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Category: Blind Musicians

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Best of the Music Section: 2020 Edition

Posted by: Lindsay Conway

Start your New Year with new music! Despite the challenges of the past year, the NLS Music Section acquired many new and exciting books and scores for our patrons to use and enjoy. See what's on our "Best of 2020" list in braille, audio, and large print!

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Beyond Aranjuez: Solo Guitar Works by Joaquín Rodrigo

Posted by: Lindsay Conway

Blind Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo is best known today for his Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra, but he wrote many other works for guitar. Learn about four of these pieces that the NLS Music Section has digitized in honor of the maestro's birthday!

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Spain in Song: Rodrigo’s Cuatro Madrigales Amatorios

Posted by: Lindsay Conway

Joaquin Rodrigo, one of the greatest Spanish composers of the 20th century, happened to be blind. Learn about how the essence of his artistry is to be found in his vocal music and how he became a poet, philosopher, and historian of Spain through his music.

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New BARD Additions: May 2020

Posted by: Lindsay Conway

This month we have a veritable bonanza of new talking books and braille music that we've added to BARD for your enjoyment! This includes two new podcasts from Smithsonian Folkways, a Nat King Cole songbook, Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and braille music for flute and piano.

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American Composers and Musicians from A to Z: P (Part 2—Puckett, Riley)

Posted by: Lindsay Conway

He was nicknamed the Ball Mountain Caruso. He introduced yodeling to country music recording well before Jimmie Rodgers' blue yodel. Meet Riley Puckett, one of the brightest stars of early country music, in today's blog post.

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From Anderson to Zaninelli: Audio Lessons for Classical Singing

Posted by: Lindsay Conway

Learn to sing classical art songs and arias with audio lessons available from the NLS Music Section!

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American Composers and Musicians from A to Z: G (Part 2–Grasse, Edwin)

Posted by: Lindsay Conway

Welcome to a new installment of the NLS Music Section’s journey through the alphabet to learn about musicians and composers who were blind or visually impaired. In part 2 of the letter G, we'll meet Edwin Grasse and introduce our new violin scores catalog.

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Blind James Campbell and His Nashville Washboard Band

Posted by: Lindsay Conway

“Tennessee, Tennessee, there ain’t no place I’d rather be”–This is the song that we have been singing for the past several weeks here in the Music Section of the National Library Service (along with Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter in their song “Tennessee Jed”).  The NLS national conference in Nashville has now come and gone, …