It's Paris, 1874 and the world of art is about to change forever. View over eighty works of art by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cezanne, Lautrec, Morisot, Sisley, Degas, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Artists who experienced and expressed the world about them each in their own unique and personal way.
These artists gathered together in studios, cafes, bars, and on the streets to talk and argue about art, its meaning, and how and what to paint. Together they shaped the avant-garde world of Impressionism, and in turn opened the doors to the Modern Art Movement of the 20th Century and beyond.
Join Marlene Aron as she presents an in-depth slide lecture on the lives and art of the new, avant-garde artists of the 1800's.
Public Knowledge is an ongoing project of the The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It is an effort to bring art to the community and the community to art and to the museum. Public Knowledge involves collaborations with scholars, artists and community members. The current project is a collaboration with the San Francisco Public Library called Hit Parade.
This is our second time working with the Museum of Modern Art. During the summer of 2014 we hosted the Chimerenga Library in collaboration with them and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Another aspect of the project has been researching the library's archival resources for histories and sheet music. They have created a lively blog that presents some of the treasures they have unearthed from the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection and the Art, Music and Recreation Center of the Library.
Keep returning to visit the Hit Parade blog to see what else the researchers turn up!
The Art, Music and Recreation Center is pleased to again present the Black Cedar Trio on Sunday, June 18, 2017 at 3:00 PM in the Koret Auditorium.
Black Cedar is the winner of a 2014 Musical Grant from San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music and an affiliate ensemble with San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music. It is the only ensemble entirely devoted to creating, discovering, and re-imagining chamber music for guitar, cello, and wood flute or alto flute. With this unique mix of sonorities, Black Cedar brings to life Renaissance lute songs and dances, Baroque trio sonatas, Classical and Romantic-era salon pieces, Appalachian folk music, and modern works from living composers.
Gale Research is familiar today as a database provider, but originally they were a publisher of many series of reference works. In the past these sources were indispensable to librarians and researchers, but over the past few decades much of the information they held has become available online. Over the intervening years, Gale Research mined many of their print reference books to create very useful and in-depth databases.
One of Gale's reliable research tools was the reference set Contemporary Theatre, Film & Television. Subtitled "A biographical guide featuring performers, directors, writers, producers, designers, managers, choreographers, technicians, composers, executives, dancers, and critics in the United States, Canada and the world," the first volume of this set was published in 1984. The print edition of the series ended with the 123rd volume in 2013.
This entire reference set is available as a component of Gale's Biography in Context database. This database covers many resources, including magazine and newspaper articles, so that the information from Contemporary Theatre, Film & Television can easily lost inside within the search results. When looking up an individual in this database, you can find the information from this reference set beneath the "Biographies" tab.
This reference set grew out of earlier reference resources, Who's Who In The Theatre and Who Was Who in the Theatre. The former also included biographies and credits for the London and New York stage. The text of some of its volumes are also included in the Biography in Context database.
Contemporary Theatre, Film & Television presents much of its information like a resume - film, television and stage credits, awards, guest appearances, etc... Online resources like the Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia can provide much of this same information. But the listings on these websites can be limited or too sprawling to be easily scanned. The reference database also includes contact information and a bibliography. The information cannot be as up-to-date as internet sources, but it is clearly and accurately presented.
While our reflexes often suggest that we should go to search engines to find information about every personality that we are searching for, the Library's subscription databases are very solid resources that should not be overlooked. The vast Biography in Context database can also bring a wide range of additional information to our attention.
Cover art from The Black Cat, read by Arthur Luce Klein
Today we are very familiar with audio eBooks - digital sound files of literary works that can either be streamed or downloaded. Until recently spoken work compact discs were another popular form of talking book. And, of course, audio cassettes were the format that was responsible for making the talking book such a popular medium.
These three formats all had the virtue of being portable -- they could be listened to through a car stereo, walkman or mp3 player. The very first books on tape (audio cassette format) were introduced in 1969 and could have up to an hour of continuous recitation on a side. Spoken books on compact disc began to appear during the 1990s and could contain up to 74 minutes per side (and had a higher audio quality). Streaming audio appeared not long afterward and could present a continuous narration of any duration.
There is a pre-history to this consumer-friendly, portable form of enjoying talking books. The earliest talking books were manufactured on vinyl records that played at the slower speed of 16 2/3 rotations per minute. For a period of time, many record players had settings for 16 2/3 rpm, 33 1/3 rpm (the long playing record), 45 rpm (the single) and 78 rpm (the much earlier shellac record).
The rule of thumb with audio recording is faster speeds mean better sound. This slower speed worked because the spoken word does not need to have the same rich audio spectrum as music. A 12 inch disc played at 16 2/3 rpm could have an hour of music per side, whereas a 33 rpm record could own contain a half hour. The Library of Congress began issuing records at the speed in 1962 to serve the blind community and later even issued recordings the slower 8 1/3 rpm speed.
A blurb on the back of The Pit And The Pendulum (1972)
We do not have any of these slower recordings in our collection, but we do have sizeable collection of 12 inch vinyl spoken word records played at 33 1/3. These include plays, poetry, legends, speeches and stories.
You can browse our holdings of literature on vinyl by searching for the call number LIT PD (Literature Phonodisc).
Because of their relative brevity, the stories of Edgar Allan Poe could provide a fulfilling vintage audio book experience. Below is a listing of Poe stories on vinyl in our collection.
The Black Cat; read by Arthur Luce Klein (Spoken Arts, s.d.).
As one comes to know and appreciate jazz, it becomes apparent that jazz musicians create their own compositions, avail themselves of other jazz compositions, or utilize familiar songs that have become known as "standards." Standards are often songs from the Broadway stage, but can be any popular tune from the recorded era. The standard provides a form (verse, chorus, sometimes bridge), a chord progression and a melody that is played at the beginning and end.
With his guide, The Jazz Standards, Ted Gioia provides a great service to anyone interested in exploring jazz by discussing more than 200 of the best known melodies employed in the jazz repertoire. His entries first give some background on a melody's pre-jazz origins. He also shares his personal response to each standard often highlighting some of his favorite renditions. The end of each entry includes a short discography of his preferred recordings.
Despite disliking the melody and chord changes of "All The Things You Are" by Jerome Kern, the author claims it as a favorite standard of his. He appreciates it for its "exciting set of possibilities as a springboard for jazz improvisation." The song first appeared in the 1939 musical flop Very Warm For May , but it soon grabbed the attention of jazz musicians. By the end of the year Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra introduced it and took it to the top of the charts. The author spoke to saxophonist Bud Shank near the end of his 60 year career "who never felt he had exhausted the possibilities of this specific song."
Writing about "I'm In The Mood For Love," by the standard-making songwriting team of Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Field, Gioia noted that it had the misfortune to be prominently sung by the character of Alfalfa in a Little Rascals short. However, that was already a year after the song had been introduced by Frances Langford in the film Every Night At 8, released in August 5, 1935. The review in Variety magazine noted that "she reprises 'I'm in the Mood for Love' several times" but predicted other songs from the movie would get more attention from the jazz orchestras. Variety was proven wrong when Louis Armstrong powered it to number 3 on the charts a few months later, assuring its status as a standard.
While he sort of disparages one of my favorites, Vincent Youmans' and Irving Ceasar's "Tea For Two, ("the melody is monotonous and akin to a second-rate nursery song"), Gioia illuminates the song nonetheless. He repeats the apocryphal tale about how Harry Frazee, the backer of the song's show No, No Nanette, sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees to finance his show. I enjoyed reading about Dmitri Shostakovich's scoring of the song for orchestra (see volume 10 of the composer's collection works - Sobranie sochineniĭ v soroka dvukh tomakh). Gioia is at is best when he tells of how New York's finest jazz pianists seemed to try one-up each other with more brilliant renditions of this tune.
Many of these songs are well established within the Great American Songbook making the contents of this book elide well with our Dorothy Starr Collection of sheet music. The cover illustrations above all come from the collection. You will not find yourself always agreeing with Gioia's assessments, but he takes us on an entertaining and informative journey through this repertoire and will certainly entice you to listen to more jazz.
One of the tools of the old school reference librarian is the vertical file or newspaper clipping file. Even as more information is available to be searched on the internet and through databases, the Art, Music and Recreation Center continues to maintain and add to our files. In recent years we have been adding quite a bit less because we have stopped clipping articles from the San Francisco Chronicle (which has a strong online presence and a database that we subscribe to). But we continue make an effort to locate material in neighborhood and weekly papers.
Browsing through these files is always a serendipitous experience. You never know what you will find. In this entry, we will present a small snapshot of the sort of articles one might find using the Ballroom Dancing file.
Ballroom dance is an activity that takes place away from the glare of the public spotlight and involves amateurs and enthusiasts of all backgrounds. Skimming through this folder of at least 100 clippings one can see ballroom dancing as a continuous current flowing through our city's cultural life.
"Allure of Swinging Attracts Fans of All Ages to Amura Ballroom Dance Studio" by Shiela Husting appeared in the Sunset Beacon in July 2007. This article lists six dance studios in the Sunset District. Unfortunately, the Amura Ballroom Dance Studio has since shut down, despite rave reviews online.
"Ballroom Dancing Remains on the Hill," by Christina Li appeared in The Potrero View of June 2008. It discusses Cheryl Burke Dance taking over the space at 17th and DeHaro that was occupied for 17 years by the Metronome Ballroom. Both of these studios represent the past of 1830 17th Street which is scheduled to be torn down so the Smuin Ballet can build a studio there.
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"It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing!," by Karen Ahn appeared in San Francisco Downtown in July 1998. This article discusses a swing dance revival at spaces like Bimbo's, Cafe du Nord and The Inferno Lounge.
"Tea Dancing" by Joan Hockaday appeared in the San Francisco Progress on December 2, 1979. It describes a Friday night tea dancing event held at the Hyatt Regency at the Embarcadero.
"Strictly Ballroom, Dancing Classes for Kids," by Angela Neal Richardson appeared in the Nob Hill Gazette of October 1993. This article discusses The Mid-Weeklies, a series of dance classes for 6th, 7th and 8th graders. Dance is also taught to these children as a form of social etiquette.
"Strictly Ballroom... and Tango, Swing, Cha Cha..." by Kevin Davis appeared in The Guardsman, the student newspaper of the City College of San Francisco. This article discusses the school's ballroom dance classes. It includes this fascinating information: "The 2,200-strong dance community at City College is really a cult-like entity unto itself, extending out to a wide, underground movement."
Our newspaper clipping files provide a small window into this "underground" world. It shows that there is a devoted subculture of San Franciscans who sustain this art form. The popularity of different dance forms may wax and wane, dance venues may come and go, but the continuous enthusiasm and activity of these dancers remains documented in our files.
We have collected information into files on all aspects of the visual and performing arts as well as sports and recreation. We also have biographical files on visual and performing artists. Here are links to the indexes of our vertical file collection.
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