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Posted by: Pat Padua
This week the MacArthur Foundation announced their list of this year’s Fellows, selected for ” their creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future.” Winners came from a variety of fields: clinical psychology, architecture, radio production, and poetry. Among the honored musicans is percussionist/composer Dafnis Prieto, who was a memorable part of …
Posted in: Composers, Interviews
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: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Music Archivist Chris Hartten. George Antheil radicalized musical composition in ways that few before him had ever attempted. Born at the turn of the twentieth century in Trenton, New Jersey, Antheil traveled to Europe in 1922 to pursue “ultra-modernist” composition with financial support from arts patroness and Curtis …
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
September 2 marks the birthdays of two very different musician/ composers whose works grace the Music Division’s storied vaults. Classical guitarist Laurindo Almeida was born on this day in 1917. His career ran the gamut from Sao Paulo radio to Hollywood session man, and he worked with a range of artists from Villa-Lobos and Carmen …
Posted by: Pat Padua
In the Muse was sad to learn of the passing of two great songwriters. Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber were both part of songwriting teams that helped define American popular music for different generations. The songs of Leiber and partner Mike Stoller have been performed by a full spectrum of artists, from Elvis Presley to …
Posted in: Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Rachel Weiss, an intern whom we interviewed on Monday. Just after the turn of the twentieth century, the Music Division was still a fledgling organization. In 1902, Oscar Sonneck was named its first Chief, and he laid the groundwork for the development of many of the division’s wonderful …
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
It’s July 7 – Gustav Mahler’s 151st birthday! Instead of highlighting manuscripts or correspondence by Mahler, I’d like instead to point out another composer/conductor’s commentary on Mahler, as provided in one of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concert scripts, Who is Gustav Mahler? The script, along with all other scripts for the Young People’s Concert broadcasts, …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
This weekend Washington hosts the 2011 Seersucker Social, an event where the city’s hipsterati don vintage threads and leisurely tour the town upon vintage bicycles. So if you’re in the Nation’s Capital tomorrow you may happen upon scenes that recall this week’s featured picture, a candid snapshot of composer Aaron Copland with harpist Djina Ostrowska. Visit …
Posted in: Composers, Pic of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The results of last week’s World Beard and Mustache Championship provides a hirsute backdrop to this week’s featured sheet music. Our esteemed colleagues at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art occasionally blog the praises of historical facial hair, and In the Muse has previously noted the Flickr meme, Great Mustaches of the Library of Congress . …
Posted in: Composers, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections