Popular Culture, Jazz, and More: New Braille Music Acquisitions Available on BARD

This past month the Music Section made available for download on BARD three contemporary, popular, and jazz titles.

First, a braille transcription of Glee Songbook: Easy Piano. This book contains a collection of songs from the popular TV show Glee‘s first season arranged for easy–or beginner–piano. Examples include: Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, “Can’t Fight This Feeling;” John Lennon, “Imagine;” Neil Diamond, “Sweet Caroline;” and contemporary artists Avril Lavigne and Lukas Gottwald, “Keep Holding On.” This piano only version is available on BARD at BRM 35450. We also offer a melody, lyrics, and guitar chord version. It will be on BARD soon, but right now you can order it in hardcopy braille, BRM 35452.

Our second newest title is, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” by Cole Porter. This classic song was written for the 1936 MGM musical production, Born to Dance. That same year it received an Academy nomination for best Music (Song), but the award went to Jerome Kern’s and Dorothy Fields’s hit “The Way You Look Tonight” from Swing Time. Our score of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” is arranged for medium voice and piano, BRM 07302.

Our last new title added to BARD is John Mehegan’s Jazz Improvisation 2: Jazz Rhythm and the Improvised Line. Mehegan has a total of four books within his “Jazz Improvisation” series. Jazz Improvisation 3: Swing and Early Progressive Piano Styles, Jazz Improvisation 4: Contemporary Piano Styles and Jazz Improvisation 1: Tonal and Rhythmic Principles. Each book covers a different topic or time frame in jazz history. Our new title, Jazz Improvisation 2, has a total of three braille volumes, not to be confused with the number of books in the series. It includes musical examples and full-length songs, BRM 29126.

For these titles and more, contact us here in the Music Section, or leave a comment below. Everything that is available digitally on BARD can also be ordered in hardcopy braille. To access our online catalog which is full of many things not available on BARD, visit http://www.loc.gov/nls. A link to searching the catalog is located at the top of the page. We are happy to hear from you!