Paddock Exhibits
Record Store Day celebration
Coordinated by David Bowden, Paddock staff
April 13, 2019
The first annual Record Store Day in April of 2008 was organized to celebrate the endurance and importance of the vinyl record format and the stores across the country that still stocked and traded vinyl.
Starting the tradition of bands playing in shops and labels releasing limited edition unique pressings every third Saturday in April, Metallica performed in Rasputin Music in Mountain View, CA, and 10 albums from indie bands were released. Now over a decade later, thousands of special discs are released in thousands of shops across the world, and this year Paddock Music Library at Dartmouth College will be celebrating the day with a free special event. There will be several turntables setup for use, hundreds of Paddock’s records to browse and play as well as several dozen rare, unique, or simply awesome albums from staff personal collections like colored vinyl, picture discs, and items with beautiful cover designs.
There will also be several interactive exhibits about the history of mechanical sound reproduction and other interesting info about its evolution. Stop in for a fun experience!
Paddock Cymbal Exhibit
March 1 - April 5, 2019
Have you ever wondered about those shiny metal discs that you've seen hanging around every drummer's kit? Stop by Paddock Music Library in the Hopkins Center to visit an interactive exhibit where you can learn all about how cymbal-smiths create these instruments by hand. There are also a dozen cymbals of all sizes you can try out yourself.
Reception with Composer Dennis Báthory-Kitsz
An Indeterminate Reception at a Determinate Time with a Determined Talk
Tuesday November 13th 3:00PM at the Paddock Music Library.
The Paddock Music Library is honored to host a reception for composer Dennis Báthory-Kitsz
He will be here to discuss his recent Graphical Scores featured in the "Seeing is Hearing" exhibit at the Paddock Music Library.
About Dennis Báthory-Kitsz
As part of the post-Fluxus generation of independent artists, Dennis composes, writes about, and advocates for nonpop. He has created more than a thousand works for orchestras, bands, sound sculptures, soloists, chamber groups, electronics, theater, opera, installations, dancers, interactive media and performance events, as well as writing about music and multimedia arts, since 1964.
His music has been performed around the world. He devised the We Are All Mozart music ‘productivity’ project, composing 100 commissioned works in 2007. His opera Erzsébet premiered in 2011. His groundbreaking article “The Rural Composer” was published in the Dutch journal Nynade in 2013. His book Whaaaaaaaaat!? I Don’t Get Classical Music: A Self-Help Desperation Guide was published in 2016. His ballet Send Me a Dream will be performed in November 2018, and his Requiem will be heard in 2019.
Critic and composer Kyle Gann calls him “something of a shadowy figure” and writes in New Music America that his third string quartet is “one of the most unified quartet movements you’ll ever hear.” His music includes traditional and graphic scores, his own electronic & acoustic instruments, computer software & hardware, synthesizers & e-boxes, electronic costumes, the Rhythmatron, and extended voice performances.
Dennis co-hosted Kalvos & Damian’s New Music Bazaar, winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Internet Journalism, with David Gunn; his book topics have included music, theater, computer technology, hiking, and Vermont’s country stores.
Seeing is Hearing
Exhibit of Graphic Notation and Indeterminate Music Scores
October 22 – November 21
Paddock Music Library
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 
Featuring a new “Physical Score” by Dennis Báthory-Kitsz
Displaying works from the Paddock Music Library Collection by
John Cage
Christian Wolff
Morton Feldman
Karlheinz Stockhausen
György Ligeti
Michael Schell
Philip Corner
Cornelius Cardew
Malcolm Goldstein
Netty Simons
Kenneth Gaburo
Dennis Báthory-Kitsz
The exhibit features both fixed length and indeterminate graphical scores.
Fixed length graphical scores are notated and performed from left to right, with the performer working with indeterminate sound sets. Normal staff notation is avoided, and the scores use graphical objects to symbolize notes, implied densities, volumes and note ranges.
Indeterminate graphical scores are not played from left to right, the performer or conductor determines the structure, elements and length of the performance. Generally, the composer provides a set of instructions which allow the performer to use a variety of resources, dots, shapes, templates, overlays, and direct images to create the shape and length of the live performance.
The first section of the exhibit shows a wide variety of fixed length graphical scores. These include: Christian Wolff - “Madrigals”, Morton Feldman - “Projection 2”, Philip Corner – “attempting whiteness”, Stockhausen – “Kontakte”, John Cage – “Aria”, György Ligeti – “Artikulation”, and Michael Schell – “An Alarming Situation”.
The second section of the exhibit displays indeterminate graphical scores in which concepts and procedures are used and applied to the actual form of the composition. Works include, Dennis Báthory-Kitsz – “Aurora Cagealis”, “Rose Windows in Sunlight”, and “Fields of Vision”, Christian Wolff – “Edges” and “Burdocks”, John Cage – “Atlas Eclipticalis”, “Fontana Mix”, “Indeterminacy”, and “Solo Voice 2”, Netty Simons – “Silver Thaw”, and Cornelius Cardew – “Treatise”
Camp Harmony: Music of the Japanese American Internment, May 15 - June 20
This exhibit serves as an introduction to the role of music in the Japanese American internment camps of the 1940s. The misnomer "Camp Harmony" was the unofficial nickname of the Puyallup, Washington Assembly Center, where Japanese-American internees were held until assigned to established "colonies" during World War II. While the Japanese American internment camps of the 1940s have striking similarities to Nazi concentration camps, public knowledge and discourse regarding the American internment camps is underdeveloped. In both instances, however, fear-mongering by state leaders brewed widespread suspicion of and unjustified resentment toward particular ethnic groups, resulting in unspeakable crimes against humanity. Prisoners in Japanese-American internment camps used music as a coping mechanism, a means of staying connected to ethnic and national roots, and, in some instances, as a form of resistance. Alternatively, music was used by oppressors to enforce assimilation and obedience. As racism and xenophobia continues to go unnoticed or ignored, this exhibit aims to remind viewers that awareness of injustice is essential for moving towards a livable, safe world for all.
Exhibit curated by Betty Kim '20 and designed by Memory Apata, Paddock Music Library
A Night of Sikh Music
Coordinated by Amrit Ahluwahlia ‘19
Cosponsored by the Office of Pluralism and Development, Paddock Music Library, and the Tucker Center
July 27, 2017
Sikhism is a major world religion whose practice is deeply tied to music. Founded by a musician in the 15th century, sikh religious services are comprised solely of the singing of religious texts, accompanied by traditional instruments including the rabab, saranda, jori, sarangi, taus, and dilruba. As Sikhism spread to the west, a renaissance of musicians and instrument makers has arisen to teach and preserve sikh music. Paddock Music Library welcomes some of these teachers and students from the Guru Angad Institute of Sikh Studies for a lecture recital and concert. Accompanied by a collections showcase in the library, these events serve to introduce the Upper Valley community to a musical genre rarely performed in our area and as a site of inquiry into this fascinating tradition.