Newsletter: June 2010

Mozart-motivated microbes

It has been noted that ‘the aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul’. However the use of Mozart to encourage microbes to chomp their way through sewage more effectively would have come as a surprise to the speaker (none other than J. S. Bach).

Berlin-based ‘ecological technology’ company MUNDUS have added to his report with their innovative use of the music of Mozart. During their experiments with sound, they noticed that microbial bacteria, used by waste treatment plants to reduce sewage to its component nutrients, performed their task with greater enthusiasm when played music, and in particular the music of Mozart. Adding extra oxygen to their environment and pumping out Mozart encouraged the microbes to eat their way through the sewage at an increased rate.

Anton Stucki, a founder and managing partner of the firm, developed the process over the past year, and notes that "Mozart has a very good effect on people. His music has a special quality of harmony in correlation to its rhythm". After research, he discovered that the microbial preference was for the 'Magic Flute' and for certain parts of 'Eine Kleine Nachmusik'.

The Mozart-motivated microbes produce a saving in energy costs due to their improved efficiency, and they also reduce the amount of residual sludge left over at the end of the process. Whether microbial or human, Europeana visitors are invited to experience Mozart’s music for themselves via Europeana at European.eu. As well as music, you'll also find video, images and text.

Knowledge

Europeana recently published a White Paper 'On the Importance of Semantic Conceptualisation in Europeana'.

The paper quotes former US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfield, on the topic of knowledge: 'There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know'.

Stefan Gradmann, the writer of the White Paper is rather more succinct, however. It can be found here.

EuropeanaConnect

The DISMARC/EuropeanaConnect cooperation continues to go from strength to strength. Currently we have delivered over 35,000 digital items to Europeana and the figure will increase 10-fold in the next months, with the signing of one of the world's largest digital distributors the Orchard. More info shortly.

Grieg Archive in Europeana

The Norwegian composer Evdard Grieg left an extensive archive of both musical and personal items when he died in 1907. He was born in Bergen, and bequeathed his music manuscripts, articles and letters, printed music, books and other materials to the Bergen Public Library. The story behind their acquisition of the archive can be found here.

Included in the Grieg Collection are handwritten letters to Grieg from his peers Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Ibsen, childhood drawings by Grieg, items belonging to his wife Nina and a large amount of manuscripts, often featuring Grieg's handwritten notes and comments about his compositions. Much of this material is now digitised and available to global web-users.

And of course his music is the foundation upon which the archive is built. Grieg's best-known compositions are his Piano Concertos in A Minor, the Holberg Suite and his ten volumes of Lyric Piano. But it was in reference to his composition the 'Hall of the Mountain King' for his colleague Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt  that Grieg remarked "I literally can't bear listening to because it absolutely reeks of cow-pies, exaggerated Norwegian nationalism and trollish self-satisfaction! But I have a hunch that the irony will be discernible." Listeners will be able to make the judgment for themselves in the coming months as the Grieg Archive becomes available via Europeana.

Global reach

Want to see where our visitors come from? From as far afield as China and Australia... here

Béla Bartók

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences are currently presenting a fine Virtual Exhibition on the work and works of Béla Bartók.

Berlin's Ethnological Museum digitises shellac recordings from 1900s

The shellac collection of the Berlin-Dahlem Museum was established by Carl Stumpf and Erich M. von Hornbostel soon after 1900. It was complementary to a collection of cylinder recordings, which were mainly field recordings made by travelers on location, and by sound archivists in Berlin using visiting musicians.

At the time, Hornbostel and Stumpf looked mainly for non-European music still untouched by European music traditions. In contrast to academic recordings made by the archive on wax cylinders, the shellac recordings were typically made with a commercial interest. Companies operating in Berlin, London (His Masters Voice) and Paris were joined by flourishing recording industries in the colonies, especially in Egypt and India.

More by Maurice Mengel here.

200th anniversary of the birth of Robert Schumann

2010 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert Schumann. Among many outstanding performances of Schumann compositions to be found on Europeana are those of Lea Piltti, Germaine Lubin and Robert Holl. The Finnish soprano Lea Piltti was a leading coloratura with the Weimar Opera, and also sang in Vienna, Berlin and Rome before retiring in 1944. Here she sings Schumann's setting of Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff's 'Mondnacht'. The composition is part of a song cycle composed by Schumann based upon twelve Eichendorff poems.

The noted French soprano Germaine Lubin studied at the Paris Conservatoire and made her debut at the Paris Comic Opera in 1912.  In 1938 she became the first French singer to appear at Bayreuth, gaining considerable acclaim for her Wagnerian roles. She continued her career in Paris during the German occupation, which hindered her subsequent career.  Her close friendship with the Wagner family and her sympathy with Germany led her to serve three years in prison after the war. Here she performs Goethe's 'Liebeslied' from his West-östlichen Divan, set by Schumann.

The Dutch baritone Robert Holl is internationally recognised as one of today's leading bass-baritone performers. Here he sings Schumann's setting of the Heinrich Heine poem 'Was will die einsame Träne?', accompanied by Konrad Richter on piano. The text was a popular one, with over seventy other settings in existence, from composers as diverse as Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Nadia Boulanger.

Users

The Europeana Audio Aggregation Platform is shortly undertaking a series of user tests - want to be involved? There will be rewards for participation! Send us a mail here.

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