The following blog post on composer Anthony Braxton is contributed by Dr. Stephanie Akau, senior archivist in the Library of Congress Music Division. She introduces the newly available resources in the Anthony Braxton Papers. In spring 2025, Processing Technician Jada Twitty and I processed the papers of composer, pedagogue and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton. Not only …
Guest blogger Mary Galvin shares her exploration of the newly available music materials of Peggy Seeger, found in the Seeger Family Collection held by the Library of Congress Music Division.
Ed Zanders, a British composer and musical director based in London, shares some of his discoveries of Sondheim's creative process, found amongst the Stephen Sondheim Papers held by the Library of Congress Music Division. The finding aid to the newly acquired Stephen Sondheim Papers is now available online, and a small set of materials from the collection is on display in the Performing Arts Reading Room.
Doctoral candidate Ellen Sauer describes the role of patriotic music and song, such as βLa Marseillaise,β during the French Revolution. See samples of art and music used to illustrate the essay.
A fitting blog post for the forthcoming Independence Day celebrations on July 4th, Morgen Stevens-Garmon, senior music archivist in the Library of Congress Music Division, reminisces about a favorite Broadway show, "1776," and other musicals set during the American Revolution.
In a memorial blog post, Senior Music Specialist Loras John Schissel celebrates President Jimmy Carter's appreciation for music and the arts in a selection of letters and photographs from the Music Division's collections.
The Music Division staff spotlight the Top 5 acquisitions of 2024, including the papers of composers Burt Bacharach and Anthony Braxton, manuscripts from the iconic "Wizard of Oz," records of the Kronos Quartet, and two Lizst song manuscripts.
The Bronlislava Nijinska Collection is now fully processed and available for study in the Music Division's Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. Archivist Morgen Stevens-Garmon, who headed the team that processed the collection, synopsizes Nijinska's career as a dancer and choreographer, and tells the story of the collection's arrival at the Library.