cocktails and dinner at the Palermo Ristorante Italiano followed. Ostensibly in honor of Ray Reeder, former music librarian at CSU/Hayward (who retired last year), the banquet was a lively, increasingly noisy affair that enabled a mixture of members from MLA/SCC and MLA/NCC to become even better acquainted.
Refurbished downtown San Jose added much to the charm of the meeting, as did the elegantly restored Hotel Sainte Claire, where several MLA/SCC members took lodging and delighted in the superb combo that serenaded the guests on Saturday evening.
Darwin Scott, UCLA
GALA FILM MUSIC CONCERT
Tuesday evening, 7 December 1993, I attended a fabulous concert of film and TV music, and I'd like to share this experience with you. The event was "Lights! Action! Music!", a fund raiser for the Young Musician's Foundation Debut Orchestra sponsored by the BMI Foundation. Presented at the beautiful Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the Los Angeles Music Center complex, this was a star-studded gala, with the 1,000-plus attendees representing a broad cross section of L.A.'s musical movers and shakers mixed with the city's beautiful people. I had a great seat four rows from the stage, next to Pete Rugolo and his wife Edye, and Jeannie Pool, executive director of the Society for the Preservation of Film Music.
As people drifted into the auditorium, I noticed familiar faces here and there. Oh, there's Irwin Kostel, president of the Society for Composers and Lyricists, and that's Buddy Baker, the former Disney composer who now teaches at USC. And over there is UCLA graduate Carlos Rodriguez of the Lo Cal Composers group-I see from the program that he arranged the overture. Ah, and there's the venerable Tony Thomas. As I recognized more and more people, I realized that a veritable who's who of the media music community was in attendance.
While I was celebrity watching, the orchestra of more than 40 musicians-including an array of synthesizer modules and two separate jazz rhythm sections of piano, bass, and drums-was warming up. After concertmistress Amy Sims had the orchestra tune, the lights dimmed and an expectant hush fell over the elegant gold and wood room. Lara Webber, the young conductor of the YMF Orchestra, strode onto the stage, took her requisite bow, and commenced the evening's music with a rousing overture of best- loved songs from the movies. The entire evening was organized to showcase the work of BMI composers, and the overture reflected this in spades, with Dean Pitchford and Michael Gore's rousing "Fame," Carole Bayer Sager's "The Best That You Can Do" (Arthur's theme), David Foster's "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire," and Richard and Robert Sherman's "Chim Chim Cheree." The overture was a professional arrangement, and the orchestra played magnificently.
The main part of the program featured some of the most renowned film and television composers conducting medleys of their best known themes or complete cues from important films. Alan Silvestri opened with themes from his music for Father of the Bride and Back to the Future. Basil Poledouris drew upon the enormous array of percussion instruments and synthesizers for a suite of cues from Free Willy. Michael Kamen elicited tears from the audience with a suite of his ravishing music for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Charles Fox conducted his exciting music for the cue "A Thousand Heroes" from Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232. David Newman presented a suite of themes from Hoffa and the splendid main title music for The War of the Roses. Employing the jazz rhythm section and a battery of synthesizers, Mike Post conducted a medley of familiar television themes, including those from "The Rockford Files," "The A-Team," "Magnum P.I.," "Hunter," "Greatest American Hero," "Hill Street Blues," "Law & Order," "L.A. Law," and "N.Y.P.D. Blue." To conclude the concert, Jerry Goldsmith conducted the main title cue for Rudy and a dazzling medley of themes from The Sand Pebbles, Chinatown, A Patch of Blue, Poltergeist, Papillon, and The Wind and the Lion.
The evening of celebrities, eminent film composers conducting their music, and especially the superb Young Musician's Foundation Debut Orchestra enthralled the audience. This concert once again brought to our attention the fact that no matter how expert the recording of a film score, the sound of this gorgeous music in live performance remains the superior musical experience.
Stephen M. Fry, UCLA
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!
NO NEWS FOR THE MLA/SCC NEWSLETTER IS NOT GOOD NEWS!
Please forward your newsworthy items-long or short-to the editor for inclusion in the 1994 winter or spring issues.
IN MEMORIAM KEVIN A. FREEMAN (1953-1993)
At Stanford University this year, the exciting hustle and bustle that usually accompanies the start of the fall quarter was significantly muted for the staff of the Music Library. Our dear colleague and friend, Kevin Freeman, died from AIDS-related complications early in the morning of Saturday, September 18th-in peace at his home in San Francisco, with his favorite music playing in the background. Kevin had been absent from work since late May, fully expecting to return. But the end came quickly, leaving many of us stunned. To almost the very end, he was determined to fight the illness-he had fought so magnificently before that I think many were fooled into believing him to be invincible. But ultimately Kevin was only human, and his body no longer had the means to resist.
Coming from the U.C. Berkeley Music Library, Kevin began working at Stanford six years ago as an entry-level music cataloger. During this time, Kevin contributed to many organization-wide efforts, most recently chairing the Diversity Committee and serving on the search committee for the Director of Libraries. He was active in MLA on both the local and national levels, serving as Secretary-Treasurer, Vice Chair, and Chair of the Northern California Chapter. For the musical festschrift celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the California Chapters' founding, Kevin solicited compositions from several northern California composers. Since 1991 Kevin had been a member of the Subject Access Subcommittee of the Bibliographic Control Committee and was very involved with the local arrangements for the 1993 MLA annual meeting in San Francisco. Turning 40 in this past June, Kevin had everything to look forward to-he had recently been promoted to Head of Music Technical Services and had also become Chair of the ALA Subject Access Subcommittee of the Bibliographic Control Committee. He was to attend his first ALA conference in that capacity in June.
A San Francisco native, Kevin graduated magna cum laude from the University of Utah in 1977 with a B.A. in music. He later continued his education, earning an M.A. in French linguistics in 1985 from Georgetown University and an M.A. in Library and Information Science in 1987 from U.C. Berkeley. During the intervening years, Kevin held various jobs and became well known in the San Francisco area as a singer in the Symphony Chorus and Choral Artists of San Francisco. In the early 1980s, he joined the male vocal ensemble Chanticleer. Although he loved singing and performing, touring got the best of him, and he left the group after about three years. Many who sang with him tell of his superb musicianship and facility for languages. One of the cruelest effects of his disease was the chronic sinus condition that forced him to stop performing. To fill the musical void, Kevin renewed his interest in the viola and piano and relished playing in the string quartet he founded with three friends. He also turned his energies to arranging music for varying ensembles, including his string quartet.
I will always remember Kevin's strength, courage, and will to live. He was almost too good to be true-an incredible combination of intelligence, charm, wit, grace, integrity, warmth, kindness, and humor. Kevin met his many professional responsibilities with energy and enthusiasm, setting the highest standards for himself. Those that worked with him valued and respected him as a colleague, and no matter what the task or circumstance, found him exceptional to work with. I would swear that Kevin was magnetic, since people were so easily drawn to him-he had more friends than it seems humanly possible to have. Each of these friends has unique "Kevin stories" that resonate with an uncanny sameness, speaking of Kevin's accessibility, his openness, and the way he reached out to make everyone feel welcome and special. They also recount his love of life and the good things it has to offer- friends, fine food, fun, and, of course, music.
Kevin was remembered at two incredibly beautiful and moving memorial gatherings, one held at Stanford on September 27, and another in San Francisco on October 23. Many of his friends performed at the San Francisco tribute, making absolutely glorious music that came straight from the soul. It was an experience that those in attendance will long remember.
Mimi Tashiro, Stanford University
CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS
MLA/SCC EXECUTIVE BOARD
Chair: Joe Fuchs, Brand Library
Vice Chair: Leslie Andersen, LACPL, Norwalk
Secretary/Treasurer: Gloria Rogers, CSUSD
Members-At-Large: Louise Spear, UCLA
Blair Whittington, Brand LibraryPast Chair: Kathy Glennan, USC
The MLA/SCC Newsletter is published three times a year. Please send via U.S. or electronic mail articles, reviews, conference summaries, communications, and membership news to the newsletter editor: Darwin Scott, Music Library, 1102 Schoenberg Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1490; phone: (310) 825-2317, (310) 412-5739; E-mail: ecz5dfs@mvs.oac.ucla.edu.
Content and original graphics Copyright © 1993-2004
Music Library Association, Southern California Chapter