The Small Seminar Room Becomes Useful

Until recently, the Allen Library Small Seminar Room was just a room with a table. We've done quite a bit of work in there over the past few months, and I'm happy to report that it is much more useful now. There is now a very nice TV in this room that is connected to a computer, a DVD player (which can also play CDs), and a VCR. Instead of just being useful for sitting around a table and talking, the Small Seminar Room can now be used for most of your standard A/V needs. We even have a very easy to use wireless keyboard and mouse that you can check out from the circulation desk. This will make collaborative work much easier. As long as there is not a previously scheduled class or meeting taking place, anybody is free to use this room; you just need to check out the key from the circulation desk.

One small word of warning: The computer in the Small Seminar Room is not the best, so you may have difficulty using some programs or websites (Naxos Music Library doesn't seem to play well with this computer). We are working on upgrading to a faster computer, so I'm hoping that this won't be an issue for long. If you can think of anything else that would help improve the room, please let us know!

Scandinavian Music

Greetings,

Periodically the Allen Memorial Library receives gifts containing scores, recordings, and/or music or dance related books. And oftentimes these gifts contain items we hadn't thought to order, but add something really great to the collection nonetheless. A case in point is a recent gift of CDs we received that include a lot of Scandinavian music. Included among them are three CDs from a series entitled "Musica Sveciae." Musica Sveciae is a recorded anthology, financed by a government grant, of Swedish music from ancient times to the beginning of the 20th Century.

Then Svenska Messan [The Swedish Mass]/Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758)
MD2010 R75 S9

Roman was an important early figure in Swedish music, who served to innovate and reform Swedish church music.


Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (1867-1942)
MD3.1 P47

This disc includes the composer's Third Symphony, Romance for Violin and Orchestra in d minor, and the song cycle "Gullebarn's Lullabies."


Stenhammar Sanger [Songs]
MD1620 S82 S2

Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) was a great admirer of both Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius, and looked to their music to develop his own Nordic style. The 30 songs on this disc encompass a wide variety of moods, and draw from the literary works of many contemporary Swedish writers, including Bo Bergman (1869-1967).


Also part of the gift is a disc of string quartets by the Swedish composer Hilding Rosenberg:

Hilding Rosenberg String Quartets 2,5, & 8.
MD452 R81 Q2

Rosenberg (1892-1985) was a prolific composer who wrote 14 string quartets, spread over the course of his long life. No. 5 is dedicated to Jean Sibelius.


And finally, we now have the Jean Sibelius Quartet performing string quartets written by contemporary Finnish composers:

MD452 R24 Q2

This disc features Einojuhani Rautavaara's (b. 1928) String Quartet no. 2, op. 12; Joonas Kokkonen's (1921-1996) String Quartet no. 1; and Jouni Kaipainen's (b. 1956) String Quartet no. 3, op. 25.

Please drop by and have a listen.