Notes for notes.(British Library )

The British Library has acquired My Ladye Nevells Booke, one of the finest music manuscripts of the Elizabethan age, which went on public display at the library for the first time beginning 6 June 2006. The manuscript contains forty-two works by William Byrd (1542 or 3-1623), the greatest English composer of the Elizabethan age. It contains some of his best-known keyboard music, including "Carman's Whistle" and "Sellinger's Round," both still popular today.

My Ladye Nevells Booke has been acknowledged as one of the finest Tudor music manuscripts and is an object of outstanding calligraphic beauty. It was completed on 11 September 1591 by John Baldwin, the best known music scribe of the time who almost certainly copied the pieces under Byrd's direction. As such, it contains a series of corrections thought to be by Byrd himself. Though the identity of Ladye Nevell has long been disputed, recent research has uncovered that the dedicatee was Elizabeth, the wife of Sir Henry Nevell of Billingbere (ca. 1518-1593). Following Sir Henry's death in 1593 the manuscript is thought to have passed into the hands of Queen Elizabeth I.

In addition to being displayed in the British Library's public galleries, My Ladye Nevells Booke will be fully digitized and placed on the British Library Web site with supplementary information about the volume and its history. A series of lectures and workshops aimed at school children, college students, and lifelong learners will enhance people's knowledge and understanding of this manuscript and Byrd's seminal position in the development of English keyboard repertoire. Further information about My Ladye Nevells Booke can be found at: http://www.bl.uk/collections/music/my_ladye_nevells_booke.html (accessed 23 August 2006).

The Syracuse University Library has received a gift of $100,000 from retired UCLA musicologist Dr. Richard Hudson to establish the Holtkamp-Poister Endowed Fund. Income from this endowment will be used each year to add to the music collections of the library without restriction as to the type of material. Professor Hudson received his M.A. degree from Syracuse University where he was an organ student of Arthur Poister (1898-1980), and performed on the recently-restored Crouse Holtkamp organ. Poister came to teach at Syracuse University in 1950.

Towson University was one of fifty selected institutions to host Looking At: Jazz, America's Art Form, a grant program sponsored by the National Video Resources, the American Library Association, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Lisa Woznicki, fine arts librarian at Towson, applied for the grant, which will partner the Albert S. Cook campus library with the university's music department to provide the campus and community with six film/lectures on various aspects of jazz and jazz culture. Dave Ballou, noted jazz trumpeter and Towson faculty member, will serve as the Jazz Scholar for the program, and components will include related performances by the university's jazz ensembles, as well as guest performers who will serve on panel discussions for each film.

National Geographic has announced the creation of a music initiative that offers consumers a soundtrack to ...