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Posted by: Cait Miller
On Leopold Mozart's 300th birthday, we explore the musical contributions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's father as well as his presence in the Music Division's collections.
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Guest bloggers, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Ben West, a writer, director, producer, performer, and musical theatre historian. His current stage project is The Show Time! Trilogy, three new documentary musicals charting the evolution and cultural impact of the American musical: Show Time! The First 100 Years of the American Musical, 45 Minutes from Coontown, …
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Musical Theater, Women in Music, Women in Theater
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Senior Music Specialist Susan Clermont. When she was 40 years of age, Venetian virtuoso singer and gifted composer Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677) published her seventh book of musical compositions titled Diporti di Euterpe (The Pleasures of Euterpe) in 1659. Only two complete copies of this imprint are extant today – …
Posted in: Composers, Women in Music
Posted by: Cait Miller
One year ago, I published a blog post declaring my excitement about a one-year countdown to Clara Schumann’s 200th birthday and highlighted Schumann’s manuscript cadenzas from the Library’s Whittall Foundation Collection, material that is digitized and available online. Now, finally, Clara’s big day has arrived! 200 years ago, in Leipzig, Germany, Marianne Tromlitz gave birth …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Concerts and Events, Musicians, Women in Music
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from saxophonist Chris Potter, who participated in the Music Division’s Finding Strayhorn discussion panel on June 12, 2019. My visit to the Library of Congress fortunately coincided with the announcement that the Billy Strayhorn Music Manuscripts and Estate Papers are now available for the public to study. I was …
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Jazz, New Acquisitions, Special Collections, Webcasts
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Lara Szypszak, Reference Librarian in the Manuscript Division. Mary Hallock Greenewalt (1871-1950) was a musician, inventor, businesswoman, and all around go-getter, whose work leaves traces throughout several divisions of the Library of Congress, most prominently in the Manuscript and Music Divisions. Greenewalt was born in Bhamdoun, a small …
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Special Collections, Women in Music
Posted by: Cait Miller
As promised, every Wednesday this month In the Muse is featuring a blog post that highlights stories and names that lie within the Music Division’s recently-launched digital collection, Women’s Suffrage in Sheet Music. Last week, I located a newspaper article that contextualized Fanny Connable Lancaster and Florence Livingston Lent’s “Suffrage Marching Song” and described its …
Posted in: Composers, Digital Collections, Sheet Music, Special Collections, Women in Music
Posted by: Cait Miller
This Saturday, March 2, at 11:00am in the Jefferson Building’s Coolidge Auditorium, I look forward to participating in a special program dedicated to 20th-century composer Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). One hundred years ago, in 1919, Clarke’s Viola Sonata was a close runner up to receive Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge’s Berkshire Prize at the second annual Berkshire Festival …
Posted in: Composers, Special Collections, Women in Music
Posted by: Cait Miller
Fans of composer Jonathan Larson and his revolutionary show, Rent (aka, Rentheads), are eagerly anticipating Fox’s live broadcast of the musical this Sunday night. The Library of Congress is home to the Jonathan Larson Papers, a rich collection of papers and recordings that reveal Larson’s creative process behind Rent as well as other projects and …
Posted in: Composers, Musical Theater, Special Collections