Notes for Notes

The Music Library Association announced publication and research awards at its 2016 meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Vincent H. Duckles Award for the best book-length bibliography or other research tool in music was presented to Edward Komara and Greg Johnson for 100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). The authors described their reading of many books on the blues as their “dream desert island scenario.” The volume’s organization provides readers with a clear understanding of blues history, and the playlists to each entry supplements this content.

The Richard S. Hill Award for the best article on music librarianship or of a music-bibliographic nature was awarded to Jennifer Oates for her article “Engaging with Research and Resources in Music Courses,” Journal of Music History Pedagogy 4, no. 2 (September 2013): 283–300. Drawing from existing literature on music history pedagogy and information literacy, Oates describes creative and practical techniques for introducing library resources to students within the context of music history classes.

The Eva Judd O’Meara Award for the best review in Notes was awarded to Richard Taruskin for his review of Bewitching Russian Opera: The Tsarinas from State to Stage by Inna Naroditskaya (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) in the March 2014 issue of Notes. Taruskin’s decades of work on Russian music and his understanding of the repertoire, literature and language, and Russian history, all contributed to his perspective on Naroditskaya’s scholarship.

Research Awards: The Dena Epstein Award for Archival and Library Research in American Music was awarded to Louise Toppin for her “Bibliography of the Concert Works by Composers of the African Diaspora,” which she intends will result in an extensive, fully annotated published bibliography of vocal music by composers of the African Diaspora, accompanied by an online database; and to Jessica Stearns for “Christian Wolff’s Notation and its Context,” research which explores the innovative, social, and improvisatory nature of experimental notation in the context of the New York School––John Cage, Morton Feldman, Earle Brown, and Wolff––and New York’s cultural environment in the mid-twentieth century. The MLA Walter Gerboth Award was given to Sonia [End Page 77] Archer-Capuzzo for her project “Constructing a Biography of Lev Aronson.” Lev Aronson (1912–1988)—cellist, teacher, and composer—was born in Germany, grew up in Latvia and Russia, and survived imprisonment in five concentration camps during World War II. He immigrated to the United States and won a position as principal cellist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The Gerboth Award will support recording and transcription of those interviews. Additionally, the funding will support translations of materials in Aronson’s collection located at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The A. Ralph Papakhian Special Achievement Award, intended for a member who has provided extraordinary service to the profession of music librarianship in a focused time frame or in a focused area, was presented to Mark Puente. Recognizing a need for greater diversity in music librarianship, Mark worked on a demographic study of MLA to gather data on the ethnic and racial makeup of our membership, and he coauthored an article in Notes that served as a call to action. These efforts led MLA toward working with the Association for Research Libraries on a successful IMLS-funded grant to support studies in music librarianship for individuals from minority populations. Beyond securing this funding, Mark has also served as an active mentor to the recipients, advising and encouraging them as they work toward new careers. Mark’s work has moved MLA forward in its efforts toward diversity, equality, and inclusion.

The MLA Citation, MLA’s highest honor for distinguished service to music librarianship, was given to David Gilbert. Having served the profession as editor, leader, mentor, and visionary, David Gilbert has maintained a standard of service and scholarship that remains a model to others. In thirty years as an MLA member he has served on the board of directors, edited the “Music Reviews” column for Notes, chaired a strategic planning task force, acted as IAML liaison, and was one of the association’s first sustaining members. An enthusiast of French music, he has...