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Archive: July 2010 (13 Posts)

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Ernest and Cootie

Posted by: Pat Padua

Today we  remember the July birthdays of two very different musical luminaries represented in the Music Division’s august coffers. Ernest Bloch was born July 24th, 1880. A special performance of his viola suite was given on December 10th, 2009, in the Coolidge Auditorium by violist Roberto Diaz and pianist Andrew Tyson to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary …

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Two Scoops from the Music Division

Posted by: Pat Padua

This comes over the transom from Today in History. Legend has it that on this day in 1904,   Charles E. Menches filled a pastry cone with two scoops of ice-cream and thus is responsible for the conical icon we celebrate today. The history of ideas, however sweet, is more complicated than that, as the cast of characters …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Roger Reynolds

Posted by: Pat Padua

Composer Roger Reynolds was born July 18, 1934 in Detroit, Michigan.  Ciro G. Scotto, in his 1992 volume Contemporary Composers, wrote that Reynolds “has created a body of work that encompasses nearly every major musical development in the 20th century.” In an article written for the Library of Congress Information Bulletin in 2002, Senior Music Specialist …

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One Small Dance Step For Man

Posted by: Pat Padua

Forty-one years ago today, astronaut Neil A. Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon. The Apollo 11 broadcast from the moon on July 20, 1969, which transmitted Neil Armstrong’s immortal words,  “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” was named to the National Recording Registry in 2004. Remember one giant …

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New Webcasts

Posted by: Pat Padua

Followers of In the Muse will be pleased to know that a number of Music Division events covered in these virtual pages are now available on the Library of Congress’s Webcasts page. A Conversation with Dafnis Prieto and Larry Appelbaum A performance by the Dafnis Prieto Si O Si Quartet. Music and the Brain: Stage …

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Music to Drink Your Blood By

Posted by: Pat Padua

Are you a night person? Do garlic cloves make you break out, or worse?  Does Team Edward mean anything to you? If your answer to any or all of these questions is yes, you may enjoy “Vampire Polka,” by a composer known only as “Four-Eyes.”  Whatever societal anxieties may be behind the twenty-first century thirst …

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The Bicycle and the Bastille

Posted by: Pat Padua

Last week In the Muse brought you “The Battle of the Sewing Machines,” a 19th century piano piece that fondly mimics the chug of an old sewing machine. The piece features cover art that depicts sundry anthropomorphic sewing machines on the attack, revealing perhaps a bit of 19th century tension at the fate of man …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

The Battle of the Sewing Machines

Posted by: Pat Padua

Just over the transom via the American Folklife Center’s Facebook page, today is the birthday of Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine. Celebrate Howe’s gift, not only to the garment industry, but to mankind, with “The Battle of the Sewing Machines,” F. Hyde’s rhythmic impersonation of that old-fashioned sewing machine sound ca. 1874. The …