Notes for Notes

Stanford University Libraries is pleased to introduce Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres (http://operadata.stanford.edu/), a cross-index of data for over 38,000 opera and oratorio premieres. It allows complex searches across multiple categories or simple browsing within any single category, such as genre, composer, librettist, premiere date, country, oratorio subject, or theater. The database is linked to SearchWorks, Stanford University Libraries catalog, allowing users to easily find related scores, recordings, and writings.

It is possible to use the database for research to gather many types of information quickly and easily. You can list all of the operas premiered in a particular year or range of years; determine all of the operas based on the works of important authors such as Shakespeare, Goethe, Molière, Cervantes, or Victor Hugo; identify which operas were premiered at the Paris Opéra during the French Revolution; or see what Handel oratorios were premiered outside of England. The flexible and powerful interface allows innumerable search combinations for study and research.

The original database, “From Don to Giovanni: Opera and Oratorio Citation Database,” compiled by Richard Parrillo, spanned the years 1589–1995. The submission of new operas and oratorios via the “Submit a Premiere” link is encouraged to update the database and make it truly comprehensive.

Ray Heigemeir
Stanford University

The Archives and Special Collections department of Buswell Memorial Library at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, is pleased to announce the acquisition of a collection of and about contemporary Christian music. The collection was donated by Mark Allen Powell after the creation of his Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002). The collection contains a wide variety of materials related to contemporary Christian music, such as 1,400 LPs, 5,000 CDs, and 24 linear feet of research materials (clippings, journal articles, and books). The collection is predominantly focused on years 1975–2000 (bulk: 1975–1995) with some material stretching outside that range. The collection covers a wide variety of genres within contemporary Christian music, including industrial, ska, rap, folk, and pop. The collection includes information both on artists who are well known and on those that few have heard of. The CCM collection joins two related collections housed at Archives and Special Collections: The Gospel Recordings Collection (1925–1985), and the Hymn Book Collection from the Hope Publishing Company. For more information on these collections, visit http://archon.wheaton.edu, or contact David Malone, head of Special Collections (david.malone@wheaton.edu, 630-752-5707).

Keith D. Eiten
Wheaton College

The German Branch of the IAML (AIBM) celebrated its sixtieth anniversary with a conference at the Akademie der Künst, Berlin, 10–13 Septem -ber. The largest IAML branch with 230 members, AIBM was also among the first national groups to be established within the international organization. A brief report on the conference by IAML Secretary-General Pia Shekhter is available on the IAML Web site: www.iaml.info.