RSS and PLN

I got a google reader set up, but so far I don't have a whole lot of music additions yet. I added TrueHoop and The Fix, a few non-musical things I follow, but most of the music related resources I use don't fit the RSS model as well because they are references, suppliers, or other types of resources that don't issue common and regular updates. I did subscribe to OMEA, MENC, Slate's "Music Box" column, and WaPo's "The Classical Beat" blog.

I've been using aggregators for quite a while now, so the concept of RSS isn't new as it's simply a personalized aggregator. The advantage of this is not having to sort through irrelevant junk an aggregator might claim is relevant, but on the other hand, aggregators also pull material sometimes from sources that are not known to me or that I don't think important enough to scan on a regular basis with my RSS. In this way, I sometimes find new sources that are consistently interesting.

The PLN and aggregation models are great for bringing in new developments that people are trying to share, and this often happens in education, but in more general music terms, I still find it very difficult to find relevant reference information even when actively looking for it. Information on composers and pieces if very hard to find if you move outside the most famous composers. Even such people as Pierre Sancan and Matsudaira Yoritsune have only scant information available. Sancan was a renowned piano teacher at the Paris Conservatory and Prix de Rome winner and doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. Information on Matsudaira is available to level that he was a serialist influenced by gagaku, but little else, and given those tendencies, recordings will be sparse as well.

Knowledge of composers and music is incredibly relevant to interpreting music, yet still is neglected by many people, probably in part due to the difficulty of finding information for anything outside the mainstream. Even a database that included rudimentary information and observations on composers and music that made an effort to include information on figures from outside the western orchestral standards would be an incredibly valuable resources for my PLN.

As a music teacher, there is so much to be done in finite time that it is tempting to neglect the historical aspect of music if it is not easily accessible. If it is made easily accessible, I think it would benefit music education on various levels.