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Category: Sheet Music

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

The Bicycle and the Bastille

Posted by: Pat Padua

Last week In the Muse brought you “The Battle of the Sewing Machines,” a 19th century piano piece that fondly mimics the chug of an old sewing machine. The piece features cover art that depicts sundry anthropomorphic sewing machines on the attack, revealing perhaps a bit of 19th century tension at the fate of man …

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

The Battle of the Sewing Machines

Posted by: Pat Padua

Just over the transom via the American Folklife Center’s Facebook page, today is the birthday of Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine. Celebrate Howe’s gift, not only to the garment industry, but to mankind, with “The Battle of the Sewing Machines,” F. Hyde’s rhythmic impersonation of that old-fashioned sewing machine sound ca. 1874. The …

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

There’s A Composer Born Every Minute

Posted by: Pat Padua

The phrase “there’s a sucker born every minute” is commonly attributed to famed showman Phineas Taylor Barnum. The quote’s provenance is disputed, its sentiment cynical, but as adaptable headline fodder it is unsurpassed. If the reader so desires, the remainer of this paragraph may be read out loud in the booming voice of a carnival …

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

Sing Along with the Founding Fathers

Posted by: Pat Padua

It’s not exactly Schoolhouse Rock, but between the barbecue and the fireworks, celebrate the long Independence Day weekend with John E. Wilson’s vocal arrangement of the Declaration of Independence from the Civil War Sheet Music collection. You can also find sheet music and recordings of  “God Bless America,”  “America the Beautiful,” “The Star Spangled Banner,” and …

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

The Heroine of Gettysburg

Posted by: Pat Padua

Two years ago I visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the anniversary weekend of the tragic battle. I have never been a Civil War aficionado, but to trod that consecrated ground among the Civil War reenactors and tour guides, to visit the house where Jennie Wade lived and died, was truly haunting. Remember the Battle of Gettysburg with …

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

Robert Cole

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 …

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

It Feels Like Summer

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 …

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

Happy Father’s Day

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. …

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

Bloomsday

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 …