Music Appreciation at Rowan Public Library

by Paul Birkhead for Rowan Public Library

      The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “Music is the universal language of mankind.”  Some of us speak that language quite beautifully while others are not fluent at all.  Rowan Public Library hosts many programs during the year that celebrate music and has many resources to assist in learning about music.
      Music by definition is the art or science of vocal or instrumental sounds having rhythm, melody, and harmony.  If you don’t know much about music and want to learn the basics, a good place to start is with a book or two.  The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Theory and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Composition are two popular books at the library.  The book on theory explains the language of music (keys and scales) while the composition book explains chords, melodies, and structure.  Michael Miller, the author of both books, writes in an easy to follow, step-by-step manner.  Learning simple techniques explained in the books will help you understand music and perhaps get you started writing some of your own.
      If you happen to write music and want to know how you can get published, check out the 2013 Songwriter’s Market.  Inside it you will find songwriting tips and inspirational stories as well as information about royalties and copyrights.  Contact information for important players in the music industry is also included. 
      If you’ve ever promised yourself you’d learn how to play an instrument (or play it better), the library’s shelves are full of helpful items.  For instance, if you want to learn how to play the guitar, several books can get you started.  Total Guitar by Terry Burrows and The Complete Guitar Course by Tom Fleming are both good choices.  You can learn everything from how a guitar is made to strumming your first chords.  If you’re more of an audio-visual learner, be sure to check out an instructional DVD such as The Hal Leonard Guitar Method.  If your instrument of choice happens to be piano or the drums, you’ll find several resources at the library about those as well.
      If music history interests you, you’ll want to thumb through The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll.  While a little dated, it has a lot of good information about legends of rock; from Elvis Presley to Bruce Springsteen.  A newer rock encyclopedia is Rock Chronicles, which profiles 250 of the most popular rock bands in history. 
      Don’t forget that the library will continue to host the Cheerwine Music Hour Concert Series this winter.  The concerts are free and open to the public.  On Tuesday, January 14th, Richard Smith, Fingerstyle Guitar Virtuoso, is the performer.  On Thursday, February 13th, Mipso, a young musical trio from Chapel Hill who blend Appalachian music with folk, rock & roll, and bluegrass will be featured.  Both concerts begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Stanback Auditorium at RPL Headquarters in Salisbury.
      If you want to learn more about music, or if you’ve made a resolution to finally play a certain instrument, the library can help.  If you want to let some music warm your heart this winter, make plans to attend the library’s concert series.
     
             

The History Room at Rowan Public Library

by Gretchen Beilfuss Witt Rowan Public Library

                                                                                   

The History Room at the Rowan Public Library is filled with all kinds of books to facilitate the journey of discovering family connections.  It also houses tons of information on history - the history of Salisbury and Rowan, the saga of the Scotch-Irish in America, the stories of men in the battles and prisons of the American Civil War or World War II, the pictures and recordings of men who experienced the conflict in Viet Nam.  What you may not know is that we also have magazines and journals detailing the interesting discoveries of today’s researchers.  In the latest issue of “Prologue”, the journal of the National Archives,  there is an article about the circumstances surrounding the stay of execution issued by Abraham Lincoln for a Major Wolf captured in Missouri.  The Civil War in Missouri could be characterized as more guerrilla warfare than was the case in the Eastern U.S.  Consequently, the lines between “authorized irregular warfare and criminal behavior blurred.”  Saving Major Wolf gives a little of the flavor of the war there and piques interest in the tales our national documents convey.

Another archive publication, “The North Carolina Historical Review” contains an article written by local NC Transportation Museum historian Walter Turner about the early formation of bus companies in North Carolina that eventually became part of Trailways and Greyhound.  Around 1900, cars started appearing in North Carolina and by 1908, there were six or seven passenger cars available for touring and sightseeing.  By the 1920s, North Carolina became known as the “Good Roads State” having wide concrete highways connecting county seats and other major places of interest.   By the 1930s, three bus companies had come to the fore – 2 in our immediate area – Queen City and Camel City Coach Companies from Charlotte and Winston-Salem respectively as well as Carolina Coach out of Raleigh.  Turner explains the growth of these businesses from the horse-drawn carriages run to bus fleets and the people who made it happen.

                For those interested in the Civil War, the History Room also subscribes to the “Blue & Gray” as well as “Civil War Times” always full of interesting bits on battles, tactics, training and people.  “A Bloody Summer for Horsemen” in the recent issue of “Civil War Times” discusses the initial lack of interest in improving and expanding the cavalry of the Union Army.   In the “Blue & Gray” an article entitled “A Perfect Storm of Contingencies” describes the 1863 raid into Ohio of General John Hunt Morgan who “stood alone as the premier Confederate partisan.”

And for those whose interest lies more in tracing their ancestry.   The History Room has three new subscriptions “Family Tree Magazine,” “Internet Genealogy”, and “The American Genealogist.”  The latest issue of “Internet Genealogy” looks at some mapping websites that help genealogists pinpoint their family photos geographically.  Another article examines the resources available for those researching their WWI ancestors.  “Family Tree” offers explanations of genealogical acronyms and abbreviations, assistance in tracing your roots and even tips on making a trip to the “homeland” a possibility.   “The American Genealogist” explores specific genealogies and offers book reviews of new literature in the field.   Enjoy a visit to the third floor of the Headquarters library and take a little time to explore the many magazines and journals available.

The Big Snow

by Amy Notarius Rowan Public Library

Get your hot cocoa and celebrate winter with these selections from Rowan Public Library. 

In Mary Casanova's “One-Dog Sleigh,” a young girl and her dog go for a horse drawn sleigh ride.  But then squirrel, owl, lynx, and others decide they want to go too. What will happen when they all cram in to a sleigh that's only meant for one girl and one dog?  With endearing images such as a sleepy, smiling lynx, Ard Hoyt's lively illustrations add to the fun of this simple rhyming text. Parents of young children may already be familiar with Casanova's earlier work “One-Dog Canoe.”

“If It's Snowy and You Know It, Clap Your Paws!” is Kim Norman's cold-weather twist on the classic Hokey-Pokey.  A variety of Arctic animals enjoy cold-weather activities. Penguin, reindeer, seal, and others ski, ice-skate, and catch snowflakes on their tongues before getting cold and heading indoors. Norman's clever rhymes capture the joy of winter fun: “If your fur is full of flurries, you'll forget your winter worries.”  You can sing along to the familiar tune, and just try not to smile at Liza Woodruff's illustrations, which feature everything from a reindeer in ski goggles to a seal making snow angels. 

Jonathan Bean's “Big Snow” also captures the special wonder of winter. Young David can hardly wait for a storm that will bring a really big snow. He tries helping his mother with the chores, but everything makes him think of snow—from the white flour for baking to the white sheets on the guest bed.  When David takes a nap he dreams of a blizzard so big it fills the house, and he wakes to find a big surprise. Any child waiting for the season's first snow will relate to David's growing excitement and anticipation. The illustrations capture the quiet beauty of a new snowfall. 

Experience the wonder of winter when you check out these and other snowy tales from Rowan Public Library. 

Amy Notarius

Old Fashioned Gardens

Rebecca Hyde Rowan Public Library

            What makes a garden?  Why do we seem to choose certain plants and planting patterns?  Historical perspective might help. 

            Old-fashioned gardens have been in fashion for a long time, even in terms of our country’s short history.  We had our own indigenous garden style, but it was overlooked by garden historians who saw only the influence of English high Victorian ribbon beds, the Arts and Crafts Movement, or formal Italian and French landscaping.

            For American art historian and novice gardener May Brawley Hill (“Grandmother’s Garden:  The Old-Fashioned American Garden 1865-1915”) here was a mystery to be solved.  In American paintings of the late nineteenth century, with titles such as “Old Garden,” “The Old Fashioned Garden,” or “Grandmother’s Garden,” there appeared “an immensely appealing garden, small in scale but generous in its planting.”  Hill turned to garden books published after the Civil War and found her painted garden well described.  Many of these books were written by women.  Then followed the centennial of 1876, which encouraged a patriotic and nativist interest in America’s past, some of it imagined.  By the 1890s this interest was also shared by garden writers, novelists, popular historians, and civic reformers, who saw in grandmother’s garden style a refuge from the social upheavals of industrialization.  As shown in Hill’s book, filled with paintings and photographs, these gardens were usually small enough to be maintained by one person.  The hardy flowers, in contrast to exotics imported for estate gardens, were usually arranged informally in rectangular beds with low borders of plants or stone.  The planting scheme could be haphazardly exuberant, but often showed a painter’s eye for color and contrast.  The book refers to the “modest gardens in North and South Carolina,” and mentions the box-bordered Murdock garden on Bank Street and the Boyden garden on Fisher Street, which occupied several acres.  May Brawley Hill is a Boyden descendant, with memories of “overgrown boxwood, indomitable old shrub roses, giant crepe myrtles, rampant wisteria … and an indestructible peony hedge.”

                        In “Heirloom Gardening in the South,” William C. Welch and Greg Grant offer a cultural history of contributions to our Southern gardening tradition, a handbook covering a wealth of Southern heirloom plants, and narratives of the creation of two personal gardens.  Emanis House is Greg Grant’s garden in Arcadia, located in East Texas.   The old farmhouse belonged to his maternal grandparents, Marquette and Eloy Emanis.  The landscape is full of elements of rural Southern life (dogtrot houses, home food production and storage, cisterns), but Grant has always thought of it as “the grandest place on earth.”

            Welch’s country cottage garden has developed around an 1860s Texas ranch house, so termite ridden his wife named it “Fragilee.”  According to Welch, the list of plants that have failed is long, but so is the list of those that thrive. 

            For both Welch and Grant, examining our garden heritage will help us create distinctive and useful new gardens and landscapes that truly reflect our region and its people.

           

  

Stewardship of the Earth

By John Tucker Rowan Public Library

            Stewardship is the responsible manner in which we seek to care for and use the property of another individual.    Growing up in a house with two siblings we were often told “clean your room”.  This directive described our role to care for a house that was owned by a bank, paid for by our parents, and one day inherited by the heirs (which was one third me).  So it is that we should learn at an early age to take care of things that belong to others.   One day in the future, we will be directly accountable for those things.  This same lesson applies to our responsibility in caring for our environment with policies and goals to protect our global resources.   Since most of us know very little about such matters, a trip to the public library would help teach us about stewardship of creation.

            Take a look at the book “Global Resources: Opposing Views” on Greenhaven Press.  The book editor, Helen Cothran, has assembled opposing essays on many topics dealing with our progress to care for the world around us.  The first viewpoint presented in the text argues that the global oil reserves are being exhausted, never to rise again.  The second viewpoint argues the opposing perspective that better global management of this resource can help us meet future needs.  Which view supports your understanding of the issue?  This is a thorough read for students longing t know more about our global plans for food and energy production.

            Another selection, “Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places In Peril and What Can Be Done To Help Save Them” by Kimberly Lisagor and Heather Hansen, calls to our attention the severity of our abuse that is destroying the landscape around us.  Cities and sites from around the globe are deemed to be dying a slow death due to many and various reasons.  Of particular concern are locations in the United States, including North Carolina’s Outer and Inner Banks, and Appalachia.  How concerned are we about preserving the beauty of these areas for our children and grandchildren?

            Stewards of creation, how do we proceed to “clean our rooms”?  One book to consider  is titled “Plan B 3.0 – Mobilizing to Save Civilization” by Lester R. Brown.  Mr. Brown re-defines our need for action to save the world from ourselves.  “All the problems we face can be dealt with using existing technologies.  What we lack is the political will…” to address matters that have a global impact.  This book may be downloaded for free by visiting www.earthpolicy.org.

            It would appear that there is much to “clean up” in regard to our rooms, our neighborhoods and our nations.  The well being of the global community rests on our ability to become better stewards of the resources and environment around us.  A short trip to the library may be just the place to begin your research and develop a personal plan on how each of us can better care for the world around us.  Happy Reading!