In this Issue

Director's Column

Andresen Collection

Ethnic Collection

Collegiate Image

JSTOR Music Journals

Rosenberg EMMY Nominations

Faculty & Student Publications & Recordings

Library Adds Bach and Beethoven Manuscripts

Volunteers

Library Express

RISM Online

Fall Library Hours

Jongleur Index

When editors Philip Bohlman and Otto Holzapfel needed recordings to enhance the textual content of their recent book, Land Without Nightingales: Music In The Making of German-America (Max Kade Institute, 2002), they drew upon the large collection of historic ethnic sound recordings held by the Mills Music Library. When faculty members in Folklore and Jewish Studies wanted their students to handle and discuss original source materials, they developed projects that lead the students to use these same significant collections.

Marketed to first and second generation European immigrants, "ethnic" or "foreign" recordings emerged in the early 1900s and became a widely dispersed commodity during the first thirty years of the century. Major record producers, including Victor, Columbia, Okeh, and Odeon, sold thousands of titles to immigrants who yearned to hear the traditional sounds of their native homeland. In contrast to these major national labels which typically issued a broad range of musical styles, specialized record companies formed in the 1920s aimed at specific ethnic groups. Such companies were often small, local operations that marketed their recordings through ethnic newspapers. Wisconsin spawned several of these enterprises and sometimes local musicians became the featured performers. Rice Lake violinist Otto Rindlisbacher, accompanied by Karl Hoppe, recorded music that appeared on the Swiss-oriented Helvetia label of Monroe, while accordionist Jozef Sosnowski and fellow musicians from Milwaukee performed Polish music on the local Mermaid label.

Although historic blues, jazz, country, and popular music recordings have captured the attention of countless collectors and many institutions, regrettably, the vast quantity of ethnic recordings issued commercially in the first half of the twentieth century remains a poor stepchild in their eyes. Yet, these recordings offer a seldom-tapped resource for observing, understanding, and interpreting the burgeoning immigrant culture, and of course they present a wealth of wonderful and engaging music!

The Mills Music Library is one of just a handful of American libraries that hold major collections of historic ethnic records, those manufactured during the 78 rpm era, roughly 1900 to the mid-1950s. With holdings approaching 10,000 recordings, the Mills' collection is focused on the groups that settled the upper Midwest - Scandinavians, central Europeans, and eastern Europeans - but includes a smattering of Hispanic and Asian materials as well. The Music Library is committed to the documentation of regional ethnic music and welcomes researchers and enthusiasts to explore these rich collections.