Lenox Library Association » Music Dept.

Area concerts of the season

Amy — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:50:58 +0000

It’s that time of year again – time for the whirlwind of holiday concerts brought to you by our Berkshire area choruses.

Berkshire Lyric
Saturday, December 3 – 7:30 PM • First Congregational Church, Stockbridge MA
Sunday, December 11 – 3:00 PM • St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Pittsfield MA
Nowell Sing We!

Cantilena Chamber Choir
Sunday, December 4 – 3:00 PM • Trinity Church, Lenox MA
Inexpressible Miracle

Stockbridge Festival Chorus
Saturday, December 10 – 5:00 PM • First Congregational Church, Stockbridge
Featuring the Magnificats of Ralph Vaughn Williams and Flor Peeters

The Berkshire Concert Choir
Sunday, December 18 at 3:00 PM • First Church, Park Square, Pittsfield MA
Featuring the Saint-Säens Oratorio de Noel

[Any others I missed? Please let me know]

We heard…George play on the Fortepiano…

Amy — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:27:01 +0000

“We…heard George play on the Fortepiano at W^m, came home safe after an agreeable day.”

-Memorandum of Mary Parmalee Walker, May 27^th, 1829.

The ‘fortepiano’ that George Walker played was purchased that year for his sister Lucy, by their father, the Honorable William Perrin Walker (1778-1858). William Perrin Walker succeeded his father, the Hon. William Walker, as Judge of Probate Court, in the shire town of Lenox, in 1824. The ten-year diary of William Walker’s second wife, Mary Parmalee Walker (or Memorandum, as she called it), is now part of the Special Collections of the Lenox Library.

Home for Mary and her husband was a farmhouse purchased from Captain Gray in 1778 on what is now Old Stockbridge Road, between Elm Court and Winden Hill. In 1804, a colonial style village home was built where William Perrin Walker and his family lived.

Lucy’s square pianoforte, purchased for $220 in 1829, was the first piano to be brought to Lenox. The manufacture’s label reads: “Patent made by John Kearsing from London for John J. Rickers, 187 Broadway, N. York.” Her granddaughter, Catherine Bowditch Codman of Boston, felt that the instrument should make a home in the old courthouse where her ancestors served so faithfully. It is located in the hallway to the Dome Room, right below the Damon architectural drawings for the courthouse.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month…

Amy — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:16:31 +0000

… which gives me the opportunity to highlight one of our special collections at the Lenox Library. Material from the archives of the Music Inn is on display in the Dome Room. In the 1950s, Stephanie and Philip Barber held concerts there as a jazz alternative to Tanglewood.

The Lenox School of Jazz ran from 1957 to 1960; faculty included John Lewis, Jimmy Giuffre and Marshall Stearns. The collection contains events posters, newsletters, dinner menus and clippings scrapbooks. We are grateful for the generosity of Willson, Benjamin, Hillary and Chip Barber and Arthur Collins for the donation of this collection. It represents an important period in the history of our town, as well as the history of jazz.

Listen to Music at the Lenox Library

Library Staff — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 01:41:25 +0000

Our Music Department is overflowing with CDs, but what you might not have realized was that we have a listening station so that you can preview your music at the Library. Just ask to borrow our headset and listen to any of our CD’s, tapes or records. Here is a recent story from the Music Department:

A gentleman asked Amy, our music and reference librarian, for a headset to listen to some CDs. He is an adjudicator for an international music competition, and he is screening auditioners’ recordings for the first round. The final round will take place live at Carnegie Hall. He said that our sound system and headset sounded better than his speakers at home, and he came back to listen to the recordings he had already screened to get a better sense of the performers’ abilities

It’s Tanglewood Season

Library Staff — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:18:15 +0000

It’s Tanglewood Season again! We have pulled many CDs from the library’s music collection that correspond to the summer concert schedule. They are located on the fireplace mantle near the computers in the Music Department. We kindly ask that you only check out five of these CDs at a time so that others can have a chance to listen as well. To view the complete concert schedule for Tanglewood this summer, click here and you will be redirected to the official website of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Season brochures are also available at the Library.

May 8th is VE Day

Amy — Sat, 08 May 2010 11:57:09 +0000

Soldiers of U.S. Army Europe’s 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team will march through Moscow’s Red Square in Russia’s 65th Victory Day parade on May 9. The event marks the first time a serving, active-duty U.S. Army unit, carrying the American flag and representing the United States, will march in the parade. What does this have to do with music? It’s not that kind of parade. But it did remind me of the efforts of Serge Koussevitzky on behalf of our “Russian Ally” during World War II. When I first found this postcard in the Lenox Library’s Tanglewood Papers, I remember being struck by the reminder that we were not always Russia’s enemy.

Indigenous instruments on display at the Lenox Library

Amy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:56:12 +0000

On display…

Indigenous instruments from around the world (but mostly from Africa). These instruments were collected by Phyllis and Walter Loeb, who generously donated the instruments to the Lenox Library this fall. Mangbetu harps with carved heads, gourd rattles and sistrums, monkey drums and a thumb piano are included in this display. The creativity in making music out of found objects is inspiring.

The display is located on the second floor, just before the entry to the Dome Room.

Area Chorus Information

Amy — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:34:54 +0000

It’s that time of year again…when our area choruses resume rehearsals after a summer hiatus. An excellent source of information on meeting times, concert repertoire, fees, etc. can be found at the Berkshire-Hudson Singing website:

http://bhsinging.info/index.html

“Berkshire-Hudson Singing serves Directors, Singers and Audiences with one central place to find out who is singing what, when, and where.” It lists eleven choruses in Berkshire County alone, plus choruses from the surrounding tri-state area, for the really intrepid. Proof that area music goes on after the Tanglewood season has ended!