Books fill Mitchell Memorial Library to the brim, but starting Tuesday at 7 p.m., the library displays moving pictures alongside pictures on paper.
The library hosts the second of a five-part film series about uniquely American music genres including blues, gospel, Broadway, jazz, bluegrass, country, rock `n roll, mambo and hip-hop.
The series includes free viewings of documentaries that explain the history of American music. Following each film showing Michael Brown, department head of music, will lead discussions of the film and the film’s musical subject. Brown said he will foster a discourse that brings out the common threads woven throughout the diverse styles of music.
“What I try to do is draw those similarities between all the different styles of musics to sort of connect everything,” Brown said. “They all have swing. They all have blues. They all have commercialism. They all have improvisation, just in different ways. They are all American and all unique to this country, but they’re not totally unique to each other.”
Live music demonstrations from talented Starkville musicians will accompany each film screening. Each demonstration will include performances in the genre of music the film explores.
Tara Warfield, assistant professor of voice and voice area coordinator, demonstrates gospel music following tonight’s screening of Martin Scorsese’s “Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Episode 1, Feel Like Going Home.”
Warfield said the films and performances provide chances for people to experience music they might not listen to otherwise.
“I think everyone has their favorites, ‘I like country music, so I listen to country music only,’ or, ’My favorite is jazz, so I only listen to jazz,’” Warfield said. “This gives (attendees) an opportunity to experience something they are not normally exposed to and might find something that they like.”
The event is a project from Tribeca Film Institute and is a collaboration between the library systems and the Department of Music. The series was brought to MSU through a $2,500 grant from the National Endowment for Humanities’s Exploring the Human Endeavor program. MSU is one of 50 sites chosen to host the film series.
Stephen Cunetto, general library systems administrator, is the event coordinator and author of the grant written to bring the series to MSU. Cunetto said many of the films are based in Mississippi and he focused on the commonalities between the history of music and Mississippi to get the films to MSU.
“There is so much history around Mississippi, and I wrote the grant that way to reflect that these are perfect tie-ins with where we are in Mississippi,” Cunetto said. “Because the blues came out of Mississippi. Much of the jazz came out of Mississippi.”
As part of the grant, MSU received the films’ public viewing rights. Each film shown at the event is one part of a larger film series. The rest of the films will be available in the library for check out.
