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Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
The following post was written in collaboration with Senior Music Specialist Susan Clermont. The label “rock star” tends to conjure images of modern-day bands like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Go-Gos, Queen, or Led Zeppelin. But if we venture further back into the 19th century, virtuoso performing artists like pianist Franz Liszt, bassist Domenico …
Posted in: Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
An obscure composer from the late 18th and early 19th century, Nicola Sampieri self-published most of his music with programmatic titles, intricate engravings, and specific instructions for performance that included both sound effects and visual displays.
Posted in: Composers, Film Music, Sheet Music
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
In celebration of the Virtual National Book Festival, this blog post provides an overview of the Music Division's many digital collections and other content available online.
Posted in: Composers, Concerts and Events, Jazz, Newly Cataloged, Special Collections
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
Part two of this three part travel series takes - through music - a road trip through the historic sites Chalmette Battlefield, Keweenaw National Historical Park, and National Historic Landmark in Kent, Ohio.
Posted in: Copyright Deposits, Guest bloggers, Holidays
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
Part one of this two-part survey of musical responses to past pandemics focuses on sacred music from the years that the Black Death ravaged medieval Europe. Texts such as the Stella Celi Extirpavit and Recordare Domine illustrate the penitence and fear of the wrath of God that prevailed until the Enlightenment.
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Sacred music
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
Musician Machito (c. 1908-1984) and his group the Afro-Cubans performed from 1940 to the early 1980s, forming an influential legacy that includes salsa music and Afro-Cuban jazz. The Music of Machito and His Afro-Cubans collection primarily contains approximately 150 manuscript and published compositions and arrangements performed by the ensemble.
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Jazz, Special Collections
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
To commemorate Steven Stucky's 70th birthday, staff recount a moving experience with the composer during his last visit to the Performing Arts Reading Room.
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Musical Theater, Special Collections
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
From his Appalachian Spring ballet score for thirteen instruments (1944), Aaron Copland extracted an orchestral suite in 1945. A third configuration, requested by Eugene Ormandy in 1954, combines elements of both suite and ballet.
Posted in: Commissions, Composers, Dance, Guest bloggers, Special Collections
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
Taylor McClaskie is one of the Music Division’s summer 2019 interns. She is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at Case Western Reserve University and is currently writing a dissertation on music and environmental activism in 1980s America. During my time in the Music Division I have been helping to process and catalogue unpublished popular music …
Posted in: Composers, Copyright Deposits, Guest bloggers, Newly Cataloged, Women in Music, Women in Theater