Arts and Entertainment

Performing Arts

Magazines in our collection as Reference at Central

Music Websites

  • Windsor Symphony Orchestra
  • Allmusic. Website for music recordings in all genres, plus composer/artist discographies, bio ’s and timelines:
  • Canadian Sheet Music from Canada's Past: First World War Era. Nearly 400 pieces of music have been chosen from the historical collection of the National Library of Canada and will be available for downloading. This collection includes patriotic and parlour songs, piano pieces, sacred music and novelty numbers from the period. Many of the cover illustrations are of particular interest.
  • CanadianBands.com. Web site with lots of information on Canadian Bands!
  • CanEHdian .Great source for Canadian Music!
  • The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
    This electronic version of the Second Edition of The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada (1992) is designed to enable musicians, music scholars, students, and music lovers globally to have immediate access to information about music in Canada. EMC's electronic edition, presented in both official languages, will continue to be updated on an ongoing basis over the next several years.
  • Northern Journey Folk Music. A comprehensive repository of links relating to Canadian folk music.
  • Second Hand Songs Who first sang that song or composed it and how many artists covered it? Find out at Second Hand Songs: The database already contains 62708 songs (15193 originals, 45937 cover songs and 1578 songs with samples) and 22998 artists (performers and songwriters).
  • SOCAN. Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada - SOCAN - royalties, composer, writer, SOCAN is the Canadian copyright collective.

Lyrics Search

  • Cantaria. A library of "bardic" folk songs, mostly from Ireland, Scotland and England (e.g. Auld Lang Syne ). Includes sound files for most of the 160 included titles.
  • DigiTrad Lyrics Search. Searchable index of over 6500 folk songs. Provides actual song lyrics.
  • Lyric Search
  • Lyric Wiki. The open source, wiki answer to your lyric search.
  • Lyrics Connection. Extensive list of links to lyrics sites.
  • Lyrics.astraweb. Rock, pop, hip-hop and rap.
  • Lyrics.com - See the Search by Artist A to Z listing at the bottom of the page.
  • Top40db. Lyrics Pop song lyric search site.

Theme pages

The music librarian for Windsor Public Library plays Irish and Celtic music on various instruments, the Irish wooden flute, Irish penny whistle(s) and the bodhran (the Irish drum,) below are links to some of his favourite web sites.

The Music of Ireland

Instruments:

The main instruments used in playing Irish music are the harp, fiddle, flute, penny whistle (tinwhistle), Uilleann pipes, bodhran, concertina, piano accordion and melodeon (button accordion). Newer instruments accepted into playing Irish music are the guitar, banjo, bouzouki and mandolin.

Penny whistle, Tinwhistle, Irish whistle or just plain Whistle

Wikipedia information on the Whistle

Chiff & Fipple, the ultimate guide to the instrument known as the tinwhistle, pennywhistle, Irish whistle, or just plain whistle, plus message forums on most Irish instruments.
Brother Steve's tin-whistle pages, a space dedicated to the playing of Irish traditional music on the tin whistle. My aim is to help learners improve their understanding of Irish music and ways of playing it on this humble - but wonderful - little instrument. Highly recommended for the beginner and on.
There are video lessons by Sean Cunningham at whistletutor.com.

The Irish Flute:

Wikipedia on the Irish Flute

A Guide to the Irish Flute. This site is a resource for people who are interested in learning Irish music on the flute—particularly the simple-system (six-hole) transverse flute, sometimes referred to as the "Irish flute."

Rob Greenway, a flute player based in Washington, DC, has a site offering much good advice on holding the flute, tone, breath control, ornamentation, and more.

The Flow, a site by Edinburgh flute player Gordon Turnbull, focuses on different styles of Irish flute playing and includes an extensive flute discography.

The Wooden Flute Home Page, by Larry Owens, has useful information on wooden flutes, a collection of links, a buy-and-sell page similar to the Wooden Flute Exchange, and instructions for signing up on his woodenflute listserv.

The Concertina:

Wikipedia on the concertina

The most popular concertina portal in the world! Dedicated to concertinas, concertina music, and anything else related to concertinas.

Frank Edgley of Windsor, Ontario, is a teacher, player and maker of hand crafted Anglo Concertinas. Frank also teaches at the Detroit Irish Musician Association.

Concertina FAQ. Everything you can ask about a concertina

The Bodhran (Irish drum)

Wikipedia on the Bodhran.
The bodhrán is the heartbeat of Irish music. This ancient frame drum is traditionally made with a wooden body and a goat-skin head, and is played with a double-headed stick called a tipper. The modern Irish word bodhrán is properly pronounced bow-rawn. A complete website from the history of bodhran, to learning how to play and on with many links.

How to play the Bodhran