HOME

WORK

Internal Medicine
Medical Informatics
Traditional Chinese Medicine

PLAY

WESTERN CLASSICAL MUSIC

Index
Conductors & Pianists
Surveys of Favorite Recordings
Recording & Sheet Music Companies
Vocal Music & Text and Translation Links
Other Sites

Dr. Jimbob's Classical Music Ravings

Sometimes, I still get requests for some of these, so I'm posting the ones I like on this page.

In addition, I have been singing in choruses since 1985 and studying classical voice privately since about 2000. I have prepared clean copies of texts and translations for program books both for my chorus and for my solo recitals. You can see my resume as a performer along with some of the texts, translations and essays linked below.

Keep in mind, though, that this stuff is out of date (circa 1996, though some of the pages have been revised since then), not always factually correct, half of it's been unconsciously plagiarized from other sources, and of course it's my opinion. You may not agree, you may not ultimately share it, but that's the risk you take when you read all that free stuff on the web. So you've been warned.

Contents of this page:

Pianists

• Shura CHERKASSKY
• Alfred CORTOT
• Edwin FISCHER
• Dinu LIPATTI
• SOLOMON Cutner

• Beethoven: String Quartets
• Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem

Record Manufacturers

• Classical record labels and retailers (MusicWeb International)
  
  
• Chandos family of labels
• EMI Archive Trust
• Harmonia Mundi (in the U.S., distributes Appian, Calliope, Channel Classics, Dutton Vocalion, Gimell, Hyperion, and Testament among others!)
• Music & Arts
• Naxos
• New World Records
• Sony Masterworks (includes what was once known as Columbia or CBS)
• Vivendi Music (includes EMI, Virgin Records, Decca / London, Philips and the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft.)
• Warner Classics

Record Stores

• ArkivMusic
• Berkshire Record Outlet (discounted deleted stock)
• H&B Direct
• Presto Classical

Classical Sheet Music

Brick and Mortar Sheet Music Stores

• Coulsons Music Matters (Chicago IL)
• La Flûte de Pan (Paris)
• Glendower Jones's Classical Vocal Rep (Fayetteville AR)
• Yesterday Service (Boston, MA)

Digital and On-Line Sheet Music Vendors

• On-Line Scores (hosted by the Cook Music Library at Indiana University)
• Schubertline (song literature in Sibelius format)
• Sheet Music Plus (Amazon-style vendor)

Classical Music Publishers

• Alphonse Leduc, Le Chant du Monde, Choudens, Transatlantiques (Wise Music Classical)
• Bärenreiter
• Breitkopf & Härtel
• G. Henle Verlag
• Hal Leonard (includes G. Schirmer, Casa Ricordi, Eschig, Salabert and Durand)
• Edition Peters
• Schott Music (includes Boosey & Hawkes and Eulenberg Miniature Scores.
• Theodore Presser
• Universal Edition

Public Domain (i.e. cheap) Editions

• CD Sheet Music
• Choral Public Domain Library
• Dover Publications
• Edwin F. Kalmus & Co., Inc. (includes Masters Music Publications and The Well Tempered Press.
• International Music Score Library Project (public domain music score library)
• Mutopia Project (public domain transcriptions)

• J.S. BACH: Cantata: Der Herr denket an uns, BWV 196
• Ludwig van BEETHOVEN: Missa Solemnis in D, Op. 123
• Anton BRUCKNER: Four Motets
• Giacomo CARISSIMI: Oratorio, Jephte
• Emmanuel CHABRIER/Rosemonde GÉRARD and Edmond ROSTAND: Volailleries (Barnyard Suite)
• Gabriel FAURÉ: Requiem
• Arthur HONEGGER: Symphonic Psalm, Le Roi David
• Claudio MONTEVERDI: Motets: Adoramus te, Christe and Cantate Domino
• Claudio MONTEVERDI: Mass in four parts (1650)
• Wolfgang Amadè MOZART: Mass in c, K 427 (417a)
• Wolfgang Amadè MOZART: Motet: Ave verum corpus, K 618
• Franz SCHUBERT/Wilhelm Müller: Die schöne Müllerin, Op. 25, D.795
• Robert SCHUMANN/Heinrich HEINE: Dichterliebe, Op. 48
• Robert SCHUMANN/Emanuel GEIBEL: Spanish Songs; Maurice RAVEL/Paul MORAND: Don Quichotte à Dulcinée

Song Texts, Pronunciation and Translation

• Vocal Music Instrumentation Index
  A massive database project of arias from sacred and secular works, with details on instrumentation, keys, texts and translations, orchestrations, and much else.
• The Lied and Art Song Texts Page
  Emily Ezust's compendium of texts of art songs, choral works and other classical vocal pieces with public domain translations.
   
• Aria Database
  A collection of information, texts and translations of operatic arias run by Robert Glaubitz.
• Mélodie Treasury
  Christopher Goldsack's comprehensive introduction to French art song with texts and skillful translations.
• Hymns and Carols of Christmas
  Douglas D. Anderson's trove of material on Christmas-related material, including historical backgrounds and texts in multiple languages.
• Impressario Opera Guide
  A searchable database of opera synopses, texts and translations in multiple languages.
• Impressario Karaoke
  A searchable database of MIDI files and sung texts to a range of art songs and opera arias.
   
• Opera Practice Perfect (A compendium of purchasable piano accompaniments for a number of operas and specific roles)
• Online repertorium of polyphonic Masses composed in Europe 1440-1520
• John's MIDI choral music site
• Choeurs Vincent d'Indy choral MIDI files
• Cyberbass choral and partsong MIDI files

• Instant Encore
  Links to concert listings all over the world, streaming music and video and links to classical music news sites, blogs, et. al.
• NPR Classical
  
  
• Alex Ross's classical music blog
• Jeremy Denk's classical music blog
• Anne Ozorio's classical music blog
• Eric Sams Institute
  An on line archive of essays and reviews about classical art song, Shakespeare, cryptography, and other interesting things.
• Lloyd Schwartz's reviews for NPR



• Music Theory Fundamentals
  GuitarJunky's ambitious one-page introduction to the basics of music theory
• The Method Behind The Music
  Ben Hollis's nifty introduction to music theory, the mechanics physics of sound production, an introduction to the styles and history of music, some basics about conducting and a virtual piano for practicing while you surf!
• Austrian Tourism Board musician pages
  A surprisingly well done series of biographical sketches on a variety of famous Austrian composers, from the Austrian Tourism Board!
• BBC Classical Music Search
  Provides brief biographies and a music dictionary from the Grove Concise Dictionary of Music. Also has a nifty repository of in-depth profiles of assorted major composers and musicians.
• A Brief History of Singing
• Classical Net
  A comprehensive repository of data on composers, recordings, and links
• ClassicALmanac
  Searchable database of events on this day in classical music history
• Composers Database
  Jos Smeets's compendium of links to other pages on the web
• The Boston Musical Intelligencer
  A virtual journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston. I'm not sure I would trust some of the reviews.
• Gramophone Archive
  A database of record reviews from the most venerable classical music magazine.
• International Phoenetic Association
  The page of an organization that studies the sounds of speech. Includes very useful resources on the International Phoenetic Alphabet (IPA), an essential resource for a singer trying to learn how to sing texts in a language (s)he does not speak.
• Online Resources for Music Scholars
  A basis for beginning electronic research on a wide variety of topics in music, including historical musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, composition, and performance practice. It collects links to archival collections, online scores and sound recordings; article indexes, discographies and bibliographies; scholarly societies; musical reference works; and a miscellany of useful websites. Maintained by Harvard University but most of the sites are available to the general public.



• Igudemsan and Joo
  The funniest classical music duo this side of Victor Borge & Son.
• Viola Joke Compendium

back to the top

Music Links - Specific

• Bach-Archiv-Leipzig
  The web site for the Bach Archive in Leipzig, with an ambitious multimedia Calendarium documenting Bach's life and work in the context of Western music history, German history, and world history and a Google Arts and Culture archive of their digitized collection.
• Bach Digital
  A detailed and global database with digital reproductions of works and sources by J. S. Bach and the whole Bach family
• J.S. Bach Home Page
  A comprehensive web resource for information on J.S. Bach, including an excellent brief biography, an extensive (unannotated) bibliography of books and articles on Bach, his life, and his music, recommended recordings, MIDI files, and a select list of links to other Bach-relevant web sites.
• Bach Cantatas Home Page (Aryeh Oron)
  Aryeh Oron's extraordinary database of information on all of Bach's vocal works, including texts, translations and notes on recordings.
• Bach Cantatas page (Walter Bischof)
  Another invaluable resource, with cantatas and other vocal works sortable by church calendar, arias sortable by solo instrument and voice types
• Beethoven-Haus
  A comprehensive site based at the Beethoven museum in Bonn. Includes an impressive digital archive of music manuscripts, sketches, letters, and pictures.
• International Gustav Mahler Society
• Médiathèque Musicale Mahler, Paris
• Mahler Archives
• Digital New Mozart Edition
  The complete New Mozart Edition, digitally available with sheet music and critical notes.
• Schubert Institute (UK)
• New Schubert Edition home page
• Schumann Network
• Heinrich Schütz work catalog
• Music under Soviet Rule
  An impressive collection of documents and photographs about music created under the Soviet empire.

Music manuscript archives

• Music Treasures Consortium (Library of Congress)
• Berlin State Library
• Pierpont Morgan Library
• Schubert Manuscript archive
  A searchable on-line database of hundreds of Schubert autographs including drafts of many important compositions, taken from the archives of the Vienna City Library.
• Vienna City Library