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Posted by: Cait Miller
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is one of the most popular Christmas carols we hear during the holidays, and one with an especially interesting history involving four creative minds over the span of two centuries. While the history is well documented, source materials in the Library of Congress’s collections provide engaging illustrations detailing the evolution …
Posted in: Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
As a fan of the musical Hamilton, I’ve been listening to The Hamilton Mixtape non-stop since its release last Friday. The new album offers covers of numbers from the original cast recording, new tracks inspired by the musical, numbers cut from the show and even a couple of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s demo tracks. However, it occurs …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
In the Muse is happy to cross post the following piece by Betty Lupinacci, Processing Section Head in the Law Library. Her blog post was originally published on the Law Library’s blog, In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress. As much as I love Christmas carols, I’m usually tired of them by mid-December as …
Posted in: Guest bloggers
Posted by: Cait Miller
With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up this week, most peoples’ thoughts turn to food and family recipes. It seems like the perfect time to share recipes that rest in the Music Division’s collection. One of the more memorable comes from a 19th-century virtuoso: Paganini’s ravioli! The Music Division is home to a collection of Paganini …
Posted in: Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following post is co-written with Musical Instruments Curator Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford. Early yesterday morning the world learned of the death of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, crowned in 1946 and known as the world’s longest-reigning monarch. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and educated in Switzerland and the United States, King Bhumibol was interested in musical performance …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Musical Instruments, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Gershwin Archivist Janet McKinney. Dog: composer’s best friend? Sometimes it seems like a novel idea that these revered historical figures would be charmed, comforted, and loved by animals just as the rest of us are. These seemingly larger than life personalities become more relatable when there is …
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
It’s National Dog Day, which means it’s time for another post in our Furry Friends of Music blog series! Leonard Bernstein is remembered and celebrated as a renowned conductor, a major composer, and a masterful educator, but there’s another side to the great musician: Bernstein the dog lover. Although there are far more stories that …
Posted in: Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest blog post from Luke Conklin, doctoral candidate at Case Western Reserve University. As a summer intern in the Music Division, Luke is creating catalog records and inventory lists of rare scores from the Dayton C. Miller Collection. While exploring the collections, staff will inevitably stumble across unexpected, quirky, or unique …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
The world’s greatest artists leave behind them legacies that we happily preserve in the Music Division’s archival collections. Scholars come to our reading room from all over the world to study creative process, be it the origin of a lyric in sketch material, a composer’s annotations in a publisher’s proof, or artistic collaborations via correspondence. …
Posted in: Composers, Musicians, Special Collections