A new exhibit in Doe Library showcases the outstanding work of a Berkeley student winner of the Library Prize for Undergraduate Research, as well as the Library collections that made his research possible.
For his Music 195 Honors project, “The Baroque Viola and Improvisational Style,” Michael Uy, a viola player himself, plunged into the secondary and primary literature on the subject. At UCB’s Music Library he discovered the Tartini Collection, an important collection of nearly 1000 unique and unpublished manuscripts of 18th Century Italian string music.
As an offshoot of his research in the Tartini collection, Michael became interested in a rare, mid-18th Century score by Vincenzo Marcelli. In the Fall he will perform the piece with the University Baroque Ensemble. His advisor, Professor Davitt Moroney, has noted that "[I]n this way, a musical work preserved in the UCB Library, a piece that has lain dormant for hundreds of years, will now receive its first modern performance…and will be ready for publication."
Among the items on display are the Marcelli manuscript from the Tartini Collection, side by side with Michael’s transcription in modern notation; and an 18th century treatise on violin playing. Also included in the exhibit is a photograph of Michael playing his own Baroque viola; a modern viola on loan from the Music Department; and a brief sound recording (outside the exhibit case) of the University Baroque Ensemble playing at a concert last Spring.
The exhibit is located on the 2nd floor of Doe Library, just outside the Current Periodicals Room. It will be on display until November 30.
For more information, see the 2007 Library Prize Winners page.
Watch this space for an announcement of the 2008 Library Prize.