Contents
An Interview with John Drusedow
Neil Hughes, University of Georgia
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In June, SEMLA will be losing another of the Faithful &
True, a friend familiar to all of us and to many in the larger
worlds of music librarianship and American music: John E.
Druesedow, Jr. John is retiring as head of Duke University’s
Music Library, and we pause now to wish him well in his
retirement even as we raise our voices in chorus to plead with
him to return, at least one more time, to Memphis in ’06 for
MLA’s 75th anniversary meeting (John has assured us that he’s
going to try to be there).
John completed graduate studies in musicology (Ph.D.)
and library science (A.M.L.S.) at Indiana University—
Bloomington and went to work at his alma mater, Miami
University in Oxford, Ohio, where, after a three-year stint as
Instructor of Music, he became the first music librarian of the
Amos Music Library, a beautiful new facility at the time
(1969). He migrated to the Oberlin College Conservatory of
Music in 1974, where he remained for twelve-and-a-half
years. While there he was instrumental in persuading the
Oberlin College Board of Trustees to build a large extension
to the Conservatory Library, but he left to come to Duke
University before the building phase began. He was the
second head of the Oberlin Conservatory Library, after
Elizabeth Olmstead. At Duke, he followed J. Samuel
Hammond as the second head of the Music Library, and he
has been in this position for over eighteen years.
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Chair Diane Steinhaus recognizes John Druesdow and
Rashidah Hakeem, both retiring this year.
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An impressive record in MLA’s Membership Activity
Roster stands as further tribute to John’s service to
profession, including:
- Administration Committee, Music Library Facilities
Subcommittee, 2001-2005
- Nominating Committee, November 2000 ballot
- Resource Sharing and Collection Development
Committee, 1992-1998
- American Music Roundtable-coordinator, 1989-1993
- Reference and Public Service Committee, On-Line
Reference Services Subcommittee (chair,
1983-1986; member, 1986-1991)
- Nominating Committee, 1989
- Fiscal Officer, 1988-1989
- Investments Subcommittee (ex officio), 1988-1989
- Board of Directors; Member-at-Large, 1987-1989
- Finance Committee, 1987-1989
- Large Research Libraries Roundtable-coordinator,
1985-1989
- Reference and Public Service Committee, 1983-1988
John is well-known among professors and students of music
history and musicology for his heavily-used book, Library
Research Guide to Music: Illustrated Search Strategy and
Sources (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Pierian Press, c1982), and his
papers on and studies of Civil War-era popular song are legion
and legendary.
Neil Hughes: John, you are one of a select group of people in
MLA who can wear comfortably the mantle of scholarlibrarian.
In fact, many of us think of you first, when asked to
name a colleague who fits that description. Are you happy
with having that be such a prominent part of your legacy, and
is it something you would still encourage new music librarians
to pursue as a career path?
John Druesedow: This is a very good question to start with,
Neil, since it takes me back to my professional roots. I entered
the professional world with the notion that I would end up as
either a teacher or a librarian and was not really counting on
the combination. As time went on at Miami, Oberlin, and
Duke, it became clear that a combination was in my best
interests and within my abilities. I have found that one can
forge a kind of symbiotic relationship between the two fields
but that either can suffer if a kind of delicate balance—in
terms of time, attention, and study—is not maintained between
them. Also, the matter of publishing comes into play. Most of
my publications have been in the form of reviews; this has
enriched my knowledge and understanding of the business of
collection development. As to whether I would encourage new
music librarians to consider a scholar-librarian career path, I
would say that it basically depends on these things: (1) a deep
and abiding love of music per se, its history and literature and
its very sound; (2) a very advanced degree in music; and (3)
finding an institution where teaching and scholarship are
promoted and supported within the ranks of librarians. My
feeling about the whole matter is that if you are primarily in
the library field, as I consider myself to be, the first order of
business is librarianship, and if the opportunity to teach and
publish comes along, and you are so inclined, take the
opportunity and see how it works out.
NH: How do you feel about the myriad administrative duties
you’ve had to perform over the years? We all know that
administering a music library is important, but have you taken
much pleasure or professional satisfaction from it, or have you
found yourself having to turn to your musical and scholarly
efforts for most such pleasure and satisfaction?
JD: I take great pleasure in helping people find their way
through a large and sometimes thoroughly confusing maze of
music materials standing on shelves or lurking in the depths of
some database or website. When such activities are successful
and an answer is found, the pleasure is increased significantly.
I also take pleasure in discovering little-known treasures—
treasures at least in my opinion—that may exist in the
collection or that I hear about, hurry out to acquire, and then
spread the word. Two examples: the violin sonata, op. 13, by
Albéric Magnard, a French composer at about the time of
Franck, and the choral works of Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, a
Spanish composer who migrated to Mexico in the 17th century.
NH: Can you identify a “greatest success” among your many
notable accomplishments as a music librarian?
JD: Perhaps my greatest success was to persuade the
administration and Board of Trustees at Oberlin to build the
1988 addition to the Conservatory Library. I did not get to see
even the ground breaking of this project, but I take satisfaction
in knowing that the addition was indeed constructed. Also, I
am proud of the number of significant special collections that
we have been able to bring in at Duke.
NH: How about a “memorable disappointment?”
JD: For a while after leaving Oberlin, I felt somewhat like
Moses not seeing the promised land of the new addition
mentioned above. But the actual construction and then later
the finishing of the second floor of the addition fell into the
very competent hands of Dan Zager and Deborah Campana,
and I could not be happier that Oberlin now has such a fine
facility. Here at Duke, we have had a plan for construction that
has not materialized, but I have hope that something
eventually will be done to expand the space devoted to the
music collection.
NH: I want to share now with our colleagues an anecdote
about something that happened to you and me at the Boston
MLA meeting in 1998. We were out one day, returning to the
meeting from lunch at a nearby eatery, when we stopped in a
private art gallery just to see if they had anything interesting
on view. Well, there we were, two grey-haired men in ties and
trench coats … we must have been filthy rich, else what
business had we in a private gallery in Boston, right? The
gallery owner, an expensively-feathered raptor if there ever
was one, swooped down and began aggressively courting us
and what she apparently assumed were our deep pockets. I
immediately became mealy-mouthed and evasive, edging
uncomfortably toward the door, but you were the epitome of
suave and gracious dissemblance, leading her on without
actually leading her astray. I don’t remember how you finally
managed to ease us back onto the street without either
offending the owner or committing either of us to a purchase
of tens of thousands of dollars, but I was quite impressed (to
say nothing of highly amused), and I wonder: do you have any
secrets you can share with those of us whose people-skills are
less polished than your own that might transfer well to the
reference desk or the job interview? Perhaps a bon mot
concerning techniques for catching more flies with honey than
with vinegar, or something to that effect?
JD: Thank you for your eloquent recollection, Neil. I think I
was as eager to escape as you in that situation, and I’m glad
we got away without committing ourselves to expensive
purchases. I try to think empathetically of where people are
“coming from,” an oft-used phrase, and to try to understand
where they are going, particularly if I am in their path.
Perhaps it is this attempt at empathy that some perceive and
that helps me to get through some potentially difficult
situations with them.
NH: You and I have talked a lot about trends in higher
education and how those broader trends seem to be affecting
scholarship and librarianship. What concerns do you have for
the short term—say, the next decade?
JD: I think the formats for music both in sight and sound are
very likely to “morph” into a more thoroughly digital world,
with streaming audio and a highly enriched repertoire
available generally through the Internet, and with digitized
scores proliferating in a similar way and perhaps broadcast to
performers’ desks when the occasion calls for it. Where the
library will stand in this traffic is the question. Also, I have a
concern that students entering college now no longer generally
have listened to much of the music that may be taught. I hate
to think that students may have missed out on hearing what I
think of as wonderful music during their formative years. This
is an old-fashioned side of me.
NH: And on the brighter side, what hopes do you have? What
good, if any, do you see on the horizon?
JD: We have some wonderful students and new professional
performers coming along. Some of the youngest performers
we hear live or on recordings are as good as or better than the
master performers of previous generations. Have you heard
Joshua Bell recently, especially in a live performance? Have
you been following the geographical adventures of Yo-Yo
Ma? Have you encountered Hélène Grimaud? There is hope
here.
NH: I have not heard either Bell or Grimaud in live
performance, but I know their recordings, and I have had the
great good fortune to accompany Yo-Yo Ma in the Elgar
concerto back in my days as a professional violist—even
sight-read one movement of the Brahms string quintet, op. 88,
with him after the concert at the home of a fellow orchestra
member, something I’ll never forget! And I agree with you:
with people like those around, there’s hope, and then some.
But who are your personal heroes—from your years as a
student, a librarian, a teacher, a father, and any of your various
other roles you might care to address? (Or perhaps an easier
question might be, to whom have you looked up, and who has
served as a role model for you, especially in your young
years?)
JD: One of my heroes is Juan Antonio Orrego-Salas, a wellknown
composer originally from Chile and my adviser at
Indiana University. He and his family introduced me to Latin
American music and some of its culture. I still keep in touch.
There are others in the academic area, especially (and
curiously) those from Texas, all of whom provided benevolent
support at crucial times. Several persons in the Methodist and
Episcopal ministries have touched me deeply and continue to
have influence on my thoughts and hopes, maybe also my
actions.
NH: You have many friends of long-standing in both the
Midwest and Southeast chapters of MLA, and you spent your
career almost equally divided between the two. Can you share
with us one favorite, or perhaps just vivid memory from your
time in each?
JD: There are many fond memories, but I’ll try to choose. At
one of my first Midwest meetings, this one in Chicago, after I
had moved to Oberlin, Marty Rubin, formerly of Audio Buff
and now retired, took a group of us conference-goers out to a
great Chinese restaurant (Hunan, I seem to recall), and I
thought to myself: “What conviviality! What generosity!” And
then in the Southeast we had a memorable meeting at Middle
Tennessee State, where at the banquet we heard such
wonderful dulcimer playing as to defy comparison. My most
poignant memory comes from, I think, the SEMLA meeting in
Memphis in the early 1990s: we heard an elderly, even
ancient, banjo player who declared, before putting fingers to
strings, that he loved us all. (I think you may have been the
program chair for that meeting, Neil.)
NH: That left a vivid impression with me, also. As I recall, he
was a former blues artist who had undergone a religious
conversion and rejected the “music of sin,” as he called the
blues. The interesting thing was that the underlying phrase
structure, chord patterns, melodic inflection, and so on were
all still blues—only the lyrics had changed, but that was of
prime importance to him. Sarah Long, formerly of MTSU,
was actually responsible for his presence on the program that
day, but I’ll take whatever small credit for helping him to be
there that I can; thank you, John!
The last word is yours, and I know from our years of
delightful shared meals and meetings in SEMLA and MLA
that it will be a good one:
JD: It has been for me a great pleasure to be a part of MLA
and the two chapters wherein I have dwelt, and I hope to
continue to participate (at least for a while). Librarianship
combines both service and scholarship, and I have come to
realize that the qualities of librarians are good for civilization
both in terms of what we have saved and organized, what we
share, and what we are trying to build for the future. If you
then add music on top of this, you have a winning
combination.
John Drusedow
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Neil Hughes
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From the Chair...
Diane Steinhaus
University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill
Greetings! I hope this issue of Breve Notes finds you
emerging gleefully from your winter hibernation. I was so
pleased at the large turn out of SEMLAnians at the national
Vancouver meeting in February -- especially considering the
long distance! I think we made quite an impression at the
MLA business meeting, don’t you? Maybe at the MLA
Memphis meeting next year we can take turns creating “Elvis
sightings” around the hotel.
Margaret Kaus presents her research in Vancouver.
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At our interim meeting in Vancouver we welcomed two firsttime
attendees, both students: Josh Chance from University
of Southern Mississippi, and Will Hannah from University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We also bade fond farewell to
some dear colleagues. John “granpa” Druesedow is retiring
after 18 years at Duke University; Rashidah Hakeem is
looking forward to teaching piano and writing after 7 years at
University of Mississippi; Joan McGormand is relocating to
Toronto after 8 years at Southeastern Baptist Seminary; and
Margaret Kaus has left University of Tennessee at Knoxville
for a new job at Kansas State University. It is exciting to usher
new members into the SEMLA family and always sad to see
other long-time family members move on. We will miss them
and wish them all the best!
Margaret’s defection to the Mountain/Plains chapter means
that we need to hold a special election to elect a new Vice-
Chair/Chair-Elect to start serving at the fall 2005 Memphis
meeting. A ballot and candidate biographies are included in
this issue – please study them and vote. And remember, now
we can vote electronically as well as with paper!
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One ballot in the newsletter is never enough, so the SEMLA
board has decided to present to the membership an amendment
to the chapter constitution raising annual membership dues
from $5 for Regular members to $10, and from $2 for Student
members to $5. Yes, it’s a big increase, but we’re pretty sure
it’s never been done. The new levels would bring us in line
with the practice of all the other MLA chapters.
Speaking of money, our fundraising efforts for the 75th
Anniversary MLA meeting in Memphis in winter 2006 keep
rolling along. If you haven’t yet approached that business you
deal with down the road, please do! We are now ready to
begin our final phase in which we ask our institutions for help.
From what I understand, we’ve already received enthusiastic
attention – see Laurel Whisler’s update in this issue.
Mark your calendars for our fall meeting in Memphis, Oct
27-29 at the newly renovated Radisson/Doubletree Hotel right
across the street from the Peabody, where MLA will meet in
the winter. Our program will likely be abbreviated so we can
focus some of our attention on pre-MLA Local Arrangement
matters. Anna Neal has been furiously planning local
arrangements for both the fall SEMLA meeting and the
national MLA meeting. And, in case you didn’t know, our
own Lois Kuyper-Rushing is Program chair for MLA in
Memphis. So you KNOW we’re going to have a good time
both inside and outside the meeting rooms!
See y’all in Memphis!
Lois Kuyper-Rushing, Sarah Dorsey, and Diane Steinhaus pay homage to the
King in anticipation of next year’s meeting in Memphis.
Back to Table of Contents
Member News
Kirstin Dougan of Duke University recently received a
promotion to the rank of Senior Assistant Librarian.
Back to Table of Contents
75th Anniversary Fund Raising Update
Laurel Whisler, Furman University
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Fund raising for the 75th Anniversary festivities continues at a
great pace!
- We have received just over $3700 from individuals within
MLA and $1,000 from the Midwest Chapter! Thanks also to
Dana Jaunzemis of Music Library Service Company for
another significant gift. Our total raised now stands at $9295
received out of $10,230 pledged. This means we have now
passed the halfway mark for the lower end of our goal!
- Several of you have contacted me about local corporate fund
raising. Please keep up the good work and let me know of
your progress.
- Diane Steinhaus is sending letters to the dozen or so MLA
corporate partners thanking them for their participation in our
Association and encouraging them to consider a gift to add
their "hurrah" to our celebration.
- Finally, it is time to begin asking our institutions for support,
for it may be possible for our directors to pledge a larger
amount by using funds from two fiscal years. I will send you
letters that you may take to your directors in support of your
request.
As always, if you have any questions, please contact me
(Laurel.Whisler@furman.edu). Checks should be made out to
SEMLA and may be sent directly to Kirstin Dougan, SEMLA
Secretary/Treasurer (Duke University, 112 Mary Duke
Biddle Music Building, Box 90661, Durham, NC 27708)
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Laurel Whisler and Diane Steinhaus with a Memphis mascot
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Back to Table of Contents
2005 Annual Meeting
Call for Ideas/Papers
This year’s SEMLA meeting in Memphis will serve, in part,
as preparation for our hosting of the MLA meeting in
February 2006. Therefore, we are trying to create a program
around the subject matter of the various tours suggested by
Anna Neal, local arrangements chair. The tours will be Elvis
Presley’s Graceland, the Memphis Music Tour (including Sun
Records, Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, Stax Records Museum of
Soul Music), and Heritage Tours (civil rights history of the
area, including the National Civil Rights Museum).
Papers, presentation ideas, and program suggestions are
welcome and encouraged. We want the Memphis meeting to
be an informative and enjoyable experience for all, and we
need each of you to be a part of making it so. Please contact
the program committee with your ideas. We look forward to
hearing from you.
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Robena Cornwell
Chair, 2005 SEMLA Program Committee
University of Florida
(352) 392-6678
robcorn@uflib.ufl.edu
Leslie Kamtman
North Carolina School of the Arts
(336) 770-1395
kamtml@ncarts.edu
Anna Neal
University of Memphis
(901) 678-4412
abneal@memphis.edu
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A multiple Elvis sighting at the MLA business meeting in Vancouver.
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Back to Table of Contents
2005 Officer Election
Call For Nominations
The SEMLA Nominating Committee is soliciting
nominations for two offices: Member-At-Large and
Secretary/Treasurer. Candidates must be members in good
standing in SEMLA. Candidates for Secretary/Treasurer
must also be members in good standing of MLA. Detailed
descriptions of both offices are available on the SEMLA
Web site: http://jpl.coj.net/semla/handbook.html
Biographies of the candidates, ballots, and voting procedures
will appear in the August 2005 issue of Breve Notes.
Election winners will be announced at the conclusion of the
business meeting in Memphis in October.
Please send your nominations to any member of the
nominating committee:
Lenny Bertrand, Chair
Tulane University
lennyb@tulane.edu
Lois Kuyper-Rushing
Louisiana State University
lkuyper@lsu.edu
David Guion
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
dmguion@uncg.edu
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Georgia State Receives Endowment
Laura Botts, Georgia State University
Georgia State University Professor Emeritus Wayne W.
Daniel has funded a Special Collections endowment to
support the acquisition, preservation, and promotion of
material related to Southern gospel, bluegrass, and country
music. His donations of sound and video recordings, printed
matter, photographs, and research material are part of the
Special Collections Department's Popular Music Collection.
Daniel is the author of Pickin' on Peachtree: A History of
Country Music in Atlanta, Georgia (University of Illinois
Press, 1990) as well as numerous articles on the styles of
music supported by the endowment.
To contribute to the endowment in Daniel's honor, contact
development director Melisa Baldwin at
mbaldwin7@gsu.edu or (404) 651-1429. To contribute to the
Popular Music Collection, contact Popular Music Archivist
Laura Botts at lbotts@gsu.edu or (404) 651-3902.
Back to Table of Contents
Revelry with plastic guitars at the Memphis 2006 promotion table (left to
right: Sarah Dorsey, Laurel Whisler, Diane Steinhaus, and Anna Neal)
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For more of Lenny Bertrand’s
photos from
MLA 2005
in Vancouver, visit:
http://www.tulane.edu/~musiclib/semla/mla-2005
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Lenny Bertrand with Anna Neal, Local Arrangements Chair for
Memphis.
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Last
updated 05/05/05
©SEMLA
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