Women of Country Music

Women's History Month: Women in Country Music

From cowgirls to "redneck women," women have been performing country music since its early days. The style was the same but the subjects were often different from men's songs. While men sang about hard-drinking and honky-tonks, women sang laments about the rough choices facing the women who love hard-drinking men.

The Music Collection has music by women from every generation of country music:

Patsy Cline

Tammy Wynette

Loretta Lynn

Dolly Parton

Emmylou Harris

Bonnie Raitt

Carrie Underwood

Reba Macintire

Wynona Judd

Lee Ann Womack

Kathy Mattea

Mary-Chapin Carpenter

Faith Hill

Shania Twain

Trisha Yearwood

Dixie Chicks

Gretchen Wilson

Taylor Swift

Women's History Month: Researching Women in Music

Researching Women in Music


Because women have been involved to some degree in every period and genre of music, researching women in music should start with a general background in the styles of your subject(s). The most famous, and sometimes infamous, women of the period are usually represented in general music history books. Unfortunately, some period histories leave out out women completely. This is where specialized bibliographies and subject-specific search strategies come in.

The keywords for Library of Congress official subjects vary. For biographical books about a specific woman, use her name and "biography" as general keywords. To see all biographies about women musicians or composers (LC differentiates), use these keywords in a subject search:
women and biography and (musicians or composers). For a specific woman, use her name and "biography" in a keyword search.

Databases on BSU's Articles and Databases Music Subject page include online versions of reference books as well as periodical indexes. The Oxford Music Online includes the New Grove online and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music.

Periodical indexes outside of RILM (the main music index) may include articles about women in music because music is part of the broader culture that would be studied as history or feminist studies. Use MultiSearch to search RILM, CardCat, and other databases simultaneously.

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Search CardCat for compact discs of Women and Music

Search CardCat for books on Women in Music

Have an Irish Sing-Along for St. Paddy's Day!

...or tap your toes to music from the Music Collection! The Music Collection can supply you with CDs and scores to make your celebration more authentic. Use the libraries' World Music Media Finder to search for music by country. You can select recordings, scores (sheet music) or books.

The Irish have a great sense of humor and you can join in the fun with Sing Up! Irish Comic Songs & Satires for Every Occasion. If you're really adventurous, pick up a fiddle and play some Celtic Fiddle Tunes

If toe-tapping and dancing are more to your liking, check out CDs by these artists:
The Chieftains (traditional music)
Clannad (popular music)
Sinéad O'Connor (modern rocker)
Eileen Ivers (fiddler)

Or some fun compilation albums:
Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea
Play On: Celtic Fiddle Festival
Live in Belfast (The Irish Tenors)

The Music Collection also has books on every facet of Irish music:
Music in Ireland: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture

The Making of Irish Traditional Music

Exploring Irish Music and Dance

Tuned Out: Traditional Music and Identity in Northern Ireland

Women Rock! (Women's History Month)

Rock & Roll was dominated by men in its infancy, and throughout its history, women have been a tiny minority amongst top rockers. Notable exceptions of the 1960s were Grace Slick, lead singer of the Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and Cass Elliott of the Mamas & the Papas.

The singer-songwriter movement was only slightly more welcoming, opening the doors for such artists as Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell.

A few women crossed over the divide between R&B and rock and again were notable as exceptions, such as Patti Labelle and Gladys Knight, and Tina Turner.

Later, women carved a niche for themselves in the "alt" or "indie" rock scene, returning to the singer-songwriter or R&B roots for inspiration. The 1990s saw an explosion of unique voices coming from theh "fairer" sex.

The Music Collection has compact discs by these and many other women:

Tracy Chapman

Eva Cassidy

Cranberries

Fiona Apple

Sarah McLachlan

Alanis Morissette

Jewel

Tori Amos

Scholars in such diverse fields as Music History and Sociology have started to study the role of women in popular music and the unique message women bring to the airwaves. Use the subject Women Rock Musicians
to find more books on this unique facet of women's history in the Music Collection. For stories of individual musicians, you can search through the selections of biographies using the subject Rock Musicians Biography

Women's History Month

March is Women's History month, and music has been one of the few fields that welcomed women at the highest levels throughout history. Still, women composers were the exception rather than the rule until recent times. Women were permitted on the stage as singers and pianists, but rarely in other capacities. Similarly, in popular music styles, more women have been performers than songwriters but still in the minority.

Historians have worked hard to discover and uncover the music of women, and fruits of this work are represented in books, CDs, and scores available in the Music Collection. For an overview, check out the score & CD set by James Briscoe, The New Historical Anthology of Music By Women. Use the subject Music by Women Composers to find books, CDs, and scores in the Music Collection.

The Music Collection has CDs, books, and scores (sheet music) by women composers and performers from every era and in every genre.

Female classical composers usually needed special circumstances to have their music heard. Hildegard von Bingen, musician, artist and philosopher of the Middle Ages is an example. Being a nun gave her the opportunity to express herself. Later women composers also relied on special circumstances or support. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel benefitted from her social position to have her music heard, but published some of her songs under her famous brother's name.

Use the subject keywords Women Musicians to find books, CDs, and scores in the Music Collection, and DVDs in Educational Resources.

Women and Music: A Research and Information Guide, is an excellent bibliography to help you get started on a research project. It is available in the Reference Books area of the Music Collection.

Black History Month: R&B

Today, R&B means a very specific style, but the term originated in the days of segregation, when record stores put music by blacks in one part of the store and music by whites in another part.

The Music Collection has CDs from every era of rhythm & blues. A very special reference collection (can only be streamed to carrels, not checked out) is a multi-disc sampler from important R&B label, Atlantic Records, covering 1947-1974. Another important label is Motown, whose artists included Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye and others.

Recent stars are also represented in the collection, such as Beyoncé and Mariah Carey.

Use the subject Rhythm and blues music to find more fine artists in the Music Collection.

Black History Month: Blues

The Blues developed in the first few decades of the twentieth century when life was hard and people were freer to express their feelings than under slavery. Blues musicians traveled throughout the Mississippi Delta, accompanying themselves on guitar. Probably the most famous of the itinerant blues musicians was
Robert Johnson
whose recordings would influence diverse musicians of later generations such as Eric Clapton and "The Blues Brothers."

Other influential blues musicians are B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix, Taj Mahal, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The blues went on to influence rock music, and some rock musicians evolved a style of blues-rock, sometimes called "roots rock."

The Music Collection has over 200 Blues CDs from all eras and in all styles. Use the Library's Media Finder to search for blues or other styles of music. To hear an excellent compilation from the entire history of the blues, check out the CDs for Martin Scorsese's The Blues televsion series.

Black History Month: Classical Composers

Not all music by black musicians is in the popular vein. The earliest famous Classical composer was the eighteenth-century Afro-French composer Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who conducted the premiere of Haydn's "Paris" Symphonies. He is sometimes referred to as the "Black Mozart" ("Le Mozart Noir").

The most famous nineteenth-century black composer was the Afro-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, called the "African Mahler." His best-known composition is Hiawatha.

The Harlem Renaissance inspired some composers to incorporate African-American themes into their compositions. The most famous example is William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony.

There are many more Classical musicians of African descent, and the best place to read up on them is in the International Dictionary of Black Composers, found in the Music Collection Reference area (ML 105 .I5 1999).

The Music Collection's 17,000+ CDs include examples from the wide diversity of black musical styles, both Classical and popular. For books, recordings and sheet music, search African-Americans and Music in CardCat.

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

How can you celebrate Mardi Gras without music? Check out these CDs to help you celebrate Mardi Gras:

Putumayo Presents New Orleans

Mardi Gras in New Orleans

Lousiana Spice: 25 Years of Lousiana Music on Rounder Records

The Music Collection has a wide selection of zydeco music to get your feet moving!

And if the music piques your interest, read up on it in

Musical Gumbo: The Music of New Orleans

"Find it" replaced by "Multilink"

You've probably already used the "Find it" button to move from a database to either full-text, CardCat or Interlibrary loan. The same functionality is available through a feature called "Multilink," which replaces "Find It." As in the past, RILM Abstracts of Music, Oxford Music Online (which includes the Grove Dictionary) and IIMP (International Index to Music Periodicals) will be integrated with full-text, CardCat and Interlibrary loan through this feature. After clicking on "Multilink BSU" you will see a results page that gives you links to online sources and to Cardcat, Interlibrary Loan, and Worldcat if there is no online source available.

Music databases can be accessed here: http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/databases/index.php?tab=subject&subject=56

For more information, read the Multilink FAQ:

http://www.bsu.edu/library/article/0,,61806--,00.html

Music of Haiti

Haiti's recent tragedy has brought the culture and spirit of its people into the forefront of the national media. If news stories featuring Haitian music have piqued your interest, check out these CDs:

Welcome to Haiti, Wyclef Jean
Rough Guide to the Music of Haiti
Caribbean Playground

Haitian music includes well developed art music:
Vodou Nation: Haitian Art Music and Cultural Nationalism

Use World Music Media Finder to search for music by country or region.

Music for Valentine's Day

Want a little help setting the mood for your Valentine date? Check out these CDs from the Music Collection:

Classical Love Songs (mostly opera arias)

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (Derek & The Dominos)

All About Love by Christian musician Steven Chapman

Love Songs, Dionne Warwick

My Funny Valentine, Miles Davis

You’re Sensational: Cole Porter in the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s, & ‘50s

Para Siempre, Vicente Fernandez

Amore, Andrea Bocelli

...and if this isn’t your year to celebrate Valentine’s Day, we have plenty of blues for you to sing along with!

Music of Africa

The Music Collection has books and CDs to help you explore the music of Africa.

For a start, check out the Garland Handbook of African Music, which comes with a CD. This book gives you an overview, with information about African musical ideals and individual regional styles.

The World Music Media Finder gives you the option to search for CDs of music of a region or specific country, or even a specific language.


African musical ideas are at the heart of African-American style. One book in the Music Collection links African aesthetics to the blues: Africa and the Blues. This book is also available online (From the CardCat Detailed view, click on the URL)

Slaves brought to the Western hemisphere came mainly from Western Africa. Call-and-Response musical styles in the U.S. are indebted to that practice brought to the West by slaves.

By the end of the twentieth century, African musicians began to incorporate African-derived American genres into African styles. Fela Kuti's "worldbeat" movement is an example of this. Other African musicians have adapted reggae and rap and made it their own.

Feel free to ask for help at the Music Collection Counter or over the phone (285-8188). The Music Collection is broad and diverse, and whatever music you want to explore "We can take you there."

Black History Month

The Music Collection has books, CDs, and scores for exploration of almost any musical facet of black music history. From classical composers, such as William Grant Still to iconic jazz masters like Miles Davis, and classic rappers like Tupac Shakur, the history of black music is rich and varied.

Check out the display table in the main lobby for books and CD covers, and the browser on the Music Collection counter for additional CD covers. (CDs are kept behind the counter, so you need to know the call number of the CD or have a CD cover to ask for them)

To find books, CDs and sheet music by genre, use CardCat or the libary's Mediafinder (Music other than Classical): http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/viewpage.asp?src=./librarycatalogs/musicnon2.html. You can search for blues, spiriuals, jazz, rap/hip hop, R&B, and even doo-wop.

To find information and recordings of the folk musics of Africa, select Africa or a specific region in Africa in the World Music section of Mediafinder: http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/viewpage.asp?src=./librarycatalogs/worldmusic.html

What's new for Fall 2009

If you've been away from campus for a little while, the first thing you'll notice at Bracken is the new carpeting on the first floor. To the left of the entrance, the Schwartz Complex has been completed and dedicated. This complex will offer faculty and presenters a new type of space, featuring state-of-the-art technology, large screen viewing, and group project space for digital projects.

In the Music Collection, the main change is the integration of the music reference books. Books from the first floor reference collection have been interfiled with those in the MC reference area.

As a violist, musicologist, and jazz afficionado, our new materials lists will reflect my background: http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/newmaterials/ because I didn't have a complete fiscal year cycle for purchasing.

If you would like the next new materials lists to reflect your interests, let me know what the Music Collection is lacking and I'll try to bring it to BSU for you! You can send me an e-mail or use the suggestion forms provided by the libraries:

Books & scores: http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/forms/materialsuggestion.php
CDs & DVDs: http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/forms/mediaform.php

New Playlists on Naxos Music Online

To highlight some of Naxos' non-Classical offerings, I have put together two playlists: World Music Sampler and Jazz on Naxos. Naxos features streaming audio from independent publishers as well as its own catalogue. Playlists can only be made by the librarian (me!) or a Music professor at BSU.

To listen to these playlists, go to http://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=http://bsu.naxosmusiclibrary.com or click on Naxos Music Library from the Databases page: http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/svl/databases/index.php

The Music Collection includes a wide variety of music in CD format. If you hear something you like on a playlist and you want more of the same, feel free to contact me for suggestions.

Music Reference Books have moved!

All but a few of the reference books that were shelved on the First Floor in the Reference area have now been transferred to the Music Collection. Music Index may now be found next to the table near the Music Librarian's office. Research may now be conducted entirely in the Music Collection (and online of course!)

CardCat Tips for Music

This video (no sound) gives you tips on searching for music scores & recordings using basic and advanced searching in BSU's CardCat.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2gZNtVkets

It is also available as a fully animated Powerpoint 2007 presentation on ilocker (no log-in required): https://ilocker.bsu.edu/users/aledmonds/WORLD_SHARED/Searching_CardCat_Music.ppsx

As always, you can contact me for further assistance if these tips don't answer your questions.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month!

This month the Music Collection is celebrating Jazz History Month with a display at the end of the reference shelves and additions to the countertop browsing display.

Celebrate America's cultural heritage by listening to some jazz this month. Or watch a video! The Educational Resources Collection has recently received many fine DVDs of classic live jazz performances. Search for "Jazz Icons" in CardCat for individual listings.

For more information on Jazz Appreciation Month, see:

http://www.smithsonianjazz.org/jam/jam_start.asp

[image from openclipart.org]

News from the Music Collection

This semester has brought several positive changes to help you get your work done:

Finale 2008 has been installed on 3 Mac Pros and 4 Windows computers in the Music Collection area, and three midi interface keyboards are on the way! Music collection supervisors Jason Smith and Kevin Blue both have experience using this software and they'll be happy to assist you. With Bracken's long hours you no longer have an excuse for not getting your arranging assignment finished!

Multisearch has been added to the Databases page. You can now simultaneously search a group of databases targeted toward music research or search several databases of your own choosing. RILM and Cardcat are included in Multisearch.

I have published "libguides," subject guides for libary research. There is one for general music research and a separate guide for opera research.

http://www.worldcat.org is a free version of Worldcat that builds on features from other applications and operates with Facebook. You can search for a book, score or recording and find libraries that own them, listed by distance. You can "favorite" BSU and other libraries you may go to, and you can share lists with others. And like youtube and photo hosting sites, you can add tags to your favorite recordings, books, or scores to help others find them. I started some lists to help people research my favorite topics: http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/amyedmonds/lists Anyone can do it!