Giants Of The Past

image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection

The Library salutes the San Francisco Giants in the World Series with a small display of photos of the Giants from years past. courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library. Books on baseball are also here on the Fourth Floor.

Stop by the Library before or after attending the Giants Parade on October 31.

The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars

Once you’re dead you’re made for life.

--Jimi Hendrix

Halloween, the Day of the Dead and All Soul’s Day are perfect times to ruminate on death.  It is a time of the year when it is perfectly acceptable, even creditable, to indulge your morbid side by reading the obituaries, necrographies and death trivia of your favorite musicians.  To that end, we irreverently recommend The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars by Jeremy Simmonds.

Are you familiar with the Curse of the Buzzcocks? Do you know which popular singing group has more deceased members than any other pop act?  [The Drifters.]  Or which 1991 accident is considered “the biggest single band wipe-out ever in popular music history?”  [Plane crash, the Reba McEntire Band].

The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars consists of succinct articles arranged chronologically, in order of death date.  Each entry is preceded by symbols indicating cause of death, whether it be natural, heart attack, murder, accident, poisoning, and so on.  Indulge in the multi-icon artists!  Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Jim Morrison, and David McComb of the Triffids have five or more such symbols indicating complicated deaths (as well as lives, apparently).

This book is also peppered with interesting and prophetic quotes, such as:

‘You’re drinking with Number Three.’  

-- Jim Morrison, to friends after hearing of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix’s deaths.

‘I’ll probably be popped off by some loony!’ 

--John Lennon, interviewed during the sixties.

‘You win -- I gain.’ 

--Karen Carpenter’s cryptic crocheted message above her New York hospital bed, 1982.

Reading List:

The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches by Jeremy Simmonds (Chicago Review Press, 2008).  

The Rock and Roll Book of the Dead: The Fatal Journeysof Rock's Seven Immortals by David Comfort (Citadel Press, 2009).  

Better to Burn Out: The Cult of Death in Rock 'n Roll by Dave Thompson (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1999).

The Encyclopedia of Rock Obituaries by Nick Talevski (Omnibus Press, 1999).  

Take a Walk on the Dark Side: Rock and Roll Myths, Legends, and Curses by R. Gary Patterson (Fireside, 2004).  

"Rock Death in the 1970s: A Sweepstakes," from In theFascist Bathroom: Punk in Pop Music, 1977-1992 by Greil Marcus.

The 2012 San Francisco Giants - World Series Bound Once More

Our San Francisco Giants are National League Champions once again after coming from behind to win two dramatic playoff series against the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals.  Now it's on to Detroit!

The 2012 Giants share several players from the 2010 roster, and they also share a similar tendency to inflict delightful torture upon their fans.  In 2010 we presented a reading list of books covering San Francisco Giants history.  Since then, quite a few books have been published that allow readers to relive that magical season.



Several of these books are written by Bay Area sports journalists.  San Jose Mercury News reporter Andrew Baggarly has written A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants.  In this book, Baggarly brings the season back to life with personal anecdotes about players and the day-to-day experiences of the team.  This Is Our Time!: The 2010 San Francisco Giants World Series Champions, written by Chris Haft, the Giants' beat reporter for Mlb.com, also provides insights from his daily coverage of that team.  



Worth the Wait is a photographic celebration of the season featuring photography by Brad Magin; KNBR sports radio personality Brian Murphy, the author of San Francisco Giants: 50 Years, wrote the accompanying text and player profiles.  San Francisco Giants: Torture to Rapture recounts 2010 campaign through words and images from the San Francisco Chronicle.  Giant Surprise: San Francisco's 2010 World Champions is a richly illustrated summary of the team's playoff and World Series run.  

Two earlier books, Tales From the San Francisco Giants Dugout by Nick Peters and Giants Past And Present by Dan Fost have also been republished in updated editions that include the 2010 championship season.



Another recent title, 100 Things Giants Fans Should Know And Do Before They Die by Bill Chastain, features short chapters about 100 players and events from throughout the team's San Francisco. Finally, San Francisco Giants by Tricia O'Brien is a black and white photo collection spanning the team's history from its arrival in 1958 to 2011.


Let's hope this year's team will continue to give us exciting memories that will captured in future books about our San Francisco Giants.

Let's go Giants!


A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants by Andrew Baggarly (Triumph Books, 2011).

Giant Surprise: San Francisco's 2010 World Champions (Triumph Books, 2010).

Giants Past And Present by Dan Fost (MVP/MBI Pub. LLC, 2011).

100 Things Giants Fans Should Know And Do Before They Die by Bill Chastain (Triumph Books, 2011).

San Francisco Giants by Tricia O'Brien (Arcadia Pub., c2011).

San Francisco Giants: Torture to Rapture: 2010 World Series Champions (KCI Sports Pub., 2010).

Tales From The San Francisco Giants Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Giants Stories Ever Told by Nick Peters with Stuart Shea (Sports Pub., 2011).

This Is Our Time!: The 2010 San Francisco Giants World Series Champions: The Inside Story: Improbable, Wild, Unforgettable by Chris Haft and Eric Alan (Confluence Books, 2011).

Worth the Wait by Brian Murphy (Skybox Press, 2011).

"Your 2010 National League Champion San Francisco Giants: A Reading List," San Francisco Public Library Art, Music and Recreation Center [blog] (October 26, 2010).

Musicals!: A Complete Selection Guide for Local Productions

Richard Chigley Lynch's Musicals!: A Complete Selection Guide for Local Productions is one of the more useful and practical reference sources we use.  As the subtitle indicates, the purpose of the book is to assist anyone thinking of staging a musical.  It consists of an alphabetical listing of almost 500 musical theater works along with practical information about each of them.  While the information about the creators of each work is easy to come by in other sources, where this reference stands apart in supplying publication information about the work.

Musicals! gives bibliographic information about any published libretto (or script), condensations of the libretto, piano-vocal score, and when there is no piano-vocal score, whether there are vocal selections.

This is extraordinarily helpful information because in many cases, libretti and scores have not been commercially published.  Patrons are sometimes confused to learn that there is no published score or script for the music they seek.  But there is a logical reason for this--the rights holder of the work has made a decision that it is in their interest to make the scores and scripts available only on a rental basis.  Thus, Musicals! also includes another crucial bit of information - the Licensing Agent who owns the rights to each show.  They are also the ones who rent out performing material like scripts, performing scores and parts for the musicians in the pit.

Musicals! also gives information about commercially-released cast recordings (when they exist).  Finally, it also provides information about the numbers of actors and actresses needed to perform the work and a listing of songs from each show.

This resource also includes four indexes.  The first two provide contact information for the Licensing Agents and Publishers cited in the book.  There is also an index of composers, lyricists and librettists.  The final index is also very important - a song index to all of the numbers in each show included in the reference.

A copy of the 1984 edition of Musicals! is available to view online through archive.org for library users who register with Open Library.


Musicals!: A Complete Selection Guide For Local Productions by Richard Chigley Lynch, 2nd edition (American Library Association, 1994).

Introduction to Western Music: From Hildegard to Handel Fall 2012

The Art, Music & Recreation Center of the San Francisco Public Library in association with the University of the Commons (uotc.org) presents

INTRO TO WESTERN MUSIC: From Hildegard to Handel Fall 2012

Instructor: John Smalley

Recommended Texts:

• Joseph Kerman and Gary Tomlinson, Listen
• Joseph Machlis and Kristine Forney, The Enjoyment of Music
• Don Randel, The New Harvard Dictionary of Music
• Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin, Music in the Western World: A History in Documents
• Michael Chanan, Musica Practica: The Social Practice of Western Music from Gregorian Chant to Postmodernism

Online Resources

• Classical Music Library (a database of classical music recordings available through the San Francisco Public Library.Go to www.sfpl.org then eLibrary then eMusic.)
• Oxford Music Online (Go to www.sfpl.org then eLibrary then Articles & Databases.)
• IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music: http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page
• The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Page (lyrics and translations of thousands of song texts): http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/
• SFPL’s blog of music resources: http://www.delicious.com/AMRLibrarian

Course Description and Objectives:  This course examines Western art music in various political, economic, and aesthetic contexts and seeks to teach listening skills, a critical vocabulary for discussing music, and a greater appreciation for the complex roles of music in society. The course looks at changing genres and styles of music and discusses composers’ choices and assumptions, as well as those of their patrons and audiences, as we move chronologically from the Middle Ages through the Baroque era. Students’ critical perceptions and responses to the music and the readings will be eagerly sought.

Course Calendar - October–November 2012

10/7     Introduction.  Elements of music.

Medieval Music.  Ars antiqua.  Terms: “chant,” “organum,” “scale,” “monophony,” “tenor,” “cantus firmus.”

Anon., Haec dies (chant)

Anon., Haec dies (organum)

Anon., O mitissima/Virgo/Haec dies

Anon., Vere dignum

Anon., In paradisum

Pérotin, Diffusa est gratia

10/14   Sacred and secular monophony. Terms: “Fifth”

Hildegard of Bingen, Ordo Virtutum

Beatritz, Countess of Dia, A chantar mes al cor

            Ars Nova.  Terms: “motet,” “isorhythm,” “polyphony,” “imitative polyphony,” “non-imitative polyphony,” “third”

Machaut, Quant en moy 

10/21   Renaissance Music.  Terms: “mass,” “motet,” “madrigal,” “cadence,” “word painting”

Josquin, Pange lingua Mass, Kyrie

Josquin, Pange lingua Mass, Gloria

Josquin, Ave Maria

Thomas Weelkes, As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending

10/28   NO CLASS

11/4     Baroque Music.  Terms: “opera,” “recitative,” “aria” “ritornello,” “ritornello form,”

“sequence.”

Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, “Thy Hand, Belinda”

Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, “When I Am Laid”

Baroque Concerto.  Ritornello form. Baroque keyboard music

Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, “Spring,” mvt. 1

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Gigue

11/11   Baroque Concerto (cont.) and Oratorio. Terms: “fugue,” oratorio.”

Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, mvt. 1

Bach, Fugue in C- sharp major

Oratorio.

Handel, Messiah, “There Were Sheperds”

Handel, Messiah, “Glory to God”

Handel, Messiah, Hallelujah Chorus

Books, CDs and Scores to Get Ready for the 12th Annual Hardly Bluegrass Festival Festival

Books, Recordings and Scores to Get Ready for the 12th Annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2012 on October 5,6,7  in Golden Gate Park

Now in its 12th year, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is an annual, free festival held in Golden Gate Park during the first weekend of October. When the festival began in 2001, there were only 2 stages, 9 bands performed, and there was still plenty of room to walk around Speedway Meadow. Over the years it has grown to an astounding 6 stages with over 90 acts and estimations of 800,000 in attendance for the three days of the festival. Initially, the festival focused specifically on bluegrass bands and included big names such as Ralph Stanley, Hazel Dickens, Earl Scruggs, and Alison Krauss. More recently, the lineup has expanded far beyond “strictly bluegrass” to include rock groups and musicians such as Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, and even comedian Steve Martin and his band.

This will be the first year of the festival since benefactor and banjo player, Warren Hellman passed away. Luckily, for festival fans, Mr. Hellman’s will has provided for the event's continued funding for at least another decade. Don’t miss this incredible 3 day festival with one of the most impressive lineups of any festival running in recent years. It’s also a good idea to plan what bands you want to catch ahead of time to ensure you beat the crowds while you rush to the next stage. Here are some books and music suggestions available at the San Francisco Public Library to expand your bluegrass repertoire.


Scores

The American Fiddler: Old-time, Bluegrass, Cajun, and Texas Style Fiddle Tunes of the USA, selected and arranged by Edward Huws Jones (Boosey & Hawkes, 1998).

Banjo Song Book: A Collection of Over 75 Bluegrass, Old-time Fiddle, and Classical tunes in Tablature for the 5-string Banjo by Tony Trischka (Oak Publications, 1977).

Monroe Instrumentals: 25 Bill Monroe Favorites (Mel Bay Publications, 2002)

Parking Lot Picker's Songbook: Banjo Edition by Bill Evans & Dix Bruce (Mel Bay Publications, 2007).

Rare Bird Alert by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers (Homespun Tapes, 2011).

 
Books

Banjo Camp!: Learning, Picking & Jamming with Bluegrass and Old-time Greats by Zhenya Gene Senyak (Lark Books, 2008).
 
The Bill Monroe Reader, edited by Tom Ewing (University of Illinois Press, 2000).

Rural Roots of Bluegrass: Songs, Stories & History by Wayne Erbsen (Native Ground Music, 2003). Also available as a streaming audio book. 

Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music In America, edited By Paul Kinsgbury And Alanna Nash (New York : DK, 2006). 

Working Girl Blues: The Life and Music of Hazel Dickens by Hazel Dickens and Bill C. Malone (University of Illinois Press, 2008)


Recordings

Appalachian Bluegrass Legacy: 25 Vintage Bluegrass & Mountain Classics (Rural Rhythm Records, 2009).
  
Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys: All the Classic Releases, 1937-1949 (JSP Records, 2003).

Classic Bluegrass from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways Records, 2002). Also available as streaming audio.

The Mountain by Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band (New West, 2009).

** We have additional recordings by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Doc Watson, Ralph Stanley and other Hardly Strictly Bluegrass favorites.





Online Databases with Streaming Audio

Many wonderful bluegrass and folk recordings are available through our music databases. Go to homepage - sfpl.org.  Select “eLibrary” from the top navigation bar, then “eMusic” from the drop-down menu.  From the eMusic page, the following databases offer a great deal of American folk and down-home music:

American Song
Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries

What is the Red Book? What is the Blue Book?

Two of our most popular reference books are A Guide Book of United States Coins and Handbook of United States Coins.  These are know to us familiarly as the Red Book and the Blue Book, respectively. 

 Despite their different colors, these books are maddeningly similar.  They share the same author, same editor and same publisher.  They both provide pricing information for United States coins according to year, denomination and mint.  So the question is, which of these references sources should you use and when?

The introduction to the Guide Book (Red Book) states that its aim is to give "retail prices figured data from the listed contributors approximately two months prior to publication."  In other words, the prices in this source are a composite of the prices at which dealers have been selling their coins.  It also describes the reasons why a coin's price might fluctuate.

The front and back covers of the Handbook (Blue Book) boasts that it is the "#1 best-selling book on dealer coin prices."  The introduction of this volume reads: "The values shown are representative prices paid by dealers for various United States coins."  It also notes that "[o]n some issues slight differences in price among dealers may result from proximity to the various mints or heavily populated centers."

The most important single factor in determining the price of a coin is its condition.  Top price is always paid for uncirculated, unblemished coins.  These books both detail the varying degrees of condition of coins from About Good (AG-3) -- "very heavily worn" to "Perfect Uncirculated (MS-70) -- the "finest quality possible." 

So, to sum up: the Guide Book (Red Book) is the approximate price that the coin dealer will sell the coin to you for; the Handbook (Blue Book) is the approximate price that the coin dealer will buy the coin from you for.  Naturally the former price is higher.  A dealer will sell a proof (PF-65) 1996 quarter from the San Francisco mint for $5.00, but will buy it from you for $1.75.  Thus it pays to look at both books to understand how to get the best price for your coins.

We receive new editions of both of these books annually - our old copy of both of these books in 1953.  Having a large range of years can help the collector understand the fluctuation of coin values over the years and also can help an appraiser understand the historic value of coins.


A Guide Book of United States Coins (Western Pub. Co., annual).

Handbook of United States Coins: With Premium List (Western Pub. Co., Whitman Hobby Division, annual)