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Sheet Music of the Week: Modern Technology Edition

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"The Telephone," by H. W. Durand. Boston: Chas. D. Blake & Co., 1885

On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell conducted his first successful experiment with the telephone. Today we remember the fateful invention that changed the world with this week’s featured sheet music.  H. W. Durand’s “The Telephone” dates from just nine years after Bell’s celebrated experiment, and already the songwriter declares that “There’s no need of writing letters–you can talk the world around. ”  Little did he know. Read more about Alexander Graham Bell on Today in History in American Memory. And if you look closely at this portrait statue of Beethoven in the Main Reading Room, you might wonder if he’s using the cell phone. Dear Ludwig: Shhhh.

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