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Posted by: Pat Padua
In the Muse has been under the weather lately, and would have otherwise paid timely homage to one of the twentieth century’s greatest entertainers. Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on December 12, 1915. His long and storied career invited imitation …
Posted in: Birthdays, Jazz, Musicians, Pic of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
This week’s featured sheet music honors one of the great voices of American literature. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, best known by his pen name Mark Twain, was born on this day in 1835, two weeks after Halley’s Comet made its closest approach to the Sun. Celebrate the author’s birthday with the “Mark Twain mazurka” and the …
Posted in: Birthdays, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
Aaron Copland was born 111 years ago yesterday “on a street in Brooklyn that can only be described as drab,” as he wrote in the first sentence of his autobiographical sketch, Composer from Brooklyn (published in the Winter, 1968 issue of ASCAP Today – I’m reading a copy directly from the Copland Collection here in …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post from Senior Reference Specialist Kevin LaVine. Please note that tickets are still available for events in our Franz Liszt Bicentennial Project, with concerts in the Coolidge Auditorium from October 19-November 5. Please visit our Concert page for information on specific events. For some events, tickets may be reserved …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Concerts and Events, Guest bloggers
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post from Music Division Contract Archivist Janet McKinney. Can you imagine us years from today, Sharing a park bench quietly? How terribly strange to be seventy… Old friends Seventy years ago today on October 13, 1941, Paul Simon was born. Three weeks later, Arthur Garfunkel was born on November 5th. …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Pic of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Head of Acquisitions & Processing Denise Gallo. This past weekend marked the 198th birthday of Giuseppe Verdi. Born in Le Roncole, Italy, Verdi went from humble origins to become one of the most influential opera composers of his day. And that fame continues, as works like Rigoletto, Aida, …
Posted in: Birthdays, Guest bloggers, Sheet Music of the Week
Posted by: Pat Padua
This week’s featured sheet music celebrates one of the pioneers of cinema. The aptly named Louis Lumière was born on this day in 1864. In 1895 Louis and his brother Auguste patented the cinématographe, a device that worked as a film camera, developer and projector. This was in contrast to Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, first demonstrated in 1891, …
Posted in: Birthdays, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
September 19th was the birthday of two old friends of the Music Division. Jazz pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams was born September 19, 1930 in Chicago. He worked as a sideman behind such luminaries as Dexter Gordon and Max Roach, and was part of the 1970s jazz loft scene in New York, so named because of …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Jazz, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Pat Padua
This week’s Pic of the Week breaks one of the cardinal rules of Good Photography: show your subject. But if you recognize the face emerging from the ghostly apparition, it makes perfect sense. Jazz singer Mel Tormé was born on this day in 1925. He began his long career as a drummer for Chico Marx, …
Posted in: Birthdays, Jazz, Musicians, Pic of the Week, Special Collections