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Mills Music Library B162 Memorial Library 728 State St. Madison WI 53706

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Notes from Underground

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MEMF 2018: Reformation curiosities

Madison Early Music Festival: July 7-14, 2018. See our display, borrow our holdings!

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  • Today is Ben Sidran’s 75th birthday, and the Racine native and longtime Madisonian decided to do what comes naturally to a lifelong performer—he put on a show at @majesticmadison he titled “Ben Sidran’s 75th Birthday Salon for Secular Humanists, Arch Democrats and Free Thinkers.” We pulled his memoir off the shelf and consulted the index, where we found “Sidran’s escape to” under “Madison, WI.” Sidran writes of dreaming he’d get out of Racine and find his city home, and then on page 26: “And then it did happen for me. Standing at my door was J.C. Holly, a junior at the University of Wisconsin and the leader of a little college band called ‘The Natural Five.’ He had heard me play at one of the local dances and had come to ask my parents if I could go to Madison on the weekends and play in his band. And my parents said yes. This was one of the greatest gifts they ever gave me. Sometimes history is made just because somebody said ‘yes.’” That was the Fall of 1960, when Sidran was 17. He returned to @uwmadison the following year as a student, graduated in 1966, left the city, returned in 1971, and has lived here ever since. Pictured: Ben Sidran: A Life in the Music, by Ben Sidran. New York: Taylor Trade Pub., 2003. [ML419 S55 A3 2003, accompanied by COMP DISC 10363] #bensidran #madisonwi #racinewisconsin #alifeinthemusic #uwmadison #uwmadisonalumni #wisconsinmusicarchives #millsmusiclibrary
  • We’re celebrating #internationalcatday with our copy of Harry S. Miller’s 1893 song “The Cat Came Back” (Chicago: Will Rossiter), which is in our Americana Sheet Music Collection [ID: Americana.am4301.bib]. Miller wrote many songs, as his publisher emphasized on the cover, but this was by far his biggest hit. We’d like to think this was due to it being about a cat. #thecatcameback #harrysmiller #americanasheetmusiccollection #millsmusiclibrary
  • What time is it? Leo Season 2018! We decided to eschew our usual celebrations of calendar months, and acknowledge the sun entering Leo (July 22-August 21) this summer. Student employee David J. Jensen has gussied up our mustardy wall with LPs featuring selections by Léonin, the first known significant composer of polyphonic organum. There are a lot of “probablies” when it comes to Léonin—he was probably born in the 1150s, probably French, probably lived and worked in Paris at Notre-Dame, and his given name was probably Léo—so we’re going to say he was probably a Leo. Pictured: Messe du Jour de Noël, by Léonin, Ecole Notre-Dame, performed by Ensemble Organum, Marcel Pérès, director. France: Harmonia Mundi, 1985. [LP 72386] #leoseason #leonin #ecolenotredame #organum #ensembleorganum #marcelperes #millsmusiclibrary
  • We are happy to welcome Lisa R. Carter, our new Vice Provost for Libraries and University Librarian! She comes to @uwmadlibraries from The Ohio State University. She obviously wanted to be a Badger, and we’re glad she’s here. We’re calling upon @uwbadgerband to help us welcome her and deliver a double dose of school spirit: Badger Bandstand [COMP DISC 16060], and The 5th Quarter [COMP DISC 16061]. #welcomelisavpl #badgerband #ifyouwanttobeabadger #wisconsinmusicarchives #millsmusiclibrary
  • 50 years ago today, The Moody Blues released their third album, In Search of the Lost Chord. It includes the song “Legend of a Mind,” which is about Timothy Leary (“Timothy Leary’s dead / No, n-n-no he’s outside...looking in”), who came to @uwmadison in February 1967 and told an overflow crowd in the @uniontheater to “turn on, tune in, and drop out.” Pictured is our copy of the LP [BIB 4977945], which is included in the Rock display case in The Sixties: Remembering Who Was T/here. The exhibit is up until August 10, in Special Collections on Floor 9 in @memoriallibrary, so everyone has two more weeks to take the trip. #themoodyblues #insearchofthelostchord #legendofamind #timothyleary #thesixties #millsmusiclibrary