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Archive: 2025 (6 Posts)

New Research Guide on the Damrosch Family: America’s “First Family” in Music

Posted by: Cait Miller

Learn about the Library's holdings related to members of the Damrosch family, including Leopold Damrosch (1832–1885), Frank Damrosch, (1859–1937), Clara Damrosch Mannes (1869–1948) and her husband David Mannes (1866–1959), and the conductor/composer Walter Damrosch (1862–1950). Senior Music Reference Specialist Dr. Paul Allen Sommerfeld shares highlights from a newly published research guide on the Damrosch family at the Library of Congress.

Posted in: Composers, Conductors, Research Guides

A page from Ravel's music manuscript featuring the first page of music for the second movement.

Ravel and His Chansons Madécasses

Posted by: Cait Miller

In honor of Maurice Ravel's 150th anniversary, learn more about his "Chansons madécasses," a set of three songs accompanied by flute, cello, and piano, commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge after establishing her foundation at the Library of Congress in 1925.

Posted in: Commissions

Sheet music cover for "On Patrol in No Man's Land" features a black and white photograph of James Reese Europe posing with his Hellfighters band in military uniform, with an additional portrait of James Reese Europe featured below the ensemble.

New Research Guide: James Reese Europe Resources at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Cait Miller

The Music Division’s newest research guide, James Reese Europe: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress, provides a gateway to accessing historic sheet music, unique literary manuscripts, newspaper archives, recordings, photographs and scholarly research by and related to leading cultural figure James Reese Europe (1881-1919).

Posted in: African American History, American history, Jazz, Research Guides, World War I

Sheet music cover with an indigo background, featuring vaudeville dancer Gertrude Hoffmann standing in profile wearing a blue dirndl and additional feathers and headdress. A full moon shines in the background.

By the People: How (and Why) to Transcribe Sheet Music

Posted by: Cait Miller

Learn more about guidelines for transcribing sheet music collections as part of the By the People crowdsourced transcription campaign at the Library of Congress. Volunteers are needed to complete review of our "Sheet Music of the Musical Theater" transcription campaign in order to make the digital collection keyword searchable.

Posted in: By the People transcription campaigns, Musical Theater, Sheet Music