del.icio.us bookmarks

The Art, Music & Recreation Center has two pages of del.icio.us bookmarks located under "Helpful links" on our blog's sidebar. del.icio.us is a web service that allows its users to create a list of public bookmarks that can be described by subject keywords.

AMRLibrarian (http://del.icio.us/AMRLibrarian) is a listing of online reference resources that we have found useful. They are organized into the categories of Architecture, Art, Dance, Film, Music, Photography, Sports & Recreation, and Theater. There are also a number of "unbundled tags" - tags that are not specific to any of the above subject areas and may overlap with several of them. Some examples of unbundled tags include index, database, finding aid, or digital archive.

AMRLocalLinks (http://del.icio.us/AMRLocalLinks) is a listing of San Francisco websites relating to the subjects of art, the performing arts, and recreation. This page's bookmarks are organized by the Architecture, Art & Design, Crafts, Dance, Film & Video, Music, Performing Arts, Sports & Recreation, and Television & Radio. The unbundled tags here divide into categories like associations, cultural organizations, education, employment, grants, and youth.

We are sharing these links in the hope that they may help our readers find useful information on the internet. We will continue to updated them.

Jazz and American Pop Vocal and Dance Music from 1925-1935

Before our era of ubiquitous digital sound, there were analog recordings. During the early days of analog sound, before there was electric sound there was acoustic sound. The earliest recorded sound was created and reproduced without any electricity.

Richard Wahlberg will play 78 rpm discs from his personal archive on an historic, open-horn victrola from 1906. This instrument must be wound-up. Its sound is only amplified by the phonograph's large horn which produces an amazing volume, depth, and clarity of sound.

Mr. Wahlberg and the Art, Music and Recreation Center invite you to listen to early recordings of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, of singer Dick Powell, pianists Jelly Roll Morton and Earl Hines and bandleaders Eddy Duchin and Ted Weems, among others.

This program will be held at the Main Library's Latino/Hispanic meeting room at 6:00 PM on Thursday, December 20, 2007. The Main Library is located in San Francisco's Civic Center at the corner of Grove and Larkin. All library programs are free and open to the public.

Readers interested in learning more about the history of recorded sound can check out the following titles from the library: The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction by Jonathan Sterne, A Century of Recorded Music: Listening to Musical History by Timothy Day, From Edison to Marconi: The First Thirty Years of Recorded Music by David J. Steffen, and From Tin Foil to Stereo: Evolution of the Phonograph by Oliver Read and Walter L. Welch.

May Your Holidays Be Filled With Music

Imagine the winter holidays... Whether you picture boisterous children spinning the dreidel, families lighting the menorah or kwanzaa candles, or carolers walking door-to-door sharing songs of goodwill, the San Francisco Public Library has materials to make your holiday soundtrack possible.

Every holiday season the librarians at the AMR reference desk pulls a selection of holiday songbooks for you to peruse. For example, The International Book of Christmas Carols offers English, German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Slavic, Italian, Spanish and Latin carols. Home For The Holidays and The Reader's Digest Merry Christmas Songbook provide holiday favorites arranged for piano, voice and guitar. A Romantic Christmas: 30 Heart-Warming Favorites has more pop-oriented winter favorites such as "Baby, It’s Cold Outside" and "I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm." "My Dreidel," and "Chanukkah Oy Chanukkah (Come Light the Menorah)" can be found in 15 Traditional Chanukkah Favorites.

For instrumentalists, we have just received Christmas Favorites Playalongs with CD accompaniments. We have versions for flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, trumpet, and violin. The Christmas Guitar Collection includes 20 songs arranged for solo fingerstyle guitar.

If you are looking for recorded holiday music, please search the catalog by song or album title, or browse subject headings like "Holidays -- Songs and Music," "Christmas Music," "Hanukkah -- Songs and music," or "Kwanzaa - Songs and Music" to review the library's musical offerings.