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Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Head of Acquisitions & Processing Denise Gallo. On April 17, 1861, Virginia adopted the Ordinance of Secession, a document which rescinded its original ratification of the Constitution in 1788. This made Virginia “a free and independent State,” dissolving any ties with the Union and giving Virginians “the full …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Sheet Music of the Week
Posted by: Cait Miller
It’s Flag Day! On this day in 1777, the design of the US flag was officially approved by Congress. We have been taking a little time every June 14th to celebrate the flag since 1916 when President Woodrow Wilson established this day as a national day of recognition – you can read more about Flag Day …
Posted in: Digital Collections, Sheet Music of the Week
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Senior Cataloging Specialist Sharon McKinley. The average person might think that cataloging is a dull job, but it most certainly isn’t here in the Music Division! Okay, so the umpteenth biography of Justin Bieber may get a bit old, but one of our primary jobs is making the …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Newly Cataloged, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
On this day in 1924, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. In the Muse remembers this day with American Indian Melodies, one of the first publications by the Wa-Wan Press. Arthur Farwell, who harmonized the traditional melodies, founded the imprint in 1901 as …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The results of last week’s World Beard and Mustache Championship provides a hirsute backdrop to this week’s featured sheet music. Our esteemed colleagues at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art occasionally blog the praises of historical facial hair, and In the Muse has previously noted the Flickr meme, Great Mustaches of the Library of Congress . …
Posted in: Composers, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Melanie Guitreaux, Reader Services. Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was a Creole composer and performer who combined the syncopated music of Louisiana and the Caribbean in a manner that anticipated ragtime and jazz. As a child growing up in New Orleans, Gottschalk experienced many …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
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 …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
There are two-hundred and twenty sheet music pieces in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia with “mother” in the title. A year ago In the Muse surveyed a handful of these titles, and this week’s featured sheet music is one more way to remember yours on Sunday and every day. It would be remiss of us if we …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Anglophiles on this side of the pond had to get up awfully early this morning to witness the pageantry across the sea. We hope and presume that Prince William did not have this week’s featured sheet music in mind as he awaited his bethrothed. Composer Clarence Gaskill bleakly portrays married life as “no wining and …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections