For as long as socially and politically aware citizens have gathered to voice dissent, music has served a paramount role; the women’s suffrage movement proves no exception. From local community suffrage meetings, to large-scale city-wide marches, to prison cells — suffragists consistently unified, rallied, and asserted their unbreakable spirit in song. Women’s Suffrage in Sheet …
The following is a guest post from Music Reference Specialist Sam Perryman. Some people know that the Music Division is home to the National Negro Opera Company Collection. They also know that, while it’s not the first African American opera company, it was one of the largest. It was founded and managed by Mary Lucinda …
This Saturday, March 2, at 11:00am in the Jefferson Building’s Coolidge Auditorium, I look forward to participating in a special program dedicated to 20th-century composer Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). One hundred years ago, in 1919, Clarke’s Viola Sonata was a close runner up to receive Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge’s Berkshire Prize at the second annual Berkshire Festival …
The following is a guest post from music archivist Anita M. Weber. Milton Berle, who lived to be 94, did it all. He was a child actor and juvenile dancer who became a vaudeville emcee, stand-up comic, and Friars Club roastmaster. He acted on radio, stage, and screen. He wrote song lyrics, novels, short stories, …
The following is a guest post from music archivist Anita M. Weber. At a recent production of Paula Vogel’s Indecent, the sight of renowned Austrian-American actor Rudolph Schildkraut depicted on stage reminded me of the four remarkable scrapbooks in the Music Division that document the careers of Rudolph (1862-1930) and his son, fellow actor Joseph …
Fans of composer Jonathan Larson and his revolutionary show, Rent (aka, Rentheads), are eagerly anticipating Fox’s live broadcast of the musical this Sunday night. The Library of Congress is home to the Jonathan Larson Papers, a rich collection of papers and recordings that reveal Larson’s creative process behind Rent as well as other projects and …
