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Category: Musical Instruments

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Higdon’s Viola Concerto: A Library of Congress Commission and a Grammy Nom!

Posted by: Cait Miller

The 2018 Grammy nominations were announced this morning, and among the lineup you can find a work co-commissioned by the Library of Congress! Pulitzer Prize winner and American composer Jennifer Higdon’s Viola Concerto was co-commissioned by the Library of Congress (with support from the family of Cameron and Jane Baird, and John J. Medveckis), the …

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Happy Birthday Gerry Mulligan!

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Legendary saxophone player Gerry Mulligan (1927-1996) would have turned 90 today (April 6th)! In commemoration of his birthday and Jazz Appreciation Month, we invite you to explore the Gerry Mulligan Collection at the Library of Congress. Below are links to the collection finding aid, articles, and some fun digital resources. If you have any reference …

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This Week: Collecting, Women’s Day & Jazz Legends

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

This Week at the Library: Tuesday, 3/7, 12:00 pm – Obsession, Collection, Donation: Dayton C. Miller (Lecture) Wednesday, 3/8, 2:00 pm – The Sounds of Feminist Revolution (Lecture) Thursday, 3/9, 7:00 pm – Miles and Trane as Living Ancestors (Lecture) ***** Tuesday, March 7, 2017 – 12:00 pm [Lecture] Obsession, Collection, Donation: Dayton C. Miller, …

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This Week: Hagen Quartet, Hindemith, Monson & Hutchins

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

This Week at the Library: Tuesday, 2/28, 12:00 pm – Hindemith’s Musical Responses to WWI (Lecture) Wednesday, 3/1, 12:00 pm – Ingrid Monson (Interview) Friday, 3/3, 6:30 pm – American Luthier: Carleen Hutchins (Lecture) Friday, 3/3, 8:00 pm – Hagen Quartet (Concert) ***** Tuesday, February 28, 2017 – 12:00 pm [Lecture] Hindemith’s Musical Responses to …

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Next Week: Musical Goodness Galore

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Monday, January 23, 2017 – 8:00 pm [Concert] Pacifica Quartet with Jörg Widmann, clarinet The exuberant, Grammy-winning Pacifica joins forces with German composer and clarinetist Jörg Widmann, well-matched partners for the striking works you’ll hear in this concert. Widmann’s dramatic, sinister Jagdquartett is a grimly ironic scherzo channeling the intensity and chaos of the hunt, …

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Andrew White: “Petey, Me and the Library of Congress”

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

The following is a guest blog by Andrew N. White III, a participant in the Library’s DC Jazz Project, a component of the 2016-2017 Library of Congress Jazz Scholars program. This program is made possible by the Reva and David Logan Foundation. White delivered a lecture-recital at the Library on November 3, 2016 (a video …

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Discovering Composer Amanda Maier

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

The following is a guest post by Jennifer Martyn, a violinist and a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music. Her research focuses on the life and career of Amanda Maier. She is particularly interested in Maier’s career as a violinist and how her performances and repertoire can inform us about the …

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King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand (1927-2016)

Posted by: Cait Miller

The following post is co-written with Musical Instruments Curator Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford. Early yesterday morning the world learned of the death of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, crowned in 1946 and known as the world’s longest-reigning monarch. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and educated in Switzerland and the United States, King Bhumibol was interested in musical performance …

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Discovering Xylophone Rags at the Library

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

The following blog is a guest post by Marcia McCants, a summer intern in the Music Division’s Concert Office. McCants is a rising senior at James Madison University where she is majoring in music. New musical styles and genres, as well as instrument timbres, emerged in the 1920s and 1930s. The xylophone gained prominence during …