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Archive: 2019 (76 Posts)

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Mary Cardwell Dawson: First Lady of Opera

Posted by: Cait Miller

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 …

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#Declassified This Weekend: Rebecca Clarke and her Viola Sonata at 100

Posted by: Cait Miller

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 …

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In Search of Korngold

Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld

On this Saturday, February 23rd at 11am, yours truly, Paul Sommerfeld, will offer a #Declassified talk in the Mary Pickford Theater focused on the film music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. A screening of Captain Blood (1935), one of Korngold’s earliest film scores, will follow at 12pm. In this interactive #Declassified event, I’ll be focusing on how Korngold’s …

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Film Music from 1923 and the Public Domain

Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld

Multiple news articles have heralded the many works and publications that entered the public domain on January 1st of 2019. Pieces of music, novels, and films alike have become available within the United States without copyright permissions. With the changes in copyright status, I wondered exactly how much of the Music Division’s substantial collection of …

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Rudolph and Joseph Schildkraut: Austrian-American Stars of Stage and Screen

Posted by: Cait Miller

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 …