We’re back! Welcome back to our October 2023 installment of what’s new on BARD. This month, we added a number of braille books for string instruments and guitar, including the ever-popular Mel Bay Guitar Method. We also have a good number of new piano and organ scores for you to enjoy. In the audio realm, we’ve added a few piano-by-ear books (any Whitney Houston fans out there?) along with a fascinating lecture on Japanese Folksongs in Hawaii. All this and more to enjoy this month, so keep reading to check out our other new-to-BARD books.

Please note that all materials listed below are also available to borrow by mail, not only through BARD. Please contact the Music Section to borrow talking books on digital cartridge or to borrow hard copies of braille music. Call us at 1-800-424-8567, ext. 2, or e-mail us at [email protected].

If you are new to BARD, you may find the following links helpful: Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) and BARD Access.

Audiobooks

Bill Brown’s Piano by Ear

The Greatest Love of All: For Piano: Advanced (DBM04598)
Bill Brown teaches this “by ear” lesson on Whitney Houston’s iconic hit “The Greatest Love of All.”

The Prayer: For Piano: Advanced (DBM04599)
Bill Brown teaches a lesson on the international hit “The Prayer” made famous by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli.

Waltz, op. 39, no. 15: For Piano: Early Intermediate (DBM04600)
Bill Brown teaches an early intermediate arrangement of Waltz, op. 39, no. 15, by Johannes Brahms.

Music Appreciation

Concert and conversation with Jake Blount: African American folk music (DBM04606)
A powerfully gifted musician and a scholar of Black American music, Jake Blount speaks ardently about the African roots of the banjo and the subtle, yet profound ways African Americans have shaped and defined the categories of roots music and Americana. The performance is followed by an interview wtih Blount conducted by Stephen Winick of the American Folklife Center.

Concert and conversation with Spælimenninir: folk music from Scandinavia (DBM04607)
Spælimenninir is a lively group of six musicians that play traditional and contemporary folk music from Scandinavia. The group’s home base is the Faroe Islands, but Spælimenninir is not strictly a Faroese band, neither in personnel nor music. Spælimenninir’s music is as familiar as an old time barn dance and as exotic as the landscape of the Faroe Islands, the band’s home in the North Atlantic. It’s music of the Nordic countries drawing on traditions centuries old and compositions new as today. Having played together for over 45 years, the line-up for this performance includes one native Faroese, two Americans and three Danes. This international collaboration has resulted in a varied repertoire, which reflects each member’s heritage and illustrates the links between the music traditions of the Scandinavian countries and the United States. In 2023, the group visited Washington to play in the American Folklife Center’s Homegrown Concert Series, and three members spoke with Stephen Winick of the Library of Congress.

Voices From the Canefields: Folksongs From Japanese Immigrant Workers In Hawaii (DBM04605)
Drawing on research for his recent book, “Voices from the Canefields,” author Franklin Odo situates over two hundred songs of Japanese immigrant workers in Hawaii, in translation, in a hitherto largely unexplored historical context. According to Odo, folk songs are short stories from the souls of common people. Some, like Mexican corridos or Scottish ballads reworked in the Appalachians, are stories of tragic or heroic episodes. Others, like the African American blues, reach from a difficult present back into slavery and forward into a troubled future. Japanese workers on Hawaii’s plantations created their own versions, in form more akin to their traditional tanka or haiku poetry. These holehole bushi describe the experiences of one particular group caught in the global movements of capital, empire, and labor during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Braille books

Choral

Bach, Johann Sebastian. Cantata No. 62: For the First Advent: “Come Thou, The World’s Redeemer” (“Nun, Komm, Der Heiden Heiland”). For vocal soloists, SATB chorus, and keyboard instruments. NLS has the soprano and alto solo parts only in line by line format. (BRM34429)

Oxford Book of Carols. For SATB chorus in single line format with text in English contracted braille. (BRM01208)

Rachmaninoff, Sergei. All-Night Vigil, op. 37. For SATB chorus with chorus parts in open score format and tenor part in single line format. (BRM34501)

Guitar

Bay, Melbourne Earl.
The Mel Bay Classic Guitar Method. Volume 1. For guitar in single line format and English contracted braille. (BRM17321)
The Mel Bay Classic Guitar Method. Volume 4. For guitar in single line format and English contracted braille. (BRM24474)
The Mel Bay Classic Guitar Method. Volume 5. For guitar in single line format and English contracted braille. (BRM24224)
Carcassi, Matteo. Classical Guitar Method. For guitar in single line format. (BRM30962)

Keyboard

Bartók, Béla. Rondo No. 3 From “Three Rondos on Folk Tunes.” For piano in bar over bar format. (BRM37808)

Bastien, Jane Smisor. Bastien Favorites. Level 4. For piano in bar over bar format. (BRM37814)

Beethoven, Ludwig van. Symphony No. 5: Finale. Arranged for organ in bar by bar format. (BRM08753)

Harris, Paul.
Improve Your Sight-Reading! Grade 2 Piano A Workbook For Examinations. For piano in bar over bar format. (BRM35460)
Improve Your Sight-Reading! Grade 3 Piano A Workbook For Examinations. For piano in bar over bar format. (BRM37010)

Leschetizky, Theodor. Two larks: Impromptu, op. 2, no. 1. For piano in bar over bar format. (BRM00297)

Maier, Guy. Pastels: Thirty Tone and Relaxation Studies. For piano in bar over bar format. (BRM00318)

Mainville, Denise. Valse charmante. For piano in bar over bar format. (BRM00319)

Massenet, Jules. Mélodie. Élégie, op. 10. For piano in bar over bar format. (BRM00321)

Reger, Max.
Benedictus op. 59, no. 9. For organ in bar by bar format. (BRM11838)
Erste Sonate op. 33. For organ in paragraph format. (BRM25855)
Zweite Sonate d-moll, für die Orgel, op. 60. For organ in paragraph format. (BRM25872)

Sweelinck, Jan Pieterszoon. Ausgewählte Werke. For piano in bar over bar format. (BRM30930)

Multiple Instruments

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix. Trio no. 1, op. 49. For violin, cello, and piano in section by section format. (BRM03959)

String Instruments

Bach, Johann Sebastian. Suite III, BWV 1009. For cello in single line format. (BRM24396)

Glazunov, Aleksandr Konstantinovich. Sérénade espagnole, op. 20, no. 2. For cello and piano in section by section format. (BRM34045)

Popper, David. Gavotte: op. 21, Nr. 2. For cello and piano in section by section format. (BRM26974)

Vivaldi, Antonio. Six Sonatas for Violoncello and Piano. Contains cello part only in line by line format. (BRM18475)

Vocal

Arias for Soprano. Volume 2. For soprano voice and piano in line by line and bar over bar format. (BRM37832)

Francesco, John di. Twelve Christmas Carols. For voice in line by line format. (BRM37829)

Gershwin, George. My Man’s Gone Now from Porgy and Bess. Arranged for voice and piano in bar over bar format. (BRM37824)

Purcell, Henry. Hark! The Echoing Air. Song from the Opera The Fairy Queen. For voice and piano in line by line format. (BRM23877)

New BARD Additions: October 2023