Top of page

Category: Special Collections

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Calling all Anglophiles!

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Anglophiles and British ex-pats will have a home this Friday in the Coolidge Auditorium at 12pm. The Library of Congress Chorale will perform “Britannia,” a concert celebrating the choral traditions of Great Britain. I happen to be the conductor of said ensemble and am an Anglophile through and through. I had the opportunity to complete …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Music & Native American Heritage Month

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

The Library of Congress, in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, maintains an exciting web portal for Native American Heritage Month. This web portal aggregates digital resources (exhibits, digitized print resources, audio and video) …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

#Britten100: Benjamin Britten & Peter Pears at the Library

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Friday, November 22, 2013 marks the hundredth birthday of British composer Benjamin Britten, OM, CH (1913-1976), who is known for revolutionizing opera and British art music in the twentieth century. Britten holds a special place in the heart of the Music Division at the Library of Congress, as we house the manuscripts of two of …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Wagner Mania Podcast & Preview

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Concerts from the Library of Congress is gearing up for a month full of events that pay homage to the great German opera composer, Richard Wagner (1813-1883), who would have turned 200 years-young in 2013. Since we cannot present a full production of Der Ring des Nibelungen in the Coolidge Auditorium, we thought we would …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

American Song at the National Book Festival (#BattleHymn)

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

American song is the theme of several music-related programs taking place at this year’s National Book Festival. As part of the Library-wide Songs of America initiative, the Music Division is presenting dozens of events over two years that look at the integral role of song in American social history. These public programs complement the strengths …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Kendra Preston Leonard on Louise Talma

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

The following is a guest post by musicologist Kendra Preston Leonard of the Journal of Music History Pedagogy. Leonard delivers the Fall 2013 American Musicological Society Lecture at the Library of Congress on September 24, 2013. When American composer Louise Talma died in 1996, the Library of Congress and the executors of her will descended …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

International Standard Music Number Conference & Concert

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

The following is a guest post by Mary Wedgewood, Administrator, U.S. ISMN Agency and Senior Metadata Specialist, Music Division, Library of Congress. The ISMN (International Standard Music Number), which is first cousin to the ISBN and ISSN, is alive and well, and – here in the U.S. ! The Music Division of the Library of …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

“We’ll walk hand in hand someday” – Music and the March on Washington

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Our nation is in the midst of commemorating one of the single most significant days in our history, the March on Washington of August 28, 1963. That momentous occasion has shaped generations of Americans, from activists to community leaders and the President of the United States to the singer-songwriter performing original songs in an eclectic …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Jacopo, Jacopo, wherefore art thou Jacopo?

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

      Many of us who are lucky enough to work here at the Library of Congress get to experience giddiness frequently. We are surrounded by amazing treasures of all types and forms day-in and day-out. Every day leads to a new discovery in the collections. One of the topics that makes us particularly …