ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New Publications

George M. Eberhart

American Musical Traditions,edited by Jeff Todd Titon and Bob Carlin (5 volumes, De- cember 2001), looks at a wide spectrum of musical styles and shows how American folk music has arisen from ethnic or regional iden- tities and cultures. Written in collaboration with the Smithsonian/Folkways Archives, this set contains more than 100 essays written by area specialists who focus narrowly on top- ics often sidestepped in more general sources, such as music of the Gwich’in Indians of

Alaska, black banjo songsters of North Carolina, the autoharp in old-time Southern music, music of the Polish Górale community in Chicago, and Chinese-American traditional music in New York City. Each volume has a glossary and index for the complete set; color maps illustrate key regions and musical themes. A good source for students of American roots music. $450.00. Schirmer Reference. ISBN 0-02-864624-X.

Schirmer has also issued a sixth and presumably final edition of Music Since 1900 (1,174 pages, September 2001), last updated by the late Nicolas Slonimsky one year before his death in 1995. Edited by Laura Kuhn, this volume brings this chronology of 20th-century music up to date with the additional coverage of the years 19922000, highlighting concerts, first performances, operas, festivals, deaths, and other significant events. Kuhn has retained Slonimsky’s idiosyncratic Letters and Documents section (with the addition of a full transcript of the 1985 U.S. Senate hearings on record labeling) and his semi-serious Dictionary with its whimsical definitions of both standard musical terms and a few he made up (such as fraudulent modernism, pornographic music, punitive music, spastic variations, and Wagneromorphism). $175.00. Schirmer Reference. ISBN 0-02-864787-4.

The Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection Bib- liography; Volume 2, English and European Languages,compiled by Shaista Wahab (304 pages, 1999), is not a new title, but recent events have given this special collection at the University of Nebraska at Omaha a new significance. Estab- lished in 1974, the collection is dedicated to the preservation of Afghanistan’s history and cultural heritage for current and future generations of schol- ars and currently holds more than 12,000 titles. Volume 2 includes more than 2,500 Westem-language titles arranged by subject. $40.00 (plus $4.50 p/h), checks payable to UNO Library. Arthur Paul Collection, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 6001 Dodge St., Omaha, NE 68182-0237. Vol- ume 1, more than 800 Pashto and Dari titles, is also available (135 pages, $20.00, plus $4.50 p/h).

Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey: A Journey to Music's Heart and Soul,by Bill Wyman and Richard Havers (400 pages, August 2001), chronicles the blues from its origins in slavery to the modern styles of Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, and Eric Clapton. Though not a comprehensive survey, this well-illustrated browser by the former Rolling Stones bassist offers biographies, lyrics, trivia, maps, and rare photos from Wyman’s personal archive. One of the best introductions to blues history in print. $40.00. DK Publishing. ISBN 0-7894-8046-8.

Bodies Politic Disease, Death and Doctors in Britain, 1650-1900,by Roy Porter (328 pages, August 2001), looks at the formative years of the medical profession, its beliefs about the body and health, and how it was portrayed in contemporary graphic art. Porter comes to the conclusion that much of pre-modern medicine in Britain succeeded because the healing arts were inseparable from theatrically exaggerated performance art engaged in by physicians who triggered a placebo effect in suggestible patients. Many rare contemporary prints also illustrate the use of medical imagery as a tool for political satire. $35.00. Cornell University. ISBN 0-8014-3953-1. ■

George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries; e-mail: geberhart@ala.org