More 'bout Birnbaum

[Judy Fertig <fertig...>]

TO:Jewish Music Listers
who may be interested in the reply below...  I received an inquiry about
the original location and content of the Birnbaum Collection and general
sound recording collections of Jewish music in libraries...If someone would
like to add more detail to this reply, especially as to strengths of the
sound recording collections, please do so.!! (I did not include any
European libraries, but would be very happy if someone could add that
information also).
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BIRNBAUM COLLECTION:
The original Birnbaum Collection is located in Klau Library at Hebrew Union
College in Cincinnati. As far as I'm aware, it does NOT contain primarily
sound recordings, but manuscript and published scores from 18th and 19th
century cantors. 

According to the conference brochure published by HUC, 
"The musical and archival collection of musicologist, cantor, and collector
Eduard Birnbaum (1855-1920) is a vast assemblage of original documentation
of destroyed and almost forgotten traditions. The Birnbaum Collection
preserves European synagogue music of the pre-Enlightenment, 19th and early
20th centuries, and reflects the secular and Christian liturgical music
environments in which it developed. More than 65 percent of all extant
documents related to Jewish liturgical music prior to 1850 can be found in
the Collection."

Some manuscript and also published works of that period were part of a
reprint series in the 1950s.(Sacred Music Press.Out-of-Print classics
series of synagogue music). I have listed the reprint collection in our
catalog on my website, 

http://www.library.brandeis.edu/fertig/jmwc/jmwc_resmusic.html#guid

[To see my whole bibliography *StartingResearch in Jewish music*--
"http://www.library.brandeis.edu/fertig/jmwc/jmwchomepage.html ]

LIBRARIES WITH JEWISH SOUND RECORDINGS: 
(with some strengths listed below)
There are a number of libraries which have extensive Jewish Music Recordings:

YIVO in New York, (of course, attributed to be the world's largest
collection of East European Jewish sound recordings...) 

JTS (Jewish Theological Seminary) in New York, (strength in cantorial)

School of Sacred Music of the Hebrew Union College (New York) & there are
extensive sound recordings at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, (strength
in cantorial, choral, Reform) 

Harvard University (attempts to be comprehensive in collecting --is
especially good on Israeli music recordings, according to Virginia
Danielson at MLA last Feb.)

University of Pennsylvania, Freedman Archive (commercial,cantorial, popular
American Jewish music)
http://www.library.upenn.edu/friends/freed/

Jewish Music Resource Centre, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (Jewish and
non-Jewish communities in Israel)
http://shum.cc.huji.ac.il/~jmrc/pubs.htm 

Gratz College in Philadelphia (lots of 78s! European and American Jewish)
http://www.gratzcollege.edu/collegeindex.html

Indiana: See Tischler Collection at Indiana (scores, Israeli)
http://www.music.indiana.edu/collections/tischler.html