The following is a guest post by Contract Archivist Janet McKinney. At a time of year when the airwaves are saturated with holiday music, I continually hear the strains of one man’s iconic songs stand out from the rest – those of Irving Berlin (1888-1989). It occurred to me that many may not associate these […]
In the Muse wishes you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. Between mashed potatoes and halftime, the musically inclined among our readership may wish to celebrate the day in song with Geo. W. Morgan’s’ “National Thanksgiving Hymn,” dedicated to then President Rutherford B. Hayes. After dinner, take an invigorating constitutional to work off that second […]
On this Veterans Day, take time to remember those who served our country with songs from Patriotic Melodies in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia, including “The Army Goes Rolling Along,” “The Marines’ Hymn” (Happy 235th birthday to the United States Marine Corps!), and ”The U.S. Air Force Song” (which you may know as “Off we go into the wild […]
In the Muse recently put out a call to Music Division staff in search of ghost stories, and while nobody would tell me outright that they felt an unexplained cold spot on the Coolidge Auditorium stage, or that sounds of the Stradivarius would emerge mysteriously from an empty hall, the age and history of this […]
It’s not exactly Schoolhouse Rock, but between the barbecue and the fireworks, celebrate the long Independence Day weekend with John E. Wilson’s vocal arrangement of the Declaration of Independence from the Civil War Sheet Music collection. You can also find sheet music and recordings of “God Bless America,” “America the Beautiful,” “The Star Spangled Banner,” and […]
Celebrate Flag Day with songs from the Civil War Sheet Music Collection, and of course our National Anthem, The Star-spangled Banner, in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia.
In the United States, Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday in May. The day was first set aside in 1868 “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every […]
The glorious weather we’re having in Washington gives us much to celebrate in both the secular and spiritual realms. See Easter hymns from the Coptic tradition in Coptic Orthodox Liturgical Chant & Hymnody in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Remember Passover with the Yiddish play, The mother of the world, or, Children come home in The American […]
If music be the food of love, then the Music Division has enough in the refrigerator to play on for a lifetime and then some. Among the more romantic pieces in the collection is a self-published work by Dayton C. Miller, whose collection of flutes and other instruments is one of the treasures of the Library. […]
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. Let us celebrate the man, his dream, and our reality. From the Music Division, sing along to “We shall overcome.” On American Memory, read about The Civil Rights Era. Read more about Dr. King on Today in History.