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Posted by: Cait Miller
2012 is almost upon us! The Music Division certainly had an exciting year with many accomplishments from digital projects such as the launch of the Music Treasures Consortium last February, to two successfully curated exhibits (Coast to Coast: The Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939 and I Love Lucy: An American Legend), to the continued production of …
Posted in: Holidays, Sheet Music of the Week
Posted by: Cait Miller
Today marks the official beginning of Winter (though you wouldn’t know it in DC – it’s 60 degrees outside!). What could be a more fitting Sheet Music of the Week selection than the lovely color cover for Jean Schwartz’s and Grant Clarke’s “Winter Nights” ? Jean Schwartz (1888-1956) was one of the most prolific composers …
Posted in: Sheet Music of the Week
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Head of Acquisitions & Processing Denise Gallo. Don’t get me wrong – I’m definitely a 21st-century woman. That I’m blogging is proof of that. Yet I frequently find myself in the 19th century. As a musicologist, I rub elbows with Rossini, Verdi, Schumann, and Brahms, but I find …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Sheet Music of the Week, Women in Music
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Hope O’Keeffe, Office of General Counsel. This week marks the inauguration of the Copyright Office’s first blog, on the forthcoming digitization of copyright records. The digitization of copyright records for music will be an enormous boon to people trying to clear music rights. But it also has huge …
Posted in: Copyright Deposits, Guest bloggers, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
This week’s featured sheet music honors one of the great voices of American literature. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, best known by his pen name Mark Twain, was born on this day in 1835, two weeks after Halley’s Comet made its closest approach to the Sun. Celebrate the author’s birthday with the “Mark Twain mazurka” and the …
Posted in: Birthdays, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Last year In the Muse celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with Geo. W. Morgan’s “National Thanksgiving hymn“, from the Historic Sheet Music, 1800-1922 collection in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. This year the same collection gives us our featured holiday sheet music. As I noted last year, “The turkey gobbler’s ball” is not actually about Thanksgiving but is …
Posted in: Holidays, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Some of our readership may be looking forward to a certain movie opening up in American theaters this weekend. In the Muse can not officially endorse the series (and in fact has not seen any of the movies or read any of the books), but hopes that interested readers will not be disappointed in the …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
Seventy-three years ago today, Irving Berlin’s patriotic song “God Bless America” was premiered by singer Kate Smith on her CBS radio show in recognition of what was then called Armistice Day. November 11th is now known as Veterans Day, but the power and popularity of Berlin’s song endures. Would you believe that the song was …
Posted in: Holidays, Sheet Music of the Week
Posted by: Pat Padua
2:00 AM is prime time in popular music lyrics, the excitement of staying out late or the anxiety of insomnia prominently figuring in the songcraft of diverse artists from New Kids on the Block to Iron Maiden to Taylor Swift. The hour also plays a part in our seasonal time-shift. In the Muse gently reminds North …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections