The following is a guest post from Head of Acquisitions & Processing Dr. Denise Gallo. Although the Mason-Dixon Line originated in the 1760s to resolve a border conflict between the colonies of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware, the role it assumed in the Civil War was deeply cultural and philosophical. To its north lay the states …
The following is a guest post from Music Archivist Chris Hartten. Morton Gould delighted American audiences for over seventy years with his impressive array of original symphonic compositions and arrangements. Born in New York in 1913, Gould quickly established himself as a tour de force on the radio and was recognized as one of the …
The following is a guest post from Head of Acquisitions & Processing Denise Gallo. April 12 marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of Battle of Fort Sumter, the first major conflict of the Civil War. Having seceded from the Union four months earlier, South Carolina had been demanding that the Union evacuate the fort. …
The following is a guest post by Senior Cataloging Specialist Sharon McKinley. The Library of Congress has amazing depth in its holdings of sheet music, thanks in large part to Copyright deposits. It’s Showtime is a database of excerpts from operas, musicals and musical revues, films, and more. You’ll find over 18,000 shows and productions …
The following is a guest post from Music Division Contract Archivist Janet McKinney. As millions of Americans get ready to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and commence the wearing of the green (because “everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day”), it is easy to forget there was once a time in this country when no Irish …
The following is a guest post by Music Cataloger Laura Yust, who recently researched composer Johanna Beyer in a seminar about American Modernist composers. Laura is pursuing her M.A. in Musicology at The Catholic University of America. Many people know of the composer Henry Cowell and his innovative compositions, but the name Johanna Magdalena Beyer …
The following is a guest post by Senior Music Specialist Ray White. Victor Herbert’s 152nd birthday is this month. If you recognize his name, you might recall that he composed operettas. Perhaps Babes in Toyland comes to mind. Its best-known number, “Toyland, Toyland, little girl and boy land…,” recorded by Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, the …
The following is a guest post by Music Specialist Steve Soderberg. “As an undergraduate at the University of Iowa in the mid-sixties, I met Milton Babbitt for the first time. I’m using “met” here in a special, private sense, since what literally happened was that I, and at least a hundred others, saw and heard …
The following is a guest post by Music Reference Specialist Lisa Shiota. “It always makes me smile when the Library of Congress asks me to keep my sketches for their collection. When I get through I don’t have any sketches—they’re all rubbed out. I write an awful lot of notes that don’t stay.” ~Walter Piston, …
