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Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Senior Music Cataloger Sharon McKinley. The battle for the right to vote was hard-fought by women in America and elsewhere. The last state to ratify the 19th amendment to the US Constitution was Tennessee, on August 18, 1920. Today it seems unthinkable …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections, Women in Music
Posted by: Pat Padua
As August draws to a close, In the Muse would like to catch up on a number of birthdays you may have missed. August 4, which is the day we celebrated Louis Armstrong’s birthday, was also the birthday of film composer David Raksin, who donated sketches and scores from films like Laura, Forever Amber, and Carrie …
Posted in: Birthdays, Jazz, Musicians, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Pat Padua
In The Muse was going to celebrate a number of August birthdays today, but a little 5.8 magnitude bird impels us otherwise. Yesterday an earthquake was felt along the Eastern seaboard from Virginia to Maine, but today all Library buildings are open. If our readership should “begin to shake and shiver” today, we hope that …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
In the Muse was sad to learn of the passing of two great songwriters. Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber were both part of songwriting teams that helped define American popular music for different generations. The songs of Leiber and partner Mike Stoller have been performed by a full spectrum of artists, from Elvis Presley to …
Posted in: Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
In the Muse hopes our readers in the Northern Hemisphere are having an enjoyable summer. Things have been hot in Washington, and Morris S. Silver and Tom Confare’s “Sunbeam,” from the Historic Sheet Music, 1800-1922 collection in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia, may provide cool solace in the form of song. This illustration of a demonic sun — undoubtedly a …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Senior Music Specialist Ray White. Lucille Ball was born one hundred years ago, on August 6, 1911, in Jamestown, New York. Her career took her from very inauspicious beginnings—she was dismissed from drama school as a teenager by instructors who declared that she had no future as an …
Posted in: Birthdays, Exhibitions, Guest bloggers, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
In the Muse can’t believe it’s been a year since the Music Division joined the Library of Congress’s efforts on Flickr Commons. On July 30, 2010, we uploaded the first batch of photos from the William P. Gottlieb Collection to the popular photo sharing site. And it is a happy coincidence that we belatedly celebrate …
Posted in: Birthdays, Musicians, Pic of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Rachel Weiss, an intern whom we interviewed on Monday. Just after the turn of the twentieth century, the Music Division was still a fledgling organization. In 1902, Oscar Sonneck was named its first Chief, and he laid the groundwork for the development of many of the division’s wonderful …
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Special Collections