Did you know that UNC’s music collection celebrated its 75th birthday not too long ago?
“Curating Sound: 75 Years of Music Collections” at UNC is currently on display in the Melba Remig Saltarelli Room (that’s at the stop of the steps, in the middle of the third floor) in Wilson Library. This collection was put together to celebrate the music collection’s birthday last month.
While walking around the exhibit on Wednesday, I was amazed at the incredible diversity of music paraphernalia on display.
There are items from the 1400s to the 2000s, and every century in between.
Some of the oldest music books and engravings on display dated back to the 1490s. One book, Elementa Musicalia, is a music theory textbook used in early European universities. Music theory books published through the 20th century are also on display.
Another rare piece of music history I saw was a violin method book called “Gründliche Violinschule”. This book was written and published in 1770 by Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
While books made up the majority of items in the display cases, the walls of the Saltarelli Room were covered in event posters and photographs of more modern musicians.
As a Charlotte native, I enjoyed seeing the photographs of music legends like Ray Charles and Elvis Presley performing at concerts in the Charlotte Coliseum in the 1950s and 1960s.
Other, more modern pieces included in the exhibit are vinyl record covers, concert posters from local venues like Cat’s Cradle and Kenan Stadium, and a reproduction of pages from a comic book about Johnny Cash.
UNC’s music collection contains about a half million items and continues to grow. I recommend checking out the Curating Sound display to see a sampling of the range of musical books and media this collection has to offer.
Curating Sound will be on display until January 31, 2012.
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