The Beethoven-House in Bonn has recently added to its Digital Archives the sketchbooks of Ludwig van Beethoven. The Archives include digitized first-edition scores, manuscripts, letters, and now sketchbooks. The sketchbooks are particularly important for scholars to understand Beethoven’s creative process. Beethoven had two types of sketchbooks. At his home, he jotted down ideas in large hardbound volumes. But, when he was not at home, he carried smaller, soft-bound books to capture ideas as he was on his way. After his death, many of the sketchbooks were taken apart and pages sold separately. Now, cooperation between many libraries has made possible and accessible a nearly complete collection of all of Beethoven’s extant sketchbooks, not only those kept at the Beethoven-House. Detailed explanations in English of each page of the pieces involved, watermarks, and history of the particular sketchbook enhance this already rich and interesting resource.

At the Beethoven-House Digital Archive, one can search for a specific piece of music and find a digitized first edition, perhaps a manuscript, as well as relevent letters and sketches. Letters are linked with sound files of audio versions. Some sound files of musical examples are also included.

Exploring the Digital Archive of the Beethoven-House is truly exciting, made even moreso by the addition of Beethoven’s sketchbooks.

Bravo Beethoven-House!

Beethoven Resources at Temple Libraries

Paley Library has a strong collection of books about Beethoven as well as scoresby him. To listen to music by Beethoven, go to Classical Music Library, a streaming audio service, access provided by Temple University Libraries.

–Anne Harlow

The Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum in Salzburg together with the Packard Humanities Institute, in celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the birth ofWolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), have made the entire Neue Mozart Ausgabe, both scores and Kritische Berichte freely available on the web. Now, students, scholars, and the public have access to scholarly digitized scores of Mozart’s entire oeuvre for personal study or educational use. The printed version of these scholarly scores has been an ongoing effort of Bärenreiter Verlag since 1955. The works of Mozart arguably constitute some of the most beautiful, profound, and moving utterances of mankind. Would our world be more peaceful if more people listened to Mozart? I believe so! Enjoy!

Further Mozartiana

Temple University Libraries has quite a number of books about Mozart, and well over 1,000 music scores of his works.
To listen to sound recordings of Mozart’s music go to Classical.com, online access provided by Temple University Libraries.

–Anne Harlow

Gian Carlo Menotti, renowned and beloved opera composer, died Thursday, February 1st, 2007, at the age of 95. Although born in Italy, Menotti is considered an American composer and studied with Rosario Scalera at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia where he graduated with honors in 1933. Some of his most well-known works are The Medium, The Old Maid and the Thief, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Telephone, The Saint of Bleeker Street, and The Consul, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1955. In 1958 Menotti founded the prestigious summer opera festival, Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds), in Spoleto, Italy, and opened its American counterpart in Charleston, South Carolina in 1977. (See theSpoleto Festival USA.) For more information see articles in the London Daily Telegraph, The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Music by Gian Carlo Menotti can be heard via streaming audio from Classical Music Library, and Ruckus.com.

Click here for a listing of works by Menotti held by Temple University Libraries.

Books about Menotti and his music in Temple University’s Paley Library include:

Ardoin, John. The Stages of Menotti. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1985. Paley Stacks ML410.M52A85 1985

Grieb, Lyndal. The Operas of Gian Carlo Menotti, 1937-1972; a selective bibliography. Paley Stacks ML134.M533G7

Gruen, John. Menotti : a biography. New York : Macmillan, c1978. Paley Stacks ML410.M52G8

Hixon, Donald L. Gian Carlo Menotti : a bio-bibliography. Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 2000. Paley Stacks ML134.M533 H59 2000

Tricoire, Robert. Gian Carlo Menotti, l’homme et son Oeuvre: Catalogue des oeuvres, discographie, illustrations. Paris, Seghers, 1966. Paley Stacks ML410.M52T7

Wlaschin, Ken. Gian Carlo Menotti on Screen : opera, dance, and choral works on film, television, and video. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Company, c1999. Paley Stacks ML410.M52 W6 1999

-Anne Harlow

Welcome to the new Performing Arts Section to Temple University Libraries’ blog! Here you will find all the latest news about resources in Music, Dance, and Theater available to the Temple University community, including new electronic databases, DVD’s, audio resources, as well as books and reference sources. Don’t know what to do for the weekend? Check back for links to performances and arts activities in the Philadelphia area! Feel free to comment on posts and to inform us of important resources and events. Enjoy! -Anne Harlow