Re-opening The Art, Music and Recreation Center

After a long pandemic hiatus, the Art, Music and Recreation Center of the San Francisco Public is open again!  

Come back to enjoy our Etching and Engraving Picture File of 19th century engravings cataloged by subject.

"Parties" - images from the Etching and Engraving Picture File

Peruse our popular song book collections.

Page through beautifully illustrated exhibition catalogs.

Take a spin with our collection of vintage vinyl.

Visit our webpage to learn more about the resources of the Art, Music and Recreation Center.  We also have a listing of Art and Music related online databases.

If you can't visit us at the Fourth Floor at the top of the stairs in the Main Library, you can reach us by phone as 415-557-4525 or by email at artmusicrec@sfpl.org.

Presentation: The Kinks

A virtual talk and slideshow by 

Richie Unterberger

Rock historian and author Richie Unterberger presents an event spotlighting the prime work of the Kinks, one of the greatest British rock groups. Paced by the witty songwriting of singer Ray Davies and fiery guitar of his brother Dave, the band moved from the raucous British Invasion rock of their first hits in the mid-1960s to deft satirical observations of English life and eccentric characters. This program spotlights classics like “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the Night,” “A Well Respected Man,” “Sunny Afternoon,” “Waterloo Sunset” and “Lola,” as well as other highlights from their career in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including volumes on the Beatles, the Who, the Velvet Underground, Bob Marley and 1960s folk-rock. He teaches courses on rock and soul music history at several Bay Area colleges. His next book, to be published by Taschen in 2022, is San Francisco: Portrait of a City.

Tuesday, January 4th

noon - 1:30pm

Register HERE!

This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

Titles available in the Art, Music & Recreation Center on the Kinks:

Americana : the Kinks, the riff, the road : the story / Ray Davies                780.2 D2887a2 

God save the Kinks : a biography / Rob Jovanovic                                        780.2 ZK62jo  

Kink : an autobiography / Dave Davies                                                  780.2 ZK62d 1997  

The Kinks : a thoroughly English phenomenon / Carey Fleiner                    784.5 ZK621f  

The Kinks : all day and all of the night / by Doug Hinman                            780.2 ZK62hi

The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society / Andy Miller            780.2 ZK62mi 

The Kinks kronikles / John Mendelssohn                                                     784.5 ZK621m 

The Kinks : the official biography / by Jon Savage                                       784.5 ZK621s  

Ray Davies : a complicated life / Johnny Rogan                                    780.2 D2887r 2016  

The story of the Kinks : you really got me / Nick Hasted                             780.2 ZK62ha 

X-ray / Ray Davies                                                                                          780.2 D2887a  

Wagner, Eight Hands and the Boston Music Company

The restoration of the San Francisco Public Library Main Library after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire resulted in the creation of a Music Department and a robust collection of scores and sheet music.  Julian Waybur, who can rightly be considered the founder of our "Music Library," wrote in 1920:

Before 1906 there were but 105 volumes in the music division--today, roughly speaking our list comprises 309 opera scores, 311 song volumes, 1260 for piano, 33 for organ, 272 for violin, 83 for violoncello, miscellaneous 25 unbound music, song, piano, violin, etc,... The volumes of bound music contain thousands of pieces.

He attributed the continued growth of the this collection greatly to City Librarian Robert Rea ("the present most efficient librarian"). However, the earliest scores added to the collection came through post-earthquake donations.  Waybur made special note of one large and significant donation:

It is well that the music-lovers and musicians of California should know that the greatest indebtedness of the San Francisco Public Library is to the Boston Music Company, a branch of G. Schirmer's music house in New York, which in 1909 turned over its complete music circulating library to our public library.

Indeed, some of the rarest and most unusual scores in our reference stacks came from this donation. The City Librarian's report of 1911 noted that the library bound nearly all of the unbound items in the Boston Music Company in Holliston Mills library buckram "as it is strong and durable and less expensive than leather." The assumption when one reads of this donation is that these were works published by Schirmer and the Boston Music Company, but many are European publications that are today very rare.

The historical significance of this acquisition was great enough that it is acknowledged on the Wall of Library Heroes at the Larkin Street entrance to the Main Library. This inscription incorrectly identifies this as a purchase when it was in fact a gift from the Boston Music Company.

Among these rarities bestowed upon us were chamber works arranged for 2 Pianos, 8 Hands.  In case you need help with the math, this ensemble consists of 2 pianos with 2 pianists seated at each bench, each contributing 2 hands - (2+2)+(2+2).  While today may seem rather an extravagance to gather so many pianists together to realize a composition, this kind of music making was popular in the late 19th century into the early 20th century.  

Before the dawn of recordings and radio if you wanted to experience a musical work, somebody had to perform it.  In fact, you might have to play it yourself.  Smaller works might be realized by a single pianist, but large scale works like symphonies and opera could require larger forces (and more hands to pitch in). There is also something very gratifying about getting "inside" of a work and participating with others in its realization.

The subject headings used for music written for these forces is Piano music (Pianos (2), 8 hands), Arranged -- Parts.  Or some times it's classified by the genre being realized.  Just a keyword search for "8 hands" in quotes limited to scores will bring up the greatest number of results in our collection.

One of the Holliston Mills buckram bound sets of unbound items is a collection of 20 arrangements for 2 pianos and 8 hands of works by Richard Wagner.  Some of these works are actually arrangements of virtuosic concert piano pieces by Franz Liszt based on Wagner's music.

You can browse the contents of these works online at the call number 786.48 W12c.

In the pre-computer days, library circulation was recorded by a slip inside the book or score.  It was filed with the due date and library card number recorded.  In the case of this collection's circulation there are a few fascinating details.  First, on July 27, 1916 this volume was loaned to "Seeger U.C." with "Mr. Rea's perm.[ission]."  

The Seeger in question had to be the famed musicologist and composer Charles Seeger, then a professor at the University of California Berkeley and not yet the father of the even more famous folksinger Pete Seeger.  It's also striking to note that the earliest activity for this volume happened even before the opening of the Music Department in the soon-to-be completed (1917) Main Library. 

The other special note on the circulation slip reads "Alma Rother, Poly."  This refers to head of the music department at Polytechnic High School.  A search through our San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner databases will bring up many performances by Alma Rother and her high school students.

One additional delight can be found on the date due slip on the inside of the volume.  The reminder to take good care of library material and return it promptly is rather sternly and curtly stated (in a scolding passive voice):

Careful usage of books is expected, and any soiling, injury or loss is to be paid for by the borrower. A fine of five cents will be imposed for each day or fraction thereof that this book is kept overdue.

That nickel fine today, with inflation, would be more than a dollar. We should all continue to hope for "careful usage" to prevent "injury" to our publicly-owned collections.

Bibliography:

Nunan, Thomas, "One of the Best Collections of Published Music Works Belongs to San Francisco," San Francisco Examiner (September 22, 1912).

Report of the Board of Trustees of  San Francisco Public Library for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30 , 1911 ([The Library, 1911).

"Tablet Dedicated to Julian Waybur," San Francisco Chronicle (November 27, 1927)

Waybur, Julian R. "Music of the San Francisco Public Library," News Notes of California Libraries (April 1920).

Workshop: Hand Woven Wall Art

 MakeArt program with the Museum of Craft & Design

Join the Art, Music & Recreation Center and the Museum of Craft & Design for a virtual hand weaving workshop. This textile craft opportunity is inspired by SFPL 4th Floor's Pandemic Pastimes and MCD's Mode Brut exhibitions.

In this workshop, learn basic techniques and foundational weave structures to create your own mini-tapestry. Free MakeArt Kits with all the necessary supplies will be available at the 4th floor reference desk. Call (415) 557-4488 to check availability. One must be registered for the workshop to receive a kit.

You can also use your own supplies:

• Stiff cardboard approx. 7" x 12"
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil
• String
• Variety of different sized yarns and cur fabric strips

Optional:

• Plastic embroidery needle
• Dowel or natural stick (7" x 12" depending on cardboard size)

WEDNESDAY 11/10/21

4:00PM - 5:00PM

REGISTER HERE

Hand weaving and textile craft resources can be found in our collections under the general call numbers 745.5 and 746.

This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library

Donald Pippin (1925-2021)

Donald Pippin's contributions to San Francisco's musical life are so great that they deserve a stand-alone blog.  In addition to being a consummate musician, he was also an author and impresario.  After Pippin's passing away on July 7, 2021, Janos Gereben wrote a fine tribute and short biography of Pippin for the San Francisco Classical Voice.  Joshua Kosman's appreciative memorial in the San Francisco Chronicle includes photographs from across Pippin's career.

Donald Pippin's most notable creation was The Pocket Opera -- a musical theater company presenting operatic performances stripped to their essentials using libretti translated by Pippin into English. Opera is usually an opulent and very expensive spectacle. In 1987 he opined, "I think that the grandeur has been overemphasized at the expense of the human element." Pippin sought to bring the widest possible range of opera down to earth, available to everyone.  

Pippen: "I'm interested in what I'm doing, I love opera. I love music. I love words." (source: photo by Rob Cardin, Image March 29, 1987. Musicians and Performing Artists File)

The San Francisco Public Library has many of Donald Pippin's translated libretti in our collection. Many of his libretti have also been archived by Stanford University and are available online. A Pocketful of Wry is a delightful oral history where Pippin recounts his various musical adventures is also available online through the Online Archive of California.

Donald Pippin's musical activities were documented frequently in San Francisco newspapers. A search of the San Francisco Chronicle Current and Historical database produces 2,648 results and search of the San Francisco Examiner Historical databases produces another 1,820 results.  A large number of these are concert announcements.

One of the earliest mentions of Donald Pippin in the Chronicle is the story of how the legendary Arthur Fiedler (conductor of the Boston Pops and the San Francisco Symphony Pops summer concerts) discovered Pippin at the famed hungry i nightclub. The critic describes Pippin emerging from the milieu of a murky basement bar "which caters to many different kinds of bohemians and also to many different kinds of tourists who are anxious to seem how many different kinds of bohemians there are."

source: San Francisco Chronicle August 10, 1953

He played at the club five nights a week, constantly working up more and more classical repertoire. In his oral history he described the San Francisco Symphony Pops concert sneaking up on him, still unprepared.

The performance was set for early August, and here it was the middle of June and I had not even started learning the Rhapsody. Now, this is insane. Looking back, I can still get cold shudders. This is the recurrent nightmare of any performer: you're unprepared but you've still got a week to get ready, then a single day, then you're on the way to the auditorium, and you've still not had time to look at the music.

He added - and this underlies the daring behind all of his creative endeavors: 

Listen, there's nothing like ignorance. Ignorance is invaluable, irreplaceable. Yes, I was just stupid and ignorant enough to think I could. And so I did. 

Pippin is rightfully acclaimed for creating the Pocket Opera, but there may be no impresario who presented a wider range and repertoire of chamber music in San Francisco than him.  At the outset he was supported by his employer at the hungry i -- Enrico Banducci, a classical music lover himself.  Pippin remembered that he "always tried for quiet attentive audiences. Enrico Banducci was very helpful and used to rap knuckles when his patrons became too noisy."

His performance series started with him as a soloist, but he gradually added vocalists and instrumentalists that he accompanied. He moved through a number of North Beach venues after the hungry i -- the Purple Onion, Opus One, The New Broadway Theater, and for his longest run, The Old Spaghetti.  Pippin described the scene of that time:

At that time, nightlife was ebullient, and North Beach was the center of it. There were many places of interest, and people tended to make a night of it, hopping from one barroom to another--from the hungry i to The Purple Onion, from Vesuvio's to The Black Cat. Conversation flourished and interest in classical music was rampant. It was this lively carnival atmosphere of people out exploring that spilled over into our new venture.

Donald Pippin Presents Sunday Night Concerts (December 1971) - source: Musicians and Performing Artists File

The Pocket Opera group out of the chamber music of his Sunday Night Concerts at The Old Spaghetti Factory. A December 1971 performance that featured a piano four hands Sonata by Mozart also included a rendition of the one act opera The Marriage Broker (Женитьба / Zhenit'ba) by Modest Moussorgsky.  

These Sunday Night Concerts introduced a wide and eclectic range of chamber, vocal and operatic music.  The performances ranged from Medieval and Renaissance music (with period instruments), through the classics, to newly premiered compositions with composer in attendance.  James Cleghorn, the head of the Music Department and later the Art and Music Department of the San Francisco Public Library in the 1950s and 1960s, had a few compositions debut on a Saturday Night Concert at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

For those interested in further exploring the mark that Donald Pippin made upon San Francisco musical life we have files on Pippin himself, The Pocket Opera and The Old Spaghetti Factory. Ask at the Art, Music and Recreation Center reference desk.

Bibliography:

"Diva Talks To Donald Pippin," Diva: A Publication For Bay Area Operaphiles vol. 3, no. 8 (August 1975). [Art, Music and Recreation Center Musicians and Performing Artists Vertical File].

Hagan, R.H., "Fiedler Finds A Pianist In North Beach," San Francisco Chronicle (August 12, 1953).

Gereben, Janos, "RIP Donald Pippin: Pocket Opera Mourns The Death of Its Founder," San Francisco Classical Voice (July 12, 2021).

Kosman, Joshua, "Donald Pippin, Witty Populist on Behalf of Opera Dies at 95," San Francisco Chronicle (July 9, 2021).

Pippin, Donald. European Operetta in English, Volume 2 (Pocket Opera Press, 2017).

Pippin, Donald. French Opera in English, Volume 1 (Pocket Opera Press, 2017).

Pippin, Donald. Opera in English [4 volumes] (Pocket Opera Press, 2007-2008).

Pippin, Donald. A Pocketful of Wry: An Impresario's Life in San Francisco and the History of the Pocket Opera, 1950s-2001, interviews conducted by Caroline C. Crawford (Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, 2001).

Pippin, Donald. A Pocketful of Wry: An Oral History of Donald Pippin and Pocket Opera, based on tell-all interviews with Caroline Crawford (Pocket Opera, 2001?).

Reynolds, Richard, "Pocket of Talent: Donald Pippin Presents Grand Opera on a Small Scale," Image (March 29, 1987), 9-10. [Art, Music and Recreation Center Musicians and Performing Artists Vertical File].

The Most Circulated Books - Fiscal Year 2020-2021

Often the lists of most circulated titles in the Art, Music & Recreation Center are dominated by celebrity artists and entertainers. Topping the list of the past twelve months we still have Trevor Noah's memoir Born A Crime -- a consistently very popular read for the past five years.  Other celebrity memoirs by the late Alex Trebek, embattled director Woody Allen and actor Matthew McConaughey also appear on this list of the 15 top circulating books in our department.

In this year of lock-down and limited library services our borrowers have made some other interesting reading choices.  The 99% Invisible City proved to be almost as popular as Noah's book. This volume is a companion to the 400+ episode podcast that originated in 2010 as 5 minute segments on KALW produced in collaboration with the American Institute of Architects. The series revealed design decisions embedded in the buildings and infrastructure all around us.  (One of our department's librarians was interviewed for episode #354).

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, published in 1977, complements The 99% Invisible City.  Instead of exploring an existing infrastructure, the authors of this work propose ways to make the constructed environment more livable. It covers elements of city planning, architecture plus interior design and decoration. 

Interior Design Master Class continues in this vein, collecting the thinking of one hundred designers who explore a multitude of topics and viewpoints to help the reader arrive at their own interior decorating solutions.  Further reflecting a focus on interiority brought on by our shelter in place, A Frame For Life from 2014 also explores a "human centered" approach to constructing and decorating a space.

Although it was published six years ago, the narrative art book Tales From The Loop has consistently circulated well, undoubtedly owing to the science fiction television series that it spawned.  Solutions And Other Problems is the companion Allie Brosh's 2013 humorous graphic memoir, Hyperbole And A Half.

Art critic Jerry Saltz's How To Be An Artist delivers on its title providing ideas for promoting and creating ones creative work. Maria Konnikova's memoir The Biggest Bluff describes her process of learning to master poker and through the process provide insights into achieving greater focus and self-mastery.

Happy reading.

Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (Spiegel & Grau, 2016).

The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide To The Hidden World Of Everyday Design by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020).

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey (Crown, 2020).

A Very Punchable Face: A Memoir by Colin Jost (Crown, 2020).

Tales From The Loop, Simon Stålenhag editor (Design Studio Press, 2015).

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, with Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, Shlomo Angel (Oxford University Press, 1977).

Solutions And Other Problems by Allie Brosh (Gallery Books, 2020).

Interior Design Master Class: 100 Lessons From America's Finest Designers On The Art Of Decoration, edited by Carl Dellatorre (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2016).

The Answer Is ..: Reflections On My Life by Alex Trebek (Simon & Schuster, 2020).

How To Be An Artist by Jerry Saltz (Riverhead Books, 2020).

The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned To Pay Attention, Master Myself, And Win by Maria Konnikova (Penguin Press, 2020).

Sing Backwards And Weep: A Memoir by Mark Lanegan (Hachette Books, 2020).

Apropos Of Nothing: Autobiography by Woody Allen (Arcade Publishing, 2020).

A Frame For Life: The Designs Of Studioilse by Ilse Crawford (Rizzoli, 2014).

Music & Society Since 1815

In person live music making has suffered greatly during the pandemic. It's been especially hard on classical concert music which depends on musicians working closely together and reacting to each other. All the major concert institutions have shut down or have had to invent radically new ways of making and creating music together.

Henry Raynor's 1976 book, Music & Society Since 1815, is a telling of the ways that the traditional concert institutions came to be.  Almost all of the elements of classical music and the roles of classical musicians came arose in the 19th century.  Raynor chooses 1815 as a starting point because it represents an approximate year when concert music changed from being supported by rich and powerful royal families and nobility to being supported by a combination of government support and the marketplace (the public purchasing tickets and music).

The conductor as we know it only began to exist during the early to mid-1800s. Originally the first chair violinist or a piano soloist might start a work and try to hold it together, but an actual musician who rehearses and directs an ensemble only started to become a norm in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Piano recitals are a normal part of concert life, but the earliest such performances only began in the 1830s. A virtuoso like Franz Liszt popularized such concerts, but they were not the formal events we expect today; Liszt would take breaks from playing to mingle with his audience. String quartets -- a chamber ensemble consisting of two violinists, a violist and cellist -- had existed since the eighteenth century, but the first permanent professional string quartet only came into being in 1869.  

Raynor describes the difficulties of founding and maintaining symphony orchestras in Europe and the United States. The best instrumentalists were often engaged in the theater and opera orchestras and it was not economically advantageous for them to work on "serious" concert music.  The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra formed in 1911 at first depended on musicians who had several other gigs.

Choral societies became popular in Germany because they were democratically run organizations in an autocratic society. In Great Britain brass bands became widespread through the sponsorship of factory owners. Engagement with music, it was hopedm would help promote temperance among the factory hands.

Women do not play a big role in Raynor's account; almost all of the musical action in this history was contributed by men. Women are mentioned as the occasional diva, concert virtuoso, or as part of a "women's auxiliary" for an orchestra. This is a shortcoming.

In a chapter entitled "The Great Schism," Raynor also address he calls "light" music -- a category of music that he does not take lightly.  As concert music became more specialized and rarified there continued to be a strong audience for music that was easier on the ears. Waltzes by the Strauss family and operettas by the likes of Offenbach and Gilbert and Sullivan are given serious treatment.  While not given much space, American vernacular forms like ragtime and jazz are also shown respect in Raynor's account.  He has far less use for rock and roll which he finds rhythmically monotonous.

Music & Society Since 1815 is a very worthwhile read for those interested learning how the classical music tradition came to be.

Music And Society Since 1815 by Henry Raynor (Barrie and Jenkins, 1976). - also available to borrow from the Internet Archive.