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Archive: 2013 (82 Posts)

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Protest Songs Roundtable: Civil Rights, Unions, Immigrants and Stonewall

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

This Thursday the Music Division is pleased to present an engaging roundtable discussion that will examine the role of protest songs from the 1960s in shaping contemporary American culture. This program is part of a series of events at the Library of Congress that commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, which took …

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Wagner Mania Podcast & Preview

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Concerts from the Library of Congress is gearing up for a month full of events that pay homage to the great German opera composer, Richard Wagner (1813-1883), who would have turned 200 years-young in 2013. Since we cannot present a full production of Der Ring des Nibelungen in the Coolidge Auditorium, we thought we would …

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Dear Dorothy: Letters from Nicolas Slonimsky to Dorothy Adlow

Posted by: Cait Miller

The following is a guest post from Senior Music Reference Specialist Kevin LaVine. As an author, musicologist, conductor, composer, pianist, teacher, theoretician, cultural ambassador and lexicographer, Nicolas Slonimsky’s contributions to music scholarship are both inestimable and enduring.  Slonimsky was born in Tsarist Russia in 1894 and pursued his initial musical studies in his native St. …

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Lou Reed (1942-2013)

Posted by: Pat Padua

The music world lost one of its most influential voices last Sunday. Lou Reed  (1942-2013) headed a legendary rock band before embarking on a solo career that led him from glam-rocker to elder rock statesman.  The Velvet Underground released a handful of albums, each with a distinct personality that veered from blistering sonic experimentation to …

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Let’s Play Ball! Music for the World Series

Posted by: Cait Miller

  It’s a big day for baseball fans as the St. Louis Cardinals face the Boston Red Sox tonight for game six of the World Series in historic Fenway Park. It’s been an exciting series, and we would be remiss not to take this opportunity to highlight our historic baseball sheet music – particularly that …

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Party Like It’s 1587 for Mrs. Coolidge

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Every year at Concerts from the Library of Congress we pay homage to our founding patron, Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. A mover and shaker, Mrs. Coolidge convinced Congress in 1925 to allow her to build a concert hall (the Coolidge Auditorium) within the Library of Congress.  She also established the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation, administered …

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Ten-Thousand Intimate Friends: Leonard Bernstein’s Life in Letters

Posted by: Cait Miller

Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 29, the Music Division will sponsor a lecture by musicologist Nigel Simeone based on his new book, The Leonard Bernstein Letters. Simeone’s book includes 650 letters spanning Bernstein’s adolescence to the end of his life that provide a rare glimpse into the more private side of the great conductor and composer. Tomorrow’s …

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American Song at the National Book Festival (#BattleHymn)

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

American song is the theme of several music-related programs taking place at this year’s National Book Festival. As part of the Library-wide Songs of America initiative, the Music Division is presenting dozens of events over two years that look at the integral role of song in American social history. These public programs complement the strengths …

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Be Our Guest: The Howard Ashman Papers

Posted by: Cait Miller

The following is a guest post from Archivist Janet McKinney. Mesdames et Messieurs, it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you to the In the Muse blog. And now, we invite you to relax, pull up a computer chair, as the Music Division proudly presents: The Howard Ashman Papers. Howard Ashman …