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Archive: 2023 (5 Posts)

Acquisition Highlights for the Past Year – a Top Five List!

Posted by: Cait Miller

This is a guest post from Head of Acquisitions & Processing Vin Novara, with Senior Music Specialists Mark Eden Horowitz, Kate Rivers, and Ray White.   Nick Hornby’s book “High Fidelity” (1995) features an entertaining look at the quirks of people who intensely collect on music. Top five lists feature prominently throughout the work. As …

Vinyl record album for "Dionysus and Proserpina" by Anonymous of Greenwich. Album cover features sepia-tone image depicting the gods Dionysys and Proserpina lounging in nature, looking at one another adoringly.

Fakes and Fibs in the Music Division

Posted by: Cait Miller

There are many instances of established composers writing music under unexpected pen names, and the Music Division's special collections hold manuscripts for several such works. Read more about relevant examples from the Charles Wuorinen Papers and the Fritz Kreisler Collection.

Sheet music cover for George M. Cohan's song "I wanted to come to Broadway" from the show "Hello Broadway." Cover art features two men dressed in tuxedos and top hats with arms extended and shaking hands. A sketch of New York City streets fills in the background.

By the People: Transcribing Sheet Music of the Musical Theater

Posted by: Cait Miller

The Library of Congress announces its newest "By the People" crowdsourced transcription campaign of Sheet Music of the Musical Theater. The campaign features approximately 16,000 titles, making it the Library's largest transcription campaign to date! Review our special sheet music instructions and start transcribing title pages, lyrics, and advertisements to ultimately make our sheet music keyword searchable!

Black and white photograph portrait of Mary Cardwell Dawson seated at a table, elbow rested on table and hand posed under her chin.

Mary Cardwell Dawson: Upcoming Lecture at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Cait Miller

On Thursday, January 19th, 2023 at 7pm in the James Madison Building’s Montpelier Room, Dr. Karen Bryan, Dean of the Arts at Pima Community College, is presenting a lecture: “Self-Determination on the Operatic Stage: Mary Cardwell Dawson and African American performance in Washington, DC and New York City.” Music educator, choir director, opera director, and administrator Mary Cardwell Dawson (1894-1962) founded the National Negro Opera Company, the country's first African-American opera company, in 1941. The Library of Congress is home to the National Negro Opera Company Collection, which documents the Company's productions, operations, fundraising efforts, as well as as Dawson's career and impact.