Top of page

Category: Sheet Music

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Great Mustaches of the Library of Congress: Music Division Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

Our present-day fascination with the facial hair of yore may have behind it a number of reasons: a yearning for the sartorial elegance of by-gone days; an urge to lampoon the historical patriarchal hegemony;  the deep-seated instinct, like that found among birdwatchers and trainspotters, to catalogue the varieties of hirsute experience; a lot of spare …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

An’ a one, an’ a two …

Posted by: Pat Padua

Bandleader-accordionist Lawrence Welk  was the musical voice of a faraway time in America, before  punk rock, hip-hop, and Lady Gaga.  The son of German immigrants from the Ukraine, Welk was born in Strasburg, North Dakota on March 11, 1903.  The first big break in Welk’s long and storied career came in 1927, when Lawrence Welk …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Stop! In the Name of Music!

Posted by: Pat Padua

In Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm Macdowell is memorably conditioned to veer from his life of ultra-violence with generous doses of Ludwig Van.  But does music really sooth the savage breast? Does blasting Barry Manilow at high volume  drive away delinquent teenagers? The answer may surprise you. …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Our National Anthem

Posted by: Pat Padua

On this date in 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed the Act establishing “The Star Spangled Banner” as the National Anthem of the United States of America.  The Library of Congress has in its collections a treasure trove of  sheet music (including a Spanish-language edition), song sheets (including two in German), and recordings of  “The Star …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

You call it Madness, I call it Music

Posted by: Pat Padua

The brooding artist type: you know one, you’ve been one, you’ve seen one in the coffeshop thinking deep thoughts and crying as they type furiously into their laptop. But does depression help or hinder creative thought? Last year the Coolidge Auditorium hosted a symposium on “Depression and Creativity” as part of the “Music and the …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Happy Birthday to the Father of Our Country

Posted by: Pat Padua

The holiday weekend may have been last week, but George Washington’s actual birthday is celebrated on February 22 [1].  The Music Division has in its storied coffers a number of ways to celebrate this historic date in song. You may know that George M. Cohan composed  Over There and countless other melodies for the Broadway …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Happy Mardi Gras!

Posted by: Pat Padua

Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the day before the Christian season of Lent begins.  In New Orleans, this is the *last* day of carnival: the party started on Twelfth Night, January 6th. With the New Orlean’s Saints‘ victory in Super Bowl XLIV, this Mardi Gras season has given the  City of New Orleans something …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

With Love from the Music Division to You

Posted by: Pat Padua

If music be the food of love, then the Music Division has enough in the refrigerator to play on for a lifetime and then some. Among the more romantic  pieces in the collection is a self-published work by Dayton C. Miller, whose collection of flutes and other instruments is one of the treasures of the Library. …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Happy Birthday Mister President, Happy Birthday to You

Posted by: Pat Padua

We all can’t be Marilyn Monroe cooing a personal birthday greeting to the Commander-in-Chief. But this President’s Day weekend gives all Americans a chance to remember our iconic leaders and take advantage of holiday sales — and gives the Mid-Atlantic States more time to dig out from the record-breaking snowfall that brought the region to …