Director's Corner

Memorial Library's 50th Anniversary Concert

Porter Collection

Resource Update

Current Exhibit

Audio Online

Curtiss Blake

John Gesinski

UW Libraries Statistics

Jongleur Archive

Classical Audio Online

Two New Streaming Services Available

Classical Music Library and Naxos Music Library are new fee-based services that stream music over the internet. The Mills Music Library now offers a free link for the university community to both of these resources.

Classical Music Library provides access to the recordings of thirty-two record labels including international giant EMI and other well known labels like Hyperion, Vox and Hänssler. Identifying music for listening is easy. Users have the choice of standard search options (keyword, title, composer, etc) or they can browse by composer, artist, ensemble, genre, period, and more. Individual tracks from a multi-movement work can be selected or an entire piece can be chosen with a single click. The sound quality of the music varies depending on the type of internet connection used. CML streams at 22kbps for dial-up connections but broadband users receive the stream at the higher ("near CD") quality 64kbps.

Extra features are included that enhance and expand upon the listening experience. Users can read composers' biographies, consult a glossary of musical terms, establish a playlist, or pour over a library of midi files, and there is the option of making a custom CD -- for a fee of course. Significantly, CML also furnishes links out to Grove Music Online and Humanities Full Text.

CML's primary weakness is the lack of breadth in the repertoire it offers. While many excerpts are listed, there are relatively few entire operas. There is no complete Carmen, for example. Sixty of Haydn's symphonies are available, an impressive number, but only seven of the twelve popular "London Symphonies" are included. American composers are underrepresented. The sole piece by John Harbison is his First Piano Sonata. There are no symphonies by either William Schuman or Walter Piston. Ruth Crawford Seeger, Joan Tower, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich are not included at all, and the only orchestral music available by Charles Ives is his Holidays Symphony. Also, some users may feel that the choice of performers or ensembles is too narrow.

Among the strengths of CML is its friendly and intuitive navigation system. It is simple, straight forward, and easy to use.

Naxos recordings are well known to the budget-minded purchaser of classical CDs. Now Naxos has established an online streaming service built upon its library of recordings. In addition, the service makes available the complete Marco Polo and Dacapo labels and a handful of recordings from First Edition and Celestial Harmonies. While the vast majority of the music presented is western classical, Naxos also provides modest coverage of contemporary jazz, world/folk, New Age, and Chinese music.

In many ways, Naxos functions similarly to Classical Music Library. To locate recordings, users can browse by composers, ballet, concertos, orchestral music and other categories. There is an advanced search option that lets listeners structure their query via a variety of access points. Users can create a playlist, but there is no download feature. Additional features include a glossary, a pronunciation guide, opera librettos and synopses, and several lengthy lists of articles on music history topics. Naxos determines its audio stream rates by subscription, and within the library the current stream is at 64kbps.

Like CML's offerings, opera is not a particular specialty among the Naxos recordings, but it does present a stronger and broader selection of American composers. As is the case with CML, some listeners will wish for additional choices of performers and ensembles.

One small weakness of Naxos is the method by which it organizes and displays its lists of tracks. For example, if users browse in the composer category for Bach, they first find a lengthy text introduction to the composer and his music. This is followed by the "Discography" which is divided into sections: Vocal, Orchestra, Instrumental, Concertos, Choral, and Chamber Music, in that order. Within each of these sections, specific recordings are arranged by Naxos CD issue number and identified by its CD release title. With prolific composers like Bach, Mozart, Haydn and others, it sometimes becomes awkward to locate specific music. Naxos would better serve its public and facilitate finding the music users want to hear by alphabetizing all the works in each genre category.

Despite a few minor limitations and shortcomings, both CML and Naxos are welcome new resources that will be appreciated by people interested in hearing the standard classical repertoire. CML is off to a great start and one can only assume that the repertoire and performance choices will increase as the company licenses additional record labels. Access to the Naxos catalog gives one the sensation of owning the entire library personally, and new CDs are added monthly. What fun!