Join us this Saturday, March 16, from 10-11:30am! The Music Division, together with the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, will offer a research orientation on how to find film music resources at the Library of Congress. These resources are located in the Performing Arts Reading Room, Moving Image Research Center, and Recorded Sound Research Center, […]
On this Saturday, February 23rd at 11am, yours truly, Paul Sommerfeld, will offer a #Declassified talk in the Mary Pickford Theater focused on the film music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. A screening of Captain Blood (1935), one of Korngold’s earliest film scores, will follow at 12pm. In this interactive #Declassified event, I’ll be focusing on how Korngold’s […]
Multiple news articles have heralded the many works and publications that entered the public domain on January 1st of 2019. Pieces of music, novels, and films alike have become available within the United States without copyright permissions. With the changes in copyright status, I wondered exactly how much of the Music Division’s substantial collection of […]
On Thursdays this month the Music Division hosts Fraudway in the Mary Pickford Theater. Inspired by the outrageous production numbers in such ‘80s films as The Fan and Staying Alive (which screens Jan. 24), the series celebrates the often bizarre and always dazzling cinematic spectacles that imagine a Great White Way that can only exist on […]
Every year when December arrives, I find the urge to re-watch the classic animated film, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Its themes centered in kindness and giving have always resonated with me most each holiday season. Originally written by Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel and published in 1957, the 1966 special features a narration by Boris […]
The following is a guest post from Gershwin Archivist Janet McKinney. It seems there is something utterly compelling about the core story of A Star is Born, as it is now being told in theaters for the fourth time. Originally a 1937 drama starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, it told the story of a […]
Over the past several months, I’ve been sifting through the thousands of pieces that are part of the silent film music accompaniment anthologies in the Music Division’s collection. These volumes, with titles such as the Capitol Photoplay Series, The Synchronizer Suite, or Sam Fox Photoplay Edition: A Looseleaf Collection of High Class Dramatic and Descriptive […]
For me, the phrase Merchant-Ivory conjures scenes from sumptuous period films like A Room with a View (1985), Maurice (1987), Howard’s End (1992), or The Remains of the Day (1993). I’ve always found the music for these films to be particularly haunting yet beautiful, as if disclosing the tensions that can exist beneath the veneer […]
Concerts from the Library of Congress is pleased to announce the 2018-2019 season, filled with an astonishing roster of artists and speakers. Building on the world-class chamber music you love to hear in the Coolidge Auditorium—which this year includes the Emerson Quartet with David Finckel, the Brentano Quartet with Hsin-Yun Huang and the Tetzlaff-Tetzlaff-Vogt Trio, […]
On Monday, October 9, visitors to the Library will have the opportunity to see and explore our historic Main Reading Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building, as part of the Library’s Semi-Annual Main Reading Room Open House. This family-friendly opportunity offers the public an opportunity to get a taste of the Library’s collections, exhibitions, and […]