'music'

Synthesizer Petting Zoo

Thurs, Feb 26 @ 6:00 pm

All Ages // Hands-on electronic music fun with special guest UND Librarian Alfred Wallace. Come explore a zoo unlike any other: where the animals bleep, bloop, and buzz!

This Thing Called Life

by Neal Karlen 

BIO -Arts -Music - PRINCE   

A warm and surprisingly real-life biography, featuring never-before-seen photos, of one of rock’s greatest talents: Prince. Neal Karlen was the only journalist Prince granted in-depth press interviews to for over a dozen years, from before Purple Rain to when the artist changed his name to an unpronounceable glyph. 

The Beatles Anthology

781.66 BEATLES 

What a book The Beatles Anthology is! Each page is brimming with personal stories and rare vintage images. Snapshots from their family collections take us back to the days when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Richard Starkey were just boys growing up in Liverpool. They talk in turn about those early years and how they came to join the band that would make them known around the world as John, Paul, George and Ringo.  

Taylor Swift: the stories behind the songs

by Annie Zaleski 

 BIO -Arts -Music – SWIFT 

From her humble beginnings as a teenage country singer to her record-breaking Eras Tour, Taylor Swift’s career is incomparable both in her mastery over multiple genres and the pure scale of her fan base and success. By weaving effortlessly through country, rock, pop, indie, and folk music, Swift has created a style of her own. Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind the Songs is a comprehensive review of her entire songbook to date, covering all eleven studio albums and more than 200 songs. 

Who was David Bowie?

by Margaret Gurevich 

J NF BIO BOWIE 

David Bowie, born David Robert Jones, wasn't just an incredible singer; he had an amazing talent for keeping his fans happily guessing about what he would do next. He alternated between musical genres with ease, established a successful acting career, and even created a legendary persona, the rocker alien Ziggy Stardust. 

Learn more about musicians and creating your own music in our catalog!

If you need help accessing any of these titles or using front door pickup, email or call us and we will be happy to assist you!

Check out new arrivals in our catalog: Books | Audiobooks | DVDs | Videogames | Library of Things | Libby

Sean Gaskell in Concert

& the music of the West African kora
Fri, July 12 @ 3:00 pm // Gaskell will play traditional songs on the West African 21-stringed harp, talk about the kora's history, and entertain all with this unique instrument. Free. 

Lynx Lynx Concert

Mon, July 22 @ 5:00 pm // Enjoy an evening of traditional Nordic fiddle tunes and original music at the library! Free will donations to support North Country Fiddle and Dance.

Make music!

a kid's guide to creating rhythm, playing with sound, and conducting and composing music
by Norma Jean Haynes

J NF MUSIC -Instruments - HAYNES 2019

Music is for everyone, no prior experience required! Make Music! invites kids and families to celebrate the joy of sound with a variety of inventive activities, including playing dandelion trumpets, conducting percussion conversations, and composing their own pieces.

Music for Mister Moon

by Philip Christian Stead

Easy STEAD

A girl named Harriet longs to play her cello alone in her room. But when a noisy owl disrupts her solitude, Harriet throws her teacup out the window in frustration, and accidentally knocks the moon out of the sky.

Mister Rogers' Gift of Music

by Donna Cangelosi

Easy 921 ROGERS 2022

This sensitive, life-affirming biography focuses on Fred’s most memorable songs and musical TV moments, and captures the enduring magic of his music in brilliantly colorful abstract illustration. Readers will not only learn about what music meant to Fred Rogers, but find the encouragement and inspiration to brighten their own lives with song.

Song after song: The musical life of Julie Andrews

by Julie Hedlund

Easy 791.4302 HEDLUND 2023

Long before she starred in movies like The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, and The Princess Diaries, Julie Andrews was a little girl struggling. To comfort her and fill her time during the London Blitz, her stepfather taught her to sing, and Julie found her voice-one of the most extraordinary singing voices of all time.

If you need help accessing any of these titles or using front door pickup, email or call us and we will be happy to assist you!

Check out new arrivals in our catalog: Books | Audiobooks | DVDs | Videogames | Library of Things | Libby

Are you singing the right lyrics to the songs you learned as a kid? I love to hear children sing. If the words aren’t quite the ones I remember, that doesn’t matter. They sing with their hearts and I can hum along, but do I remember the lyrics?

For the life of me, I cannot remember the lyrics to Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I obviously made up some words as a kid and that is how I remember it. Though sometimes, my curiosity (or the funny looks of my grandchildren) will cause me to find the original lyrics to some of my favorites.

The Library can come to the rescue for lots of those songs especially in the Easy section. We can find Home On the Range edited by Barbie H. Schwaeber. It is based on a poem written by a Kansas homesteader, Dr. Brewster M. Higley. Others have tried to take credit for it and have tried to change the words. Ranchers, farmers and cowboys adopted the song as an unofficial anthem for the American West. Kansas adopted it as their state song. But how did it get to be so well known?

The story behind a song can be a lot of fun. Another book by the same title, Home On the Range: John A. Lomax and His Cowboy Songs by Deborah Hopkinson tells how as a young man, John went out with an old-fashioned recording device in the early 1900s to capture songs that were sung by cowboys. Then he wrote them down for us. He went out again later in life and captured more songs. Many of his recordings of singing cowboys are stored at the Library of Congress. I bet those cowboys would be surprised to know their voices live on in such a prestigious place!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game by Jack Norworth is another unofficial anthem. Baseball games would not be the same without this song even though we only sing one of the three verses. How many of us know the words to the other two?

To help us remember songs from our youth, the Library has a wonderful selection of DVDs called Sentimental Sing-Alongs. Their topics range from patriotic to romance and from locations all over the country.

We do grow up and discover new songs and with them singers who become favorites. Some write their own music and others have lyricists that create the words for them. There are those who redo an old classic with their own personality by changing up the music, but the lyrics live on.

Lyrics catch attention so they’re often used as titles like in these books owned by the library:

• True Colors (Cyndy Lauper) by Kristin Hannah
• Message in a Bottle (Sting) by Nicholas Sparks
• Devil in a Blue Dress (Shorty Long and Mickey Stevenson) by Walter Mosley
• Night Shift (Walter Orange-Commodores) by Steven King