RESEARCH LIBRARIES BRANCH

The Research Libraries’ Branch held two sessions this year. The summary of the joint session with the Bibliography Commission will be given by Thomas Leibniz.

Hugh Cobbe, Music Librarian at the British Library, described different ways of acquisition of major collections in his Library, e. g. composers’ bequests, publishers’ archives or valuable collections such as the Stefan Zweig Collection. Not only did he give information about preparing achievements by cultivating relations to possible donors or finding sources for outside funding (such as the National Heritage Memorial Fund or the Heritage Lottery Fund) but he also told us about conditions linked to acquisition. These may be formal ones (as inheritage tax) but they can also concern conservation matters or the accessibility of a collection.

Richard Andrewes, Head of Music at Cambridge University Library, gave a survey of interesting collections within the University of Cambridge. Some examples are the archive of the Greek Play Committee (which includes works by Stanford, Parry and Vaugham Williams), collections by senior students of different colleges (in which you can find manuscript part books which reflect musical life in the 16th and subsequent centuries), rich ethnomusicological material (collected by Laurence Picken) and programme collections of opera houses, concert series or musical festivals. Many of the collections are not fully catalogued yet.

Geoffrey Thomason, Senior Assistant Librarian at the Royal Northern College of Music, finished the session with a detailed description of the correspondence between Edward Elgar and the violinist Adolph Brodsky, Principal of the Royal Manchester College of Music in the first thirty years of the twentieth century. It reflects the role of Elgar’s works, especially his violin concerto, in the concert life of that time.

Ann Kersting-Meuleman