Top of page

Category: Composers

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

Wagnerds Unite!

Posted by: David Plylar

There comes a time in every anniversary year when the candles must be blown out—this year it is a necessity, as 200 candles each for Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi constitute a fire hazard, and the Library does not want to host its own “immolation” scene. But Wotan to your seats—Concerts from the Library 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

Lou Reed (1942-2013)

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 …

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

Ten-Thousand Intimate Friends: Leonard Bernstein’s Life in Letters

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 …

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 …

Black and white photographic print portrait of Amy Beach, capturing her head and shoulders as she faces slightly left.

Happy Birthday to Amy Beach!

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.

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

The “Perfect” Problem: A Sketch

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 …