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Category: Guest bloggers

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Songwriters, Suffragettes, and the Musical Stage

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, …

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Sheet Music Spotlight: Zouaves

Posted by: Cait Miller

The following is a guest post from Retired Music Cataloger Sharon McKinley. My fascination with the Library of Congress collections is unbounded. I’m always running across interesting items, seemingly at random. My latest sheet music find: Zouaves. In a search for something else entirely, I found the “Zouave mazourka.” On the cover was a handsome …

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“The Original Radio Girl” and her De Luxe Revue

Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld

Taylor McClaskie is one of the Music Division’s summer 2019 interns. She is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at Case Western Reserve University and is currently writing a dissertation on music and environmental activism in 1980s America. During my time in the Music Division I have been helping to process and catalogue unpublished popular music …

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Finding Strayhorn: Reflections from Chris Potter

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 …

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Goodwill and Ballet: The Story behind the Original Score to Ginastera’s Estancia

Posted by: Libby Smigel

The following is a guest post from Music Division scholar-volunteer K. Mitchell “Mitch” Snow, with an introduction from Dance Curator Libby Smigel. Readers of the Music Division’s In the Muse blog will have already met Mitch Snow through his posting on the Maxine Glorsky Papers. His scholarly pursuits have made him invaluable in many quarters …