Top of page
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
Posted by: Pat Padua
Music and poetry are two sides of artistic expression that are often inseparable – in the nomenclature of today’s youth, they are indeed Best Friends Forever. April is National Poetry Month, a designation first made in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets in New York. As the month winds down, In the Muse sets anchor …
Posted in: Composers, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following post is taken in part from an article written by Susan Clermont, Music Specialist, for the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Like no other American sport, baseball has been glorified and preserved in musical form by inspired songwriters and poets since its beginnings. In 1858, the year when amateur baseball teams in the northeast established …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following post is by Norman Middleton, Senior Concert Producer in the Music Division. Concert hall conniptions. High note heebeegeebees. Booze, drugs, and wastepaper baskets. The issues surrounding performance anxiety, commonly known as “stage fright” will be examined by Senior Concert Producer Norman Middleton on April 9th at 6:15 p.m. in the Jefferson Building’s LJ119 …
Posted in: Sheet Music
Posted by: Pat Padua
The Music Division’s bonnie collections offer a variety of ways to celebrate this St. Patrick’s Day. Play an Irish bagpipe from the Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection. Follow along to the reels described in Rinnce na h-Éireann : a simplified work on the performance of the dances of Ireland, from An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals. Develop …
Posted in: Dance, Musical Instruments, Sheet Music, Special Collections