Top of page
Posted by: Pat Padua
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “lallapaloosa” as “something outstandingly good of its kind.” The term has its origins in American slang from the turn of the 20th century, but its most popular spelling variation is associated with a music festival of more recent vintage. Music fans converge on Chicago this weekend for the 2012 Lollapalooza. …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The image of a gentleman with a powdered wig is a far cry from that of today’s young Olympians destined for cereal boxes and lucrative endorsement contracts. But Italian poet and librettist Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782) penned the libretto for a frequently adapted but little remembered opera set in the ancient Olympic games. L’Olimpiade, with a …
Posted in: Composers
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post from Music Archivist Chris Hartten. Peggy Clark (1915-1996) lit up the Broadway stage in ways very different from most stars of 20th-century America. Following her 1938 Broadway debut as a costume designer for The Girl from Wyoming, Clark soon established herself as a pioneer of stage lighting and one …
Posted in: New Acquisitions, Special Collections, Theater
Posted by: Pat Padua
Caped crusaders are not the only ones who don masks as a career choice. A recent show and tell in the Music Division curated by the Music Division’s Elizabeth Aldrich, with Dance Heritage Fellows Nicole Topich and Kirsten Wilkinson, showcased items from special collections in dance. This mask was used by Armgard von Bardeleben (1940-2012) in …
Posted in: Dance, New Acquisitions, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
I recently toured the Archives of American Art’s new exhibit, “Six Degrees of Peggy Bacon. ” The exhibit riffs on the idea of “six degrees of separation” popularly associated with actor Kevin Bacon, and uses as its central figure New York artist Peggy Bacon, who is little remembered today but was a well-connected member of …
Posted in: Composers, Exhibitions, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The Music Division regularly offers new and updated online finding aids to help guide the intrepid researcher through its vast collections. You can see an index of all the Music Division’s finding aids here. This month’s new additions include a guide to the papers of Edward Jablonski, author of Irving Berlin: American Troubadour and other composer biographies, as …
Posted in: Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following post is by Music Cataloging intern Ruth Bright. While cataloging as an intern in the Music Division, I ran across this beautifully illustrated lithograph title page for a song tucked away inside an anonymous volume, one of approximately 290 volumes found at LC classification number M1.A15. This volume of miscellaneous melodies contains many …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Newly Cataloged, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Dance Heritage Coalition Fellow Nicole Topich. Processing the Marge Champion Collection in the Music Division has been one of the most exciting archives jobs I have held. The collection is not very large, but almost every item I found was interesting or historically significant. Because the collection has …
Posted in: Dance, Guest bloggers, Pic of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The children’s prayer that begins, “Now I lay me down to sleep” dates back to an 18th century New England primer, but its musical life has followed a surprising path over the more than two centuries since. From heavy metal (Metallica) to hip-hop (The Notorious B.I.G.) to indie rock (Liz Phair), the iconic words have …
Posted in: Composers, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections