When searching for someone to compose a pianoforte arrangement of their immensely popular comic opera The Mikado, the theatrical duo plucked a young former shoemaker from Lynn, Massachusetts.
The concluding part of this two-part survey of music and disease looks at examples that arose from pandemics in the 19th and 20th centuries, including: works by Stephen Foster and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel written in the wake of a series of cholera outbreaks, and the sometimes curiously lighthearted musical response to the 1918 influenza pandemic.
An undeniable musical trend during social distancing right now is the wealth of online music making. In the spirit of music keeping us together while we’re apart, I propose a Spring-Themed Online Music Challenge! Use the sheet music I recommend in this blog post about spring and flowers from the Music Division’s digital collections, make videos, and tag us on social media.
The following is a guest post from Ben West, writer, director, producer, performer, and musical theatre historian. He is currently a curator for the forthcoming Museum of Broadway in Times Square, New York City. He is also currently writing and developing several stage projects including The Show Time! Trilogy, three new documentary musicals about the evolution …
Oh give me the snow, the white wing’d snow That falls from the wint’ry sky That robes the earth in a vest of white, And sparkles and shines as the sun’s rich light, Like a starry arch on high. I love the snow! I love the snow! I love the snow! - John Brown, “I Love …