September always brings back memories of my school days, when I walked to class barefoot four miles in chin-high snow (winter coming dreadfully early in those times), dodging packs of rabid wolves and feral children. But the modern age provides you, the reader, with sundry opportunities to learn from the comfort of your own coffee shop. Whether your interest is in math rock or the second Viennese school … well maybe we can’t supply the math rock, but the Music Division has a variety of educational programs available, from lectures in tandem with the 2010-11 Concert Series to the popular Music and the Brain lectures available on YouTube and iTunes University.
Remember your lessons with Cobb and Edwards’ “School Days,” from the Historic Sheet Music, 1800-1922 collection in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Published in 1907, the song was recorded in the modern era by such diverse and distinctly American artists as Louis Jordan and Tiny Tim, who recreated both parts of the original Billy Murray and Ada Jones duet with his own signature voices.
For more extra-curricular activities, visit the William P. Gottlieb collection for photographs taken at the Metropolitan Vocational High School in New York. See this Library of Congress Collection Connections page to find out about more about Gottlieb’s assignment, and what at the time was the only school in the country with the primary goal of training working musicians. And do your homework!