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Posted by: Pat Padua
This post is abridged from a biography written by James Wolf, Digital Conversion Specialist, Music Division, for African-American Band Music & Recordings, 1883-1923 in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Read the entire article here. Robert Allen Cole was born on July 1, 1868, in Athens, Georgia, the son of former slaves. Like Will Marion Cook and James …
Posted in: African American History, Birthdays, Composers, Sheet Music
Posted by: Pat Padua
Each of the four seasons has inspired its own songs, but none so much as summer. From the cool breeze of Al Green’s “Feels like summer” to the cool pose struck by Pavement’s “Summer babe,” songwriters seem particularly inspired by the onset of heat, humidity, and vacation. While In the Muse cannot approximate the feeling …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
There are songs of yore whose messages may be lost to modern ears, but Harry Castling’s “As His Father Did Before Him” strikes a chord even today. Published in London in 1898, the song paints a picture of desperate times, when the patriarchal model was apparently as likely to be a burglar as a boxer. …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The events of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses take place in Dublin on a single day, June 16, 1904. Joyceans the world over celebrate Bloomsday with marathon readings and a pint of Guinness or two. Say yes yes to James Joyce with the Performing Arts Encyclopedia, where you can find manuscripts of Samuel Barber’s “Three Songs,” musical settings …
Posted in: Composers, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
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.
Posted in: Holidays, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
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 …
Posted in: Holidays, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Sunday, May 9, is Mother’s Day. My colleague on Inside Adams, the Science, Technology, and Business Blog, writes about the floral industry’s popularization of Mother’s Day here. What better way to remember mothers living and passed away than with songs from the Music Division. The Performing Arts Encyclopedia has over two hundred pieces of sheet …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections, Women in Music
Posted by: Pat Padua
Above the desk where I sign in to work hangs a pin-up calendar whose pet of the month of May is a Shih Tzu in a shiny red wagon. Below the happy pup is the notation that May 2nd-8th, 2010 is Be Kind to Animals Week. According to the American Humane Association , this week …
Posted in: Composers, Jazz, Musicians, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
“It would be nice to hear someone say, ‘Look at that gas station in the moonlight. It’s pure John Adams.’ ” — John Adams, composer of Nixon in China. [1] New Yorker music critic Alex Ross recently blogged about two different composers named John Adams, distinguished by their middle names of Luther and Coolidge. This common …
Posted in: Composers, Sheet Music, Special Collections