Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist features a selection of music for a Music Library study session curated by Music Library student assistant Amy (class of 2025).
Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist features a selection of wintry songs curated by Music Library student assistant Esther (class of 2025).
Apricity
The term “apricity” is defined as the warmth of the sun during winter. We may feel lethargic and burned out during the cold months, but I hope this playlist can provide some warmth and positivity to cheer us on!
Our exhibit highlights items (both physical and streaming) from UR’s collection as well as information about traditional Chilean instruments and dance. It also includes thumbnail biographical info on several Chilean musicians.
Here’s a little info on the music with some links to items in the library’s collection and a few video clips for good measure!
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The traditional music of Chile is a rich mixture of Spanish and Pre-Columbian influences.
Some of the traditional instruments commonly used in Chile include Andean instruments such as
* The charango – a small stringed instrument of the lute family. It was traditionally made from armadillo shell, but is more commonly made of wood today. It has 10 strings.
The Cueca is considered to be the “most traditional music and dance of Chile” and is officially the country’s national dance. While cueca’s origins are not entirely certain, indigenous, African and Spanish influences are evident.
It is a partner dance which is indented imitate the courtship of a rooster and hen. Men usually wear a traditional Chilean cowboy costume while women traditionally don a flowered dresses with an apron.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Chilean songwriters like Victor Jara and Violeta Parra used the tonada as a foundation of the “Nueva Canción,” explicitly political music that blended Chilean folk music with progressive politics, similar to the way Bob Dylan and Joan Baez led a political folk revival around the same time in the U.S.
The foundations of nueva canción were laid by Violeta Parra (1917-1967) who was a popular folk singer-songwriter and musicologist who researched and recovered the poetry and songs of rural Chile.
Víctor Jara (1932-1973) was a legendary Chilean folk singer and political activist who also pioneered nueva canción. His activism led to his murder by the Pinochet dictatorship in 1973.
Jara’s life and work continue to be celebrated by Latin American artists as well as globally known bands like U2 and The Clash. The 2018 documentary film The Resurrection of Víctor Jara is a great introduction to his life and legacy and is available to UR students, faculty and staff as a streaming video resource.
Here’s a trailer for the documentary:
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Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire, especially the works of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms.
He is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century.
Here are a couple of library resources about his life and work:
Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today we’re featuring a selection of songs with Funky Bass Grooves as curated by Music Library student manager Christian (class of 2023).
Parsons Playlists: Funky Bass Grooves
A playlist of some great songs with dangerously funky bass lines.
The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.
The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.
Here is what student assistant Allison (class of 2022) had to say about this resource:
“Met Opera on Demand is a resource put out by The Metropolitan Opera for college and university libraries. There is access to more than 700 full-length Met performances, featuring both audio and video recordings. Scrolling through, I saw that they have a recording of Nabucco.
A still from the Metropolitan Opera’s 2016 production of Nabucco
This is of specific interest to me because I’ve played a piece from that opera in orchestra. It would be cool to watch to get a better sense of the context for the piece. This resource would be great for anyone studying music from operas or anyone who is interested in opera and wants to watch.”
Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today we’re featuring a collection of feel good indie/alternative music curated by Music Library student manager Abby (class of 2021).
So here are “some relaxing jazz instrumentals for your late night study sessions” curated by Abby for you:
The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.
Here is what student manager Cole (class of 2021) had to say about this resource:
“Music Online’s Popular Music Library is exactly what it sounds like: an online repository of popular music from around the world, all tagged with the appropriate metadata to make the site an effective research tool. Something I appreciate about Music Online’s collection is the emphasis placed on international works. The site is filled with recordings of songs I have never been exposed to, across all genres and in various languages. Many of the works archived are not available for sale online, so the site can be a valuable resource if one is looking for an obscure, elusive track.
When I first opened Popular Music Library, I was immediately greeted by the album Babies Go Pink Floyd, one of the works featured on the rotating carousel of new arrivals.
I immediately clicked on it to find out what exactly I was seeing. Each album is displayed as a waveform, with vertical lines separating individual tracks. The music player is accompanied by a sidebar of details and the track listing, with each track accompanied by the appropriate metadata. After some listening and further digging on the site, I learned that Babies Go … is a series of albums, originally sold in the UK, that rework popular music acts into soothing lullabies. Some of my favorite editions include: Babies Go The Cure, Babies Go Led Zeppelin, Babies Go Shakira, and, of course, Babies Go Radiohead, the music player for which, in an apparent (and humorous) technical oversight, presents a flat line and reads, “Waveform temporarily unavailable.”
Though Babies Go … probably won’t be often used as research material, I like to imagine it as a testament to the diversity of material collected for your listening in the Popular Music Library.”
The Music Library has more resources available than physical items. We’re highlighting some of our digital resources, and including information about them as told by our student employees.
Here’s what student manager Abby (class of 2021) had to say about this resource:
“QwestTV is the first ever streaming service dedicated to Jazz, Soul, Funk & World Music. Created by Quincy Jones and curatedbyothermusiclegends, this service contains hundreds of concerts, documentaries, archives, and exclusive content. And with the “My List” feature, you can keep track of all your favorites. On top of premium streaming video, QwestTV also offers articles, interviews, and album reviews written by professional journalists and renowned jazz experts. With content spanning decades, this service is a powerful research tool and just an all-around awesome resource for any music lover.”
