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Posted by: Pat Padua
The music world lost one of its most influential voices last Sunday. Lou Reed (1942-2013) headed a legendary rock band before embarking on a solo career that led him from glam-rocker to elder rock statesman. The Velvet Underground released a handful of albums, each with a distinct personality that veered from blistering sonic experimentation to …
Posted in: Composers, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
It’s a big day for baseball fans as the St. Louis Cardinals face the Boston Red Sox tonight for game six of the World Series in historic Fenway Park. It’s been an exciting series, and we would be remiss not to take this opportunity to highlight our historic baseball sheet music – particularly that …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 29, the Music Division will sponsor a lecture by musicologist Nigel Simeone based on his new book, The Leonard Bernstein Letters. Simeone’s book includes 650 letters spanning Bernstein’s adolescence to the end of his life that provide a rare glimpse into the more private side of the great conductor and composer. Tomorrow’s …
Posted in: Composers, Special Collections
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 …
Posted in: Composers, Concerts and Events, Curators, Exhibitions, Sheet Music, Special Collections, Staff
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Archivist Janet McKinney. Mesdames et Messieurs, it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you to the In the Muse blog. And now, we invite you to relax, pull up a computer chair, as the Music Division proudly presents: The Howard Ashman Papers. Howard Ashman …
Posted in: Exhibitions, Special Collections, Theater
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 …
Posted in: Composers, Concerts and Events, Guest bloggers, Musicians, Sheet Music, Special Collections, Women in Music
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 …
Posted in: Composers, Concerts and Events, Copyright Deposits, Guest bloggers, Musicians, Newly Cataloged, Sheet Music, Special Collections, Staff
Posted by: Cait Miller
Composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) was the first American woman to achieve widespread recognition as a composer of large-scale works with orchestra. Read about correspondence between Oscar Sonneck, first Chief of the Music Division, and Beach regarding her Piano Concerto and the idea of sending manuscripts to the Library of Congress for preservation.
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Special Collections, Women in Music
Posted by: David Plylar
Occasionally it is a worthwhile exercise to pose the “perfect” problem—that is, how do perceptions of perfection influence our encounters with art? The scope of this question is vast, so I will raise just a few considerations one might have on a visit to the Music Division of the Library of Congress or a concert …
Posted in: Composers, Musicians, Special Collections