Get a free Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Library eCard instantaneously. It can be used to access online resources including eBooks, eAudiobooks, eNewspapers, eMagazines, online classes, online tutoring, and learning games, as well as streaming movies and music, and more!
Music Playlists
Listen to a streaming playlist from Freegal Music, Naxos Music Library, Naxos Jazz Music Library, Hoopla or Music Online from Alexander Street free with your library card. Alexander Street will ask for an academic institution, use Glendale Public Library.
Today's recommending listening is Alice Cooper, Oud Classics, Jelly Roll Morton, and opera singer Cecilia Bartoli.
As spring approaches, we often think of the sounds of nature. Explore Folkways Records selections from the1950s and 1960s recorded in natural settings around the world. The album liner notes are included as PDFs.
Read About Music
Did you know that the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive has Billboard Magazine issues back to 1894? Variety issues back to 1905? Radio and Records issues back to 1973? Musician issues back to 1982? Login with your library card!
Maker Month Music
March is Maker Month! Here are some fun and relatively easy vegetable instrument making YouTube videos: a carrot ocarina, a popsicle stick piano, watermelon percussion and a vegetable orchestra.
Learn to Play the Recorder! Join our virtual workshop Tuesday, March 23 or March 30. An experienced teacher will guide you from the ground up, starting with the basics and moving into simple tunes.
Music Concerts Online
Sound/Stage is a free online concert series featuring exclusive performances by Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and guest artists from around the world. Season 2 starts on March 5.
Music Podcasts
Song Exploder is a podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. A few recently featured artists include Sasha Sloan, Common and Cat Stevens.
Women's History Online
Spanning a timeframe of more than 200 years and showcasing over 200 objects, this exhibition examines the ways American girls have spoken up, challenged expectations and been on the frontlines of change. Girlhood (It's complicated) commemorates the anniversary of woman suffrage by exploring the concept of girlhood in the United States, but also how girls changed history in five areas: politics, education, work, health, and fashion. From the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History.
Women in the U.S. first attained the right to vote 100 years ago. The National Archives invites you to browse the wealth of records and information documenting the women's rights movement in the U.S., including photographs, documents, audiovisual recordings, educational resources, exhibits, articles, blog posts, lectures and events.
National Park Service Celebrates Women's History Month. More than 100 years after the milestone passage of the 19th Amendment legally protecting women's right to vote, women continue to be trailblazers, pioneers, innovators, and leaders. Explore women's history in national parks and places in communities across the country and learn how women are leaders in stewardship and conservation of America's natural and cultural treasures today.
Drawn to Purpose: American Women Illustrators and Cartoonists from the Library of Congress. This exhibition brings to light remarkable but little-known contributions in two popular art forms—illustration and cartooning. In fields traditionally dominated by men, many women have long earned their livelihoods creating art intended for reproduction and wide dissemination in newspapers, periodicals, and books. A host of challenges and longstanding social restrictions impeded many from advancing in their chosen fields.
Films Online
Viewfinder: Women's Film and Video. Join the Smithsonian on the first Thursday of each month to celebrate the breadth of women-made films and videos from across their collections. These special screenings of rarely seen short-form treasures will be followed by live conversations between the artists or filmmakers and Smithsonian curators. Each screening will include time for audience questions and recordings of the event will be available for the remainder of each month. Start today with Zina Saro-Wiwa: On Mourning and Memory.
Check out Amsterdam-based Sophie Olga de Jong‘s celebrated short animation for all ages: Cycle. Things don’t always go according to plan but in this “small round story” about a girl who, with her grandfather’s help, learns how to ride a bicycle, the unexpected helps her develop new skills and confidence. The girl discovers “that where the road ends, real adventure begins.”
Brand Library Staff Reviews
The French film Portrait of a Lady on Fire is excellent, but complicated to explain. It’s a love story; it’s a story of loss and memory. An examination of art and music, Orpheus and Eurydice. It’s obsessed with the expression of desire, in many forms. The basic premise: An artist, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), has been sent to an island in 1700s France to secretly paint the wedding portrait of Heloise (Adèle Haenel) who refuses to pose. She pretends to be Heloise’s walking companion, creating many sketches of her, then stretching her canvas, priming it, mixing colors, and finally painting. Marianne’s first creation is a perfectly conventional portrait that seals Heloise’s (as we find out) forced marriage fate. The main action in the film occurs after the initial portrait has been completed when Marianne, Heloise, and the maid Sophie (Luàna Bajrami) are left alone in the house for several days, and Marianne begins to paint, again and again, as the way she sees her subject changes. In the DVD special features, the contemporary artist Hélène Delmaire, who created all of the paintings in the film, explains how she was chosen, the demands of the job, and the period-appropriate paints and techniques used. It’s an arresting film, and not the type that comes along every day. -SB
Lullaby of Harlem “O, sweep of stars over Harlem streets…A city dreaming.” These words, penned by Langston Hughes, provide the introduction to this cornucopia of short archival films, often referred to as “soundies.” Featuring some of the standard-bearers of 1930s and ‘40s jazz, these live performances were captured at legendary Harlem jazz venues, the Apollo Theatre, the Savoy Ballroom and the Cotton Club, and engage the listener in a joyful experience of timeless American music. The compilation showcases immortal artists such as Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Billie Holiday and Dizzy Gillespie, performing some of their signature songs. Also featured in the film are dancers, including Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers and Velma Middleton. Watching Billie Holiday sing “God Bless the Child,” one realizes why people are still talking about her today, and the Delta Rhythm Boys remind us that there is only one way to get to Harlem, when they sing their rendition of “Take the ‘A’ Train.” Fats Waller lets us know that he “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and Cab Calloway bemoans the fate of poor, unfortunate “Minnie the Moocher.” These performances were filmed during a period when jazz was transitioning from swing to bebop, while also integrating elements of the modern jazz style to come. While the sound and visual quality is not always pristine, as one would expect from low budget recordings of that time period, the film is a priceless historical document of 20th Century African American music. -PR
Jennifer Higdon An Exaltation of Larks (The Lark Quartet) Bridge Records released 2013. Jennifer Higdon (b 1962) is an American composer who won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for her Violin Concerto. While she gained the most acclaim for her orchestral music she is also an excellent composer of chamber music. Her music is vibrant and accessible and these recording by the Lark Quartet are wonderful. The opening piece, An Exaltation of Larks (2005), is a 16 minute one movement string quartet and was actually commissioned for the Tokyo String Quartet. It sounds very contemporary and is warm, melodic and exciting. In her program notes she noted that her musical imagination thought of birds flying and singing. I don’t hear it but it’s a wonderful journey nevertheless. The second piece Scenes from the Poet’s Dreams (1999) is for piano and string quartet with Gary Graffman performing the piano part and was written for the Lark Quartet. The piece is in six movements and includes plenty of passages to display the abilities of the players while still being immediately inviting. Lots of mood contrast, a nod to George Crumb and even some Bartok like rhythmic vitality. The last piece Light Refracted (2002) is a quintet with violin, viola, cello, clarinetist Todd Palmer and pianist Blair McMillen. It’s a two movement piece, the first movement is longer and more reflective with a shorter, more rhythmic and extroverted second movement. All three pieces are highly recommended. -BW
Covid-19 Resources
Reliable information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) is available from the World Health Organization, the California Department of Public Health, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department, the City of Glendale, and the Library, Arts & Culture department.
Resources for Music Businesses And Industry Workers, Playing for Change, Sounding Point LA
Resources for Freelance Artists, California Arts Council, Americans for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts