Barry
20-09-2010, 16:58
To day I popped into my local village library to consult their copy of Grove’s ‘History of Music and Musicians’. I wanted to find out a little about Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, the second child and eldest son of J. S. Bach. To my surprise I couldn’t find it in the Reference section where it normally resides along with Brittanica etc. Upon enquiry, the librarian told me they no longer hold a copy – worse still, neither does the central library in Chelmsford; despite it supposingly being a university town.
The best she could do was to direct me to their copy of the Larousse Encyclopedia of Music - utterly useless, it told me nothing of any importance about W. F. Bach. I left muttering words to the effect that ‘Essex man’ was alive and well and not needing any reference books on music or culture, as there was none in Essex!
Arriving home, I found the redoubtable Wiki had plentiful information not only on W. F. Bach but listed all his works as well. I also learnt that Grove is available on-line and is run under the auspices of Oxford University.
Maybe I should be less quick to damn libraries for not keeping ‘old fashioned’ paper hard-copies, but learn to embrace the wealth of on-line references.
Ego desum, tamen ego perceptum.
Regards
The best she could do was to direct me to their copy of the Larousse Encyclopedia of Music - utterly useless, it told me nothing of any importance about W. F. Bach. I left muttering words to the effect that ‘Essex man’ was alive and well and not needing any reference books on music or culture, as there was none in Essex!
Arriving home, I found the redoubtable Wiki had plentiful information not only on W. F. Bach but listed all his works as well. I also learnt that Grove is available on-line and is run under the auspices of Oxford University.
Maybe I should be less quick to damn libraries for not keeping ‘old fashioned’ paper hard-copies, but learn to embrace the wealth of on-line references.
Ego desum, tamen ego perceptum.
Regards