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Archive for the Braille and Audio Reading Download BARD Category (62 posts)

American Composers and Musicians from A to Z: E (Part 2 – Eyck, Jacob van)

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This week we’ll break with our series a bit to discuss the life of a blind musician from outside of the United States.

Had someone mentioned a composer named van Eyck to me when I was a child, I might have guessed that he was born before or during World War II. When I heard the name last week, I thought he might be a contemporary composer. So when I looked him up on the Internet, I was amazed to discover that he was born in 1589 or 1590. And he became a flutist, carillonneur, and an expert on the casting and tuning of bells.

One of five children, Jacob was born in Heusden, a town in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. He was born blind, and his father died when Jacob was still a child. As a young man, van Eyck became fascinated with bells and carillons. At the time, Heusden had but one carillon, located in the tower of the town hall. Jacob learned about this instrument, and in January, 1622, he was hired to change the pegs in its mechanical drum., Occasionally, he was asked to play it. The next year he traveled to Utrecht, where he repaired the carillon in the Dom’s tower, then the highest building in Holland. 1624 found him again in Utrecht, doing repair work on the chimes at City Hall.

More and more people heard van Eyck play the carillon during these years, but then, as now, it was often difficult for a blind person to get a job. Nevertheless, in 1625, after difficult negotiations, he became the carilloneur at the Dom in Utrecht. This instrument had 12 bells; soon he acquired six more, tuned them, and added them to the carillon. This was followed, in 1626, by a trip to the Hague, where he improved the City Hall carillon. And in 1628 he became Directeur van de Klockwerken, entrusted with the care of all the carillons in Utrecht. Isaac Beeckman, a scientist from this period, wrote that “van Eyck knew how to isolate five ‘partials’ in one bell, and discovered how the sound is influenced by the shape of the bell.”

He also played the recorder and was hired to play in shopping areas to keep away troublemakers. It seems that a young musician, intrigued by Jacob’s beautiful variations on popular songs of the day, began writing down these improvisations. Eventually they were published as “Fluyten Lust-hof” (The Flute’s Pleasure Garden). Containing more than 140 pieces, it is one of the largest collections of pieces for any solo instrument.

Braille music readers may sample a portion of this collection by borrowing BRM33491, transcribed by Braille Press Zurich in 1991. In addition, we have two books regarding carillon: Fugue in G Minor (BRM22967), written for carillon as well as a book called Campanology: A Handbook for the Carillonneur (BRM22911).

Nashville Sound: Hargus “Pig” Robbins

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Hargus “Pig” Robbins might be the most famous piano player you’ve never heard of, though you’ve likely heard his work. The National Conference of Librarians Serving Blind and Physically Handicapped Individuals will begin in a matter of days in Nashville, Tennessee, so today I want to tell you about a musician who is blind and […]

What’s New on BARD?

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We’re happy to learn that our patrons are increasingly using BARD to download music materials. Let’s take a look at some new additions to BARD:   Audio Materials Classic Harmonica Blues by Smithsonian Folkways (DBM03629) Cowboy Songs by Smithsonian Folkways. (DBM03627) Flirting with Disaster. For guitar. Performed and taught by Bill Brown. (DBM03887) The Hammer […]

American Composers and Musicians from A to Z: E (Part 1 – Ellington, Duke)

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Continuing our series of American composers from A to Z, we come to the letter E. Personally, I can think of no better example than Duke Ellington. I consider him to be one of the first great quintessential “American” composers of his time, who wrote music in a true American idiom, rather than copying Western […]

Something’s Coming, Something Good!

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This is a very special year for Broadway and classical music fans and those of us at the Library of Congress;  we’re marking the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth. For a man who was born in 1918, his music still has fans snapping their fingers (x…x…x is a symbol in print music notation in West […]

Carnegie Hall of the South: Nashville’s Musical Legacy, Part 2

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This is the second half of a two-part post on Nashville’s musical history and related books in the NLS Music Collection. Read the first part here: Athens of the South: Nashville’s Musical Legacy, Part 1. Nashville’s most famous music venue, the Ryman Auditorium, was completed in 1892 and was originally a church called the Union […]

Athens of the South: Nashville’s Musical Legacy, Part 1

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Here in the Music Section of the National Library Service we are counting down the days until the National Conference of Librarians Serving Blind and Physically Handicapped Individuals begins next month in Music City, Nashville, Tennessee! As I mentioned in my last article, I’ve been taking the opportunity to learn about the musical history of […]

Digitizing Braille Music 2018

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This is our fourth blog on the digitization of braille music. So, what is new with this project? First, we are boosting our production by outsourcing the proofreading of scores scanned using Optical Braille Recognition (OBR). Our braille music specialist Gilbert Busch continues to review all the scans completed on DotScan so we can provide […]

Bernstein at 100

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When I was in grade school, our chorus teacher let us hear a record called What Is Jazz (DBM00704), where tone color, blue notes, syncopation, and other aspects of jazz were described by a man named Leonard Bernstein (I assumed that he was a jazz piano player). By sixth grade I was listening to classical music […]

American Composers and Musicians from A to Z: D (Part 2 – Davis, “Blind” John and Dranes, Arizona)

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Blind John Davis Blind John Davis was born in Mississippi in 1913, but moved to Chicago with his family at a young age.  He lost his sight shortly thereafter at age 9. He began to learn the piano as a teen, and later became a regular session musician for famous blues record producer Lester Melrose […]