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  • We’re kicking off Spring 2020 with exciting news: we have a radio show called Circulating Sounds, which will air on WSUM 91.7 FM Madison, The Snake on The Lake, from noon-1 on Thursdays! @wsum91.7 ⁣ ⁣ Our first show will be broadcast today, January 23, and it’s an hour of country music released by Sauk City label Cuca Records, selected by Nate Gibson, Ethnic American Music Curator. @nathandgibson ⁣ ⁣ Tom Caw, Music Public Services Librarian, will be sharing DJ duties with Gibson, alternating every week or every other week. Our plan is to play all kinds of music, with a different theme or focus each week.⁣ ⁣ Our description of the show: Circulating Sounds delivers samples of the wide array of music held by Mills Music Library, your primary resource for music materials and information on the UW-Madison campus and in Wisconsin. We highlight recordings from our circulating collection and our various special collections, regularly featuring artists from Wisconsin or artists who have recorded for Wisconsin record labels. ⁣ ⁣ Turn your dial to 91.7 FM if you’re on or near the isthmus, or stream it via wsum.org. #circulatingsounds #wsum #thesnakeonthelake #cucarecords #millsmusiclibrary
  • Flora & Fauna is the theme of a new display of 78rpm record albums that student workers Meredith Nesbitt and Calder Sell created today. The Flora in this instance is Jim Flora (January 25, 1914 ‒ July 9, 1998), who designed and illustrated album covers for RCA Victor and Columbia Records during the 1940s and 1950s. The rest of the selections include fauna in the cover art, and cover a variety of musical styles. #jimflora #jimfloraart #storkclub #saddleserenade #78rpmart #78rpm #millsmusiclibrary
  • 2020 is here, but 2019 titles continue to arrive! New Book. Billie Holiday: Essays on the Artistry and Legacy, edited by Michael V. Perez and Jessica McKee. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2019. [ML420 .H58 B47 2019] @mcfpub ⁣ ⁣ From the publisher: “Eleanora ‘Lady Day’ Fagan, better known as Billie Holiday, played a primary role in the development of American jazz culture and in African American history. Devoted to the enduring jazz icon, covering many aspects of her career, image and legacy, these fresh essays range from musical and vocal analyses, to critical assessments of film depictions of the singer, to analysis of the social movements and protests addressed by her signature songs, including her impact on contemporary movements such as #BlackLivesMatter. More than a century after her birth, Billie Holiday’s abiding relevance and impact is a testament to the power of musical protest. This collection pays tribute to her creativity, bravery and lasting legacy.” #billieholiday #millsmusiclibrary
  • Hildur Guðnadóttir won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score this past Sunday for her Joker score, becoming the first woman to win on her own in the category. Lisa Gerrard (of Dead Can Dance) shared the award with Hans Zimmer in 2000 for their collaboration on Gladiator. Guðnadóttir‘s work for film and television includes Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Mary Magdalene, and the 2019 HBO series Chernobyl, for which she received a Primetime Emmy in the category Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special. @hildur_gudnadottir ⁣ ⁣ Guðnadóttir is also a cellist and vocalist, and she’s released four solo albums as well as collaborated with others, such as Hauschka, Nico Muhly, Sunn O))), and her fellow Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannson. ⁣ ⁣ Her song “Heima,” from her 2014 album Saman, leads off The Dream, a compilation featuring a selection of artists from Poland, Norway, and Iceland performing at the 2014 editions of Unsound (Krakow), Insomnia Festival (Tromsø), and Iceland Airwaves (Reykjavik), as part of the Luminous Bodies project, compiled by Mat Schulz and given away with The Wire, Issue #368, October 2014. [COMP DISC 3529 V.368] @thewiremagazine #hildurguðnadóttir #goldenglobes2020 #bestoriginalscore #womencomposers #icelandiccomposers #unsoundfestival #millsmusiclibrary
  • January 1 is New Year’s Day, but it’s also Public Domain Day! This year, works published in 1924 entered the US public domain. We’ve seen a lot of folks fixating on George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue as one of the most well-known musical compositions published in 1924, which is no longer under copyright, but he had numerous other works published that year—including “Fascinating Rhythm,” one of the songs he wrote in collaboration with his lyricist brother Ira for Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson’s Broadway musical comedy Lady, Be Good! Pictured: cover and first page of “Fascinating Rhythm,” from our Popular Sheet Music Collection. New York: Harms, Inc., 1924. [ID: PopularMusic.pop001079.bib] #publicdomainday #publicdomain #fascinatingrhythm #georgegershwin #iragershwin #georgeandiragershwin #ladybegood #popularsheetmusiccollection #millsmusiclibrary
  • We’re ringing in the new year with an LP display of titles having to do with vision, or albums containing songs about seeing, or not seeing. Student workers Mike Hobson and Jack Innes made the selections. Some are obvious, such as 20/20, the 1969 Capitol release by The Beach Boys. [ARH2515] Others are a little harder to see. #thebeachboys #2020 #doublevision #onacleardayyoucanseeforever #icanseeclearlynow #millsmusiclibrary
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