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Music
Selector: Holly E. Mockovak
GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE COLLECTION
The Music collection supports in-depth scholarly inquiry into Western art music and has significant, and increasing, holdings that support advanced inquiry into non-Western art music, and traditional and popular music of many cultures. While the collection most actively connects to the University's music degree programs, both on campus and through online distance courses, it also serves as a University-wide resource for other curricular, research, and production needs in diverse areas including but not limited to African studies, education, performing arts funding, cultural histories, the music industry, perception and creativity, dance and ballet, acoustics and design, and student activities organizations.
The collection consists of physical and online manifestations of scores, recordings, books, periodicals, reference works, microforms, and video resources. Most of the physical collection is consolidated in the Music Library on the second floor of Mugar Memorial Library. Facilities include a listening room and open-stack access for bound scores and the majority of other bound items in print. Recordings, stored in closed stacks adjacent to the Listening Room, are readily retrieved by library staff. Access to other closed portions of the collection (such as special items in reading room cases or unbound sheet music) is also immediately available on request. Only the Music collection's microforms are housed elsewhere, within the Microforms department.
A wide array of degrees in music are awarded through three different schools or colleges at the University. Cross-registration of students is not unusual and some faculty hold permanent appointments at more than one school.
The College of Fine Arts, through its School of Music, awards the MusB in Performance, in Theory and Composition, in History and Literature, and in Music Education. These areas of study, with the additional areas of Collaborative Piano, Historical Performance, and Conducting, are offered at the MusM and MusAD levels. A five-year program allows undergraduates to earn both their MusB in Performance and their MusM in Music Education. A program for exceptionally gifted musicians preparing for a professional career leads to the Artist Diploma in Performance. For singers specifically preparing for an operatic career, the School of Music's Opera Institute provides a professional training program that leads to a certificate. Performers of orchestral instruments continuing professional training beyond the master's level, but without the research component of the doctoral level, pursue the Performance Diploma in Instrumental Music. An additional eight to ten classes in theory, appreciation, historical survey, and instrumental lessons are offered each semester to non-music majors through the School of Music of the College of Fine Arts.
An online masters and doctoral degree in Music Education, developed in 2005 and experiencing rapid growth, is offered through Boston University's Distance Education Program in partnership with the School of Music.
The College of Arts and Sciences
awards the BA in Music. The Graduate
School of the College of Arts and Sciences awards the MA in
Musicology, Composition, and Music History/Theory (a double concentration)
and the PhD in Musicology, Music History/Theory and Ethnomusicology.
The School of Theology awards
the Master of Sacred Music and also offers a dual degree in Theology and Music Ministry (MDIV/MSM).
The Dance Minor is one of the special program areas offered through the University's Fitness and Recreation Center. It is currently available to students of the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Fine Arts, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, School of Education, School of Management, School of Hospitality Administration, and College of Communication (as a secondary minor); availability through other Colleges is pending.
Students (both music majors and non-majors) and faculty fill the annual calendar with performances of symphonic, operatic, choral, chamber and solo literature. Performance venues include the University's Tsai Performance Center, Concert Hall, Marsh Chapel, and Huntington Theatre. Other typical venues include the Tanglewood Institute and, for the artist faculty, commercially released recordings and concert halls throughout the world. Repertoire ranges in style and period from that of Renaissance Europe and the avant-garde to a capella stylings, Sunday anthems, and jazz arrangements. Faculty lectures, publications, and ongoing research interests are similarly broad and include areas as diverse as German Romanticism, seventeenth-century keyboard music, American music, Bach, Mozart, hymnology, music and the brain, popular music and contemporary society, and contemporary composition.
SCOPE OF COVERAGE
1. Languages collected (primary and selective) or excluded: With few exceptions, vocal music in scores and recordings is collected in its original language (preferably with accompanying English translation). For writings on music, primary sources (e.g., treatises, correspondence) are sought in their original language with English translations obtained as available. Secondary writings on music are collected in English if available; significant original works in Western European languages are obtained selectively.
2. Geographical areas covered by the collections in terms of intellectual content, publication sources, or both, and specific areas excluded, as appropriate: Coverage of Western Europe and the United States remains comprehensive; representative coverage of Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, Africa and Latin America, is rapidly increasing as scholarly publications from or about those regions proliferate.
3. Chronological periods covered by the collection in terms of intellectual content, movements or schools, and specific periods excluded, as appropriate: Coverage is from antiquity through the present.
4. Chronological periods collected in terms of publication dates, and specific periods excluded, as appropriate: While emphasis is on the acquisition of new and recent publications (including reprints), acquisition of older publications and selected variant editions or performances (including reprints and re-releases), through either purchase or gift, is routine.
GENERAL SUBJECT BOUNDARIES AND LIBRARY LOCATIONS
The subject scope of this collection is primarily determined by the Library of Congress class M. Within the GV call number range, we acquire selectively in the areas of folk and social dance, and ballet. We also acquire selectively within the TK class (sound recording technology) and the Z class (personal bibliography), and very occasionally within the K class (law, copyright).
All items in the collection are housed in Mugar Memorial Library, with these exceptions: selected items classified in KF 3035 and in TK 7881.6 reside in the reference section of Mugar Memorial Library's Music Library while the remainder of the titles in those classifications are housed in the collection of the Law and Science and Engineering Libraries, respectively.
Collected:
| M | Scores, Recordings |
| ML | History and Literature of Music |
| MT | Theory and Analysis of Music |
Collected Selectively:
| GV 1580-1790 | Dance (folk and social dance, and ballet) |
| KF 3035 | Copyright, Licensing and Fair Use in Music |
| TK 7881.6 | Sound Recording Technology |
| Z 8001-8999 | Personal Bibliography |
RELATED SUBJECTS AND INTERDISCIPLINARY RELATIONSHIPS
African Studies: The African Studies Selector typically
collects titles about the music of any region or people of Africa
when the title has been published within Africa or has been published
in an African language. The Music Selector typically acquires works
on both African music and African-influenced music that have been
published in the Americas or Europe. The Music and African Studies
Selectors confer on acquisitions whenever necessary.
Anthropology: The selector in this area may be consulted with regard
to publications relating to the support of ethnomusicology and other
works on musical life in society.
Art: The Art History Selector may be consulted with regard to publications in music iconography, special exhibit catalogs, and works concerning the arts in general (class NX).
Communication: The Music Selector collects titles devoted to the role of music in film, television and radio production.
Education: The Music Selector routinely acquires titles in theory, methods, and administration of music education for the professional, and may confer with the Education Selector on titles in music for the general education collection. Music, music literature and movement to music for pre-K through grade 12 is collected selectively by the Education Selector. Contemporary instructional methods and other K-12 materials for the music specialist are collected selectively by the Music Selector in consultation with the Librarian of the Music Curriculum Lab, College of Fine Arts.
Health Sciences: The Music Selector collects titles specifically addressing medical problems common to musicians and may confer with the Health Sciences Selector on the subject of Music Therapy and Dance Therapy.
Law: The Music Selector makes an effort to acquire the most recent and authoritative works on copyright legislation relating to music publishing and fair use, and other music licensing procedures, for the Music Reference Collection; these titles may be duplicated by the Law Library.
Philosophy: There may be consultation with the Philosophy Selector on works by music aestheticians or on works about the aesthetics of music.
Psychology: There may be consultation with the Psychology Selector for psychology of the creative and performing artist.
Religion: General Works devoted to musical liturgies and the role of music in religion are typically acquired by the Music Selector in consultation with the Religion Selector. In-depth works pertaining to a particular denomination, or geared toward sacred music directors of houses of workship, may be discussed with the Librarian of the School of Theology Library for placement decision.
Theatre: There may be consultation with the Theatre Selector on dance and movement for the stage, and on music theatre.
TYPES
OF MATERIALS
Collected: Reference works, including indexes
and abstracts, bibliographies, discographies, encyclopedias, research
guides, catalogs, and directories; monographs, periodicals, congress
reports, festschriften; scores (full, vocal and miniature formats,
including variant editions and facsimiles, and chamber ensemble
parts up to four), and recordings (audio compact discs). Online
manifestations of this content are increasingly sought and are collected
cooperatively, either as part of the Boston University library system,
or in connection with outside library consortial arrangements (such
as NERL
or BLC).
Collected Selectively: Dissertations and theses,
electronic resources, LP recordings, DVD and VHS videos, parts
for larger chamber works, fakebooks and lead sheets, and microforms
of manuscripts, rare publications, catalogs, periodicals and monographs.
Not Collected: Orchestral parts, audio magnetic tape (except when included with print works or of special institutional significance), pre-LP recording formats, slides, and film.
OTHER ON-CAMPUS
OR LOCAL RESOURCES
The Music Curriculum Library, part of the School of Music of the College of Fine Arts, houses core concert repertoire including parts sets and multiple copies of selected titles for classroom use (such as collections of chorales by J. S. Bach), and provides management of performance rental material. The Lab also serves Music Education programs by providing a space for on-site review and preparation of classroom teaching resources, as well as a small collection of pre-K through grade 12 classroom texts and methods. The Music Curriculum Lab is located at 855 Commonwealth Avenue.
Fragile, rare, and manuscript items of all eras in music are selectively acquired by the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, located in Mugar Memorial Library. The Music Library and that Department confer occasionally regarding certain of each others' special acquisitions of scores or recordings and their subsequent placement within the collections.
The Recording Studio of the School of Music, 855 Commonwealth Avenue, houses nearly 3,500 school performances on tape, some dating back into the 1950s.
The Geddes Language Center of the College of Arts and Sciences, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, houses an audio collection (core classical, core jazz, and American popular) and a video collection (core opera) supporting selected undergraduate and graduate music courses offered through CAS.
The Boston University Media Group, at 565 Commonwealth Avenue, includes Krasker Film/Video Services through which rentals or purchases of films, videos and laserdiscs for course support may be arranged. Assistance in scheduling class viewings is also available. Krasker Library houses the titles it has purchased and maintains an in-house finding aid for these. Their staff also provides reference services for the searching and acquisition of titles or topics not owned by the University.
An in-depth collection of organ music scores is managed by the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists is hosted by the School of Theology and its Library at 745 Commonwealth Avenue. The Organ Library, which collection is for on-site use only, resides in the E. Power Biggs Room and is accessible by appointment. The collection is open to all researchers regardless of academic or societal affiliation.
The greater Boston area is particularly rich in music collections. The Boston Area Music Libraries (BAML) exist to foster inter-institutional communication on matters ranging from acquisitions strategies and collection holdings to reference and access support for one anothers' patrons. Similarly, the music and media librarians have come together to form one of the Community of Interest groups in the Boston Library Consortium.
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