Mar 29, 2020
One of the Library’s streaming music resources is a suite of resources called Naxos. It consists of six individual sites, four of which have apps for iOS and Android.
Naxos Music Library
(20 simultaneous users; app available)
Dedicated to mainly to classical music, but includes film and TV music, contemporary instrumental, Chinese music and more.
The Naxos Music Library website has options for web content accessibility so you can enlarge the text and make the mouse cursor more visible. You can also change the language of the webpage to French, Chinese and others, but the resources are unfortunately English.
There are many other resources available for music students in addition to over 2.3 million music tracks in more than 150,000 albums.
-
One can learn about the various eras of classical music through guided tours. There are aural training exercises to help students understand the elements of music through a series of audio lessons.
-
There are music study guides from organizations around the world, including the Ontario Music Educators Association.
-
Work analyses are available for major classical composers.
-
Naxos Musicology: a collection of essays, opinions, encounters and editorials.
-
A “Junior Section” to introduce children to basic music concepts.
-
Audio pronunciation guides for artists, composers and musical terms.
-
A section for Operas, describing the synopses and musical details.
You can register to compile playlists of your favourite music tracks. Registration on the website also gives you access to the resource through the Naxos Music Library app.
A video link to YouTube describing the services is provided below:
Naxos Music Library Jazz
(20 simultaneous users; app available)
Over 216,000 song tracks from over 18,000 albums of various artists and genres of Jazz music.
Naxos Music Library World
(5 simultaneous users; app available)
Over 14,000 albums of cultural music from around the world. This library includes sound recordings from Smithsonian Folkways, a music label collecting folk music with annotations. There are many examples of Canadian cultures represented: French Canadian, First Nation, Upper Ottawa Valley, Nova Scotia and others.
Naxos Spoken Word Library
(5 simultaneous users; app available, activation code on OPL website)
Almost 11,000 English titles and over 1,140 titles in French of fiction, children’s tales, literature, plays and radio dramas.
Naxos Video Library
3,405 videos on a variety of subjects. Music concerts, operas, biographies, plays and travelogues. Subtitles available in a variety of languages.
Naxos Works Database
Several thousand detailed descriptions of classical music works.
Blog post contributed by Greg from the Manotick Branch