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Archive: 2012 (60 Posts)

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Five Questions: Intern Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

The following is a guest post by Ruth Bright, an intern working in Music Cataloging. Thanks to Sharon McKinley, Senior Music Cataloger, for conducting the interview. What made you want to apply for an internship at the Library of Congress? As a member of the Renaissance Scholars Honors Program at Montgomery College, I was encouraged …

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

Sheet music of the week: It’s STILL Cherry Blossom Time Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

The following is a guest post by Sharon McKinley, Senior Music Cataloger. The blossoms themselves have been gone for weeks already; it was one of the earliest seasons ever. But the Centennial of the National Cherry Blossom Festival is still going strong, all the way through April 27, and we thought we’d help keep the …

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

Pic of the Week: “That’s my Daddy!” Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

The following is a guest post by Stephen Winick, American Folklife Center. Staff members from the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center (AFC) have identified a one-minute-long segment of silent color footage as film of David “Honeyboy” Edwards, shot by Alan Lomax for the Music Division in 1942. Although the meeting between Edwards and Lomax …

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

Good luck Dee!

Posted by: Pat Padua

The following is a guest post by frequent blogger Denise Gallo, Head of Acquisitions and Processing. When I joined the Music Division staff in June of 2002, my supervisor took me to see the Treasures Vault. There I was, surrounded by the manuscripts of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Copland, Britten, and Gershwin – just a few …

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

1750: Berlin on the Potomac

Posted by: Pat Padua

The following is a guest post by Daniel Walshaw, Music Division. Berlin – before the nightclubs and the heavy metal concerts, before the cabarets and the brettls, even before the Berlin Philharmonic – evening musical entertainment was centered on a vibrant and growing chamber music tradition, nurtured by King Frederick II of Prussia. C.P.E. Bach, Johann …

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(Motion) Pic of the Week: Country Music Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

People sometimes ask if Library of Congress programs are available to view online. Copyright and other issues prevent us from making everything available online, but highlights from the Music Division’s great concert and lecture season are available on the Library’s webcasts page, including the lecture “Bernstein meets Broadway,” the late Jack Gottlieb’s revealing talk “Working …

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Sheet Music of the Week: Great Mustaches of the Old Country Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

In the Muse presumes that the stereotyped Germans pictured in this illustration to Paul Rubens’ composition, “The German cake walk”  are simply performing the titular dance. But the action in this scene is potentially ambiguous. Is the mustachioed man running away from an amorous Fraulein, or simply leading her in an impromptu march? Why does …

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

Sheet Music of the Week: Long Distance Spooning Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

In the days before Skype and IMs, human communication over great distances was transmitted in a charmingly antiquated manner.  In this week’s featured Sheet Music, the singer reassures his far away beloved that “I think I’ve found a way/We can spoon each day.” “Shut your eyes and make believe” was transmitted from the pens of …

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

Pic of the Week: Carolina Chocolate Drops Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

The following is a guest post by Stephen Winick, Writer and Editor, American Folklife Center. On Saturday, February 18, 2012, the Library’s Coolidge auditorium hosted a relaxed and thoroughly enjoyable concert by Grammy-Award-winning old-time folk music group The Carolina Chocolate Drops.  The two-hour concert featured old-fashioned music on guitar, banjo, steel-resonator mandolin, and fiddle, with …