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Posted by: Matt Raymond
Butch Lazorchak of the Library’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program brings us this guest post on the Library’s involvement in one of the most important conferences for the creative and technology communities: The South By Southwest Conference, being held in Austin, Texas, March 11-20, 2011, has rapidly become one of the most influential …
Posted in: Events, Music, News, Preservation, Technology
Posted by: Matt Raymond
The following is a guest post by Mike Mashon, head of the Moving Image Section in the Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound Division: When I was a kid, I associated organ music with three things: church, baseball games, and roller skating rinks. As a teenager I became interested in silent films, and most of …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Events, Film, Music
Posted by: Matt Raymond
PBS tonight airs the long-awaited “Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House” at 8 p.m. EDT, with an encore showing at 9:30. It’s an all-star concert that features music from McCartney himself and Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Jonas Brothers, Herbie Hancock, Corinne Bailey Rae, Dave …
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Did you happen to catch the “CBS Evening News” last night? They featured the latest audio recordings the Library has added to the National Recording Registry, which features everything from Jiminy Cricket and Little Richard to Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Tupac Shakur and a World War II battle. As Katie Couric might say, Anthony Mason …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Collections, History, Music, News
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Tim Daly gingerly wound his way up a narrow spiral staircase to a low-ceilinged, vaulted alcove overlooking the ornate Ceremonial Office of the Librarian of Congress. Surveying the VIPs on the crowded floor below–members of Congress, Hollywood A-listers, Library leadership–he pulled out a digital camera to capture the celebratory moment. Then he paused. “I wonder …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Events, History, Music, Preservation
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Most musicians probably would be satisfied during a performance with a single standing ovation. But at a rousing concert Tuesday in the Coolidge Auditorium, the crowd leapt to their feet in applause no less than four times for a half dozen of country music’s most popular and influential stars—and even surprise “guest performer” Librarian of …
Posted by: Matt Raymond
There’s something very satisfying in music about the number three: three notes in a basic chord, a romantic waltz in 3/4 time, the three-movement form of early symphonies. So it’s appropriate that the Library’s third blog (behind this one and “Inside Adams” from the Science, Technology and Business Division) would come from the Music Division. …
Posted in: Blogging, Collections, Concerts, Curators, Music, Social Media
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Have you ever had to keep a secret? A huge, exciting secret? A few weeks ago the head of our Music Division called to inform me that the third recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song would be Sir Paul McCartney. I’m fairly certain that they heard my reaction in the …
Posted by: Matt Raymond
(The following is a guest post by Patricio Padua of the Library’s Collections and Services Division, h/t to Bryan Cornell in the Recorded Sound Reading Room.) Some years ago, a monk decked in an elegant black robe visited the Recorded Sound Reading Room in search of the music of his elders: Coptic Chant, which comes …
Posted in: Collections, LC Web site, Music