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Library friends to hold recordings sale May 19-20

May 17, 1999

More than 100 audiophiles — enthusiasts who collect and study sound recordings — will come to UW–Madison May 19-22 for a conference hosted by the Mills Music Library.

The annual conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections at the Edgewater Hotel will feature lectures by several prominent ARSC members, including current faculty and former students of UW–Madison. Among the highlights:

  • Thursday, May 20:
  • Allen Debus will give a lecture, on Elsie Janis, star of musical comedies and vaudeville in the early 20th century. Debus, an emeritus professor of the history of science at the University of Chicago, is well known for his collection of early phonographs, recordings and sheet music from vaudeville and early American musicals.
  • James Leary, the director of the folklore program at the UW–Madison, will talk about Alan Lomax, folklorist, ethnomusicologist, and sound archivist, and his work in northern Wisconsin and Michigan in the late 1930s.
  • Madison resident Warren Gilson will speak about experimental composer Harry Partch’s time on campus from 1944-47. Partch gained notoriety for developing unique instruments such as the Diamond Marimba and the Chromelodeon I. Partch’s book, Genesis of a Music, was published by the UW Press in 1949.
  • Members of the Madison software company, Sonic Foundry, will discuss their widely used music-editing software, Sound Forge.
  • Friday, May 21:
  • Janell R. Duxbury of UW–Madison’s General Library System will present a paper based on her highly regarded discography Rockin’ the Classics.
  • Wisconsin Public Radio “Down Home Dairyland” host Richard March will discuss the UW–Madison Mills Music Library‚s historic sound recordings collections
  • Saturday, May 22:
  • John Steiner, a UW–Madison graduate, will talk about the Paramount Record Company. Steiner purchased the assets of the influential blues recording company of Port Washington, Wisconsin shortly after its demise in the 1930s.

A sale of records, cassettes and CDs will be held in 124 Memorial Library Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 7 p.m. Miscellaneous print music materials and 78 rpm records will also be sold. Proceeds from the sale of the donated music items will go to the Friends of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries.

Conference registration begins at 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 19, in the Edgewater Hotel. Prices are $120 for the entire conference for non-ARSC members or $45 a day and includes a one-year membership in the organization.

For more information about the conference, contact the Mills Music Library, 263-1884.