While We Were Out: New Acquisitions at the Library for the Performing Arts

By Rebecca Littman, Managing Librarian

November 19, 2020

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Just because the Library for the Performing Arts was closed, and we were working remotely, doesn’t mean we didn’t continue to acquire new materials. Over the course of the five+ months that we were physically out of the building (a few of us began to return on a limited basis in July) materials continued to be ordered and processed. Although the numbers were reduced, for financial and physical reasons, the process never stopped entirely.

image of a stack of grey library book transporting bins

Several stacks of bins like these awaited our Collections Librarian when he began to work onsite again. There are now carts of these new acquisitions ready to be shelved.

While only books in the Music Division’s Research Collection are featured here, rest assured that scores and sound recordings, as well as circulating materials were acquired, too!

They are all listed in the catalog for you to discover in your searching.

So here is a very small selection of the materials that arrived in those bins while we were out.

collage of images of book about singer Rihanna

Rihanna. London: Phaidon Press, 2019. A stunning visual biography of the artist. It is also a massive undertaking, with 502 page, 18.5 x 14.75 x 24 inch, and weighing in at 28 pounds.

Call # Performing Arts Research Collections – Music (JNH 20-8) https://catalog.nypl.org/record=b22015781~S1

Cover of book The Sound I Saw by photographer Roy DeCavara

DeCarava, Roy. The Sound I Saw: Improvisation on a Jazz Theme. New York: First Print Press, 2019.

Call # Performing Arts Research Collections – Music (JNG 20-83)https://catalog.nypl.org/record=b22078073~S1

Cover of book about singer/songwriter Tom Waits

Mahurin, Matt. Tom Waits. New York: Abrams, 2019.

Call # Performing Arts Research Collections – Music (JNG 20-48)https://catalog.nypl.org/record=b22030417~S1

Cover of a book about Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes

Margaret Bonds & Langston Hughes: A Musical Friendship, an exhibition curated by Anna Harwell Celenza. Washington, DC: Georgetown Univ Library, 2016.

Call # Performing Arts Research Collections – Music (JNF 20-92).https://catalog.nypl.org/record=b22087785~S1

Collage of images from graphic novel Mozart in Paris

Duchazeau, Frantz. Mozart in Paris. London: SelfMadeHero, 2019.

Call # Performing Arts Research Collections – Music (JMF 20-96)https://catalog.nypl.org/record=b22051114~S1

Collage of images of book about singer Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley: His Own Voice, Journals, Objects, & Ephemera. New York: Da Capo Press, 2019.

Call # Performing Arts Research Collections - Music (JNG 20-94)https://catalog.nypl.org/record=b22030405~S1

Cover of book Extreme Exoticism: Japan in the American Musical Imagination

Sheppard, W. Anthony. Extreme Exoticism: Japan in the American Musical Imagination. Oxford: Oxford Univ Press, 2019.

Call # Performing Arts Research Collections - Music (JNF 20-89)https://catalog.nypl.org/record=b22069110~S1

Cover of book Instrumental Music in an age of sociability: Haydn, Mozart, and Friends

Sutcliffe, W. Dean. Instrumental Music in an age of sociability: Haydn, Mozart, and Friends. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press, 2020.

Call # Performing Arts Research Collections – Music (JMF 20-89)https://catalog.nypl.org/record=b22064794~S1

NOTE: if the call numbers that are listed confuse you because they do not look like any call number you’re used to seeing – whether Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress – that’s because the NYPL has its own scheme for the research collections. If you’d like to learn more, check out this remarkable LibGuide by Music & Recorded Sound Division’s Rare Books & Manuscripts Librarian Bob Kosovsky.