By Charles Schneider
In 1988, the Music Library received a grant to purchase 4000 sound recordings from Curtiss Blake, an Alaskan collector of horn recordings. Since that time, the library has continued to acquire his recordings, most recently as donations. The year 2000 concluded with the arrival of yet another large shipment of horn-related scores and compact discs donated by Blake. The library's Blake Collection currently boasts well over 5200 items, and continues to grow.
The Blake Collection has been significant for both UW students and outside researchers. The collection was first documented in Rebecca Dodson "From Anchorage to the Internet: A Major Horn Recording Collection Goes On-Line" (The Horn Call 25/1 (November 1994): 49-50)). In addition, Amy McBeth, in her volume A Discography of 78rpm Era Recordings of the Horn (Greenwood, 1997), relied heavily on the Blake Horn Collection for her research.
Ford Porter, a Milwaukee record collector, amassed close to 100,000 recordings prior to his death, much of the collection centering on ethnic music. His collection was discussed at length in Michael Corenthal's book, The Iconography of Recorded Sound (Yesterday's Memories, 1986). The Music Library has received a donation from the Porter family of nearly 2000 78rpm records from this collection, many released on Wisconsin labels and/or featuring performances by local musicians.
Following is a list of the other generous people who have contributed to the Music Library this past year and a sampling of some of their donations.
Former Professor Allen Chase made a substantial contribution of solo and chamber repertoire for trombone.
Additional trombone materials came form Mark Weller, whose donation also included a large supply of vocal music
A gift by David Henige bolstered the CD collection with many hard-to-find recordings of early music.
The peripatetic Hector Perez-Marchelli procured several rare South American scores, libretti, and LPs, including those of Joaquín Silva-Diaz and Caroline Lloyd - items held by only a handful of North American libraries.
James Stuht's gift of hundreds of issues of music technology journals not only augmented the runs of journals already in the collection but added new titles as well.
A Brittingham grant support the launch of Ron Radano's new course on blues history enable the library to purchase nearly 300 CDs featuring a wide array of blues artists.
Contributions to the library's burgeoning Bunny Berigan Collection were made by Phyllis Ger, William Hunkins, and James B. Raue.
UW faculty and staff who made gifts of their own publications include Michael Cunningham, Janell Duxbury, Mimmi Fulmer, Doug Hill, and Pamela Potter.
Other donors include:
Julie Cohen Anderson
Katharine Boyes
Ron Brown
Judy Bush
Randolph W. Cabell
Phil Carey
Phillida Charly
Linda Clauder
Susan Cook
Rachel Cruz
Anthony DiSanza
Lawrence Earp
Mark Gillen
Joseph Gramley
Ethel Horswill
Brian Hyer
Helen Johnson
Howard Kanetzke
Laurence Kaptain
Chris Krauz
Steve Laronga
Michael Leckrone
Rick March
John Moraitis
Joan Mueller
James P. Page
Barbara Paul
William B. Penewell
Pamela Potter
Keith Rabiola
Judy Rose
Norman P. Sacks
Sarah Schaffer
Paul Schreiber
Robert Sessions
Casper Sunn
Fran Ulmer
Catherine Vitale
Norma Wehlitz
Ralph Wehlitz
Myrna Williamson
Izaly Zemtsovsky