BI 300: Insects and Music: Plagues, Pests and Politics

• "Find a musical 'piece' with an insect theme. Prepare a written discussion that briefly overviews the biology &/or life history of the insect. As important, please also discuss the artist (style, period, et alia) and the humanistic rationale behind his, or her, or their choice of an insect as a musical theme. (For example: What was it about the bumble bee that caused Nikolai Andreevich Rimski-Korsakov to feature it in his 19th century work "The Flight of the Bumble Bee"?)"

   

The OSU Valley Library does not have any individually-published sheet music. Most of what you can find in the Valley Library, or the Music Learning Center (MLC) in Benton Hall, are collections of classical, folk or popular songs. Lyrics to rock, hip-hop, rap or other kinds of songs currently popular can sometimes be found online. More information about music at the Valley Library and at the Music Learning Center in Benton Hall can be found on the Music Research Guide.

Indexes and how to use them: The Library has several indexes to collections of songs. These books index songs by title, and indicate which collection (song book) the song has been published in. In the front (usually) of the book will be listed all of the collections indexed. You would then need to look up the collection (not the song) in the OSU Online Catalog to see if we own it. If so, you can then locate the particular song you're interested in within that collection.

Here are some of the song indexes the library has:

Songs in Collections: An Index. (located at the Reference Desk) ML128 .S3 D47

Indexes 411 collections of art songs and operatic arias published between 1940 and 1957. We have added the call numbers of the collections we own to this index, so this can be a great shortcut for you!

Green Book of Songs by Subject: the Thematic Guide to Popular Music. Ref ML156.4 .P6 G73 2002

Over 35,000 songs classified in almost 1800 logical categories.Very helpful for popular, rock, and children's songs.

Popular Song Index. ML128 .S3 H4

Preface states that "the purpose of this volume is to provide a tool for finding words and music to folk songs, pop tunes, spirituals, hymns, children's songs, sea chanteys and blues." 1975 and 3 supplements.

Index to Song Books. ML128 .S3 L37

Indexes approximately 6,800 songs in collections published between 1933 and 1962.

Song Index. ML128 .S3 S4

Indexes titles, first lines, authors and composers for over 19,000 songs. 1926 and supp. 1934.

Find That Tune. ML128 .R6 F56 1984

Rock, folk/rock, disco.

 

Song lyrics; libretti (Indiana University. School of Music. Music Library)   http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/songlyr.html. Lists about 30 sites of song lyrics from classical to popular.

An extensive list of lyric sites and a short list of sheet music sites can be found on Yahoo,  http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Sheet_Music/

Search Engines: Many additional lyrics sites can be found by searching for the recording artist's website, or the song's name and the word lyrics in a search engine. When searching for lyrics online, your search may be more successful if you search phrases enclosed in quotation marks (ex.: "poor butterfly" lyrics) or visiting the official website of the recording artist. Because of heavy copyright protection on modern songs, you may have very mixed results in your search online.

These are a few classical pieces (some with words; most without) about insects. We include information about locally available sheet music scores and recordings when known.

• Bartok, Bela. "From the diary of a fly" from Mikrokosmos
• Bartok, Bela. "Out of doors suite" for piano
• Britten, Benjamin. "The grasshopper," and "The wasp," for oboe and piano
• Alt, Hansi. "Hot noon on the meadow" young beginners' piano suite
• Fernandez, Oscar Lorenzo. "Pirilampos"
• Fernandez, Oscar Lorenzo. "Cancando borboletas"
• Persichetti, Vincent. "The microbe" from 2 Hillaire Belloc songs
• Berlioz, Hector. "Song of the flea" from Damnation of Faust
• Chopin, Frederic. "Butterfly etude," opus 25 no.9 (at Valley Circ Desk M22 .C545 E89 1983)
• Mendelssohn, Felix. "Bee's wedding", Songs without words, opus 67 no.4 (on album "Yo-Yo Ma: Appassionato" at Valley Circ desk: M52.M3 A67 2007)
• Vaughan Williams, Ralph. "The wasps" (Aristophanic Suite) (MLC has score; recording at Vally Circ desk, "Vaughan Williams: The Nine Symphonies" M1001.V38 N56 2003, on disc 2)
• Mussorgsky "The flea" or "Song of the flea"   (MLC has recording)
• Josquin des Prez. "El grillo" (madrigal)
• Handel, George Frederick. "Israel in Egypt"
• Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai. "The flight of the bumble-bee" (from opera Tsar Sultan)
  (MLC has score and recording)
• Vivaldi. "The Four Seasons" the movement entitled Summer (2 recordings available at Valley Circ desk: M1112.V59 op.8 no.1-4 2002, and M1112.V58 F68 2008
  
• Beethoven, Ludwig van. Symphony No. 6, "Pastoral" (Valley Circ desk has the Leonard Bernstein recordings of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies, this one is on disc 3. M1001.B41 A3 2004)
• Chausson. Papillons (song op.2)
• Faure, Gabriel. Papillons. (cello & violin, op.77)
• Grieg, Edvard. "The butterfly" (no.1 of Lyric Pieces, op.43) (MLC has recording)
• Offenbach, Jacques. Le Papillon (ballet)
• Schumann, Robert. Papillons (piano, op.2)
  (MLC has score and recording)
• Couperin. Les Papillons.
  (MLC has score and recording)
• Shostakovitch. "The gadfly" (suite of incidental music, op.97) (MLC has recording)
• Elgar, Edward. "Moths and butterflies" (from "The Wand of Youth" suite, no.2, opus 1b) (MLC has score)
• O'Connor, M. "Butterfly's Day Out" (On album "The Essential Yo-Yo Ma," Valley Circ desk M53.M3 2005, disc 2)
  

The Music Resource Center in Benton Hall contains 900+ music CDs that do not circulate (listen in the MRC). These are NOT in the OSU Libraries catalog.

The Valley Library has recently started to collect CD and DVD recordings of classical music and opera that can be checked out. It is still a small collection, but it is fully cataloged and included in the OSU Libraries catalog. Click on the "Audio & Video" button when you do your search there.

Another option for finding recordings in the library is to browse or search the collection on the web page under Find It -> Find Other Materials -> Audio & Video -> Multimedia Listing. (Here is a direct link) You cannot browse the physical collection; you must request the item using its call number from the Circulation Desk.

Another alternative is the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. Anyone who lives, works, or goes to school in the Benton County Library District may get a free library card. Also available from CBCPL is the Classical Music Library database with recordings that include music written from the earliest times (eg Gregorian Chant) to the present. You can access this with your library card number and stream the recording to your computer.

• The best resource for finding information about composers, their lives and compositions, is Oxford Music Online. (This resource only allows three simultaneous users, so if you cannot get in please try again after a few minutes, or use the print version in the Reference collection, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ML100.N48 2001; 29 vol.)

• Oxford Music Online
  Oxford Music Online (formerly Grove Music Online) is a gateway that offers users the ability to access and cross-search the vast resources of Oxford's music reference in one location, including the full-text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians; second edition; the New Grove Dictionary of Opera; The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition); The Oxford Companion to Music; and The Oxford Dictionary of Music, second edition, revised.