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Category: Classical Music

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New BARD additions: December- January

Posted by: Katie Rodda

The Music Section has been very busy over the past month adding new and newly digitized music materials to BARD. From Mozart, to bluegrass, to method books for alto and bass flute, there is a little bit of something here for everyone! If you have any questions on how to use BARD or to obtain …

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American Composers and Musicians from A to Z: C (Part 1 – Campbell, Francis Joseph)

Posted by: Mary Dell Jenkins

The NLS Music Section is part of a national network of cooperating libraries.  With that in mind, we are in touch with the network when they have patrons who are interested in the materials provided by our section, and there is a nice spirit of cooperation between the network and our offices here in the …

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Going with “Ahmal” Once Again

Posted by: Gilbert Busch

“Oh, no—opera!” I thought as the recording of Amahl and the Night Visitors started. I was perhaps a fourth grader at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children in Pittsburgh then, hearing this one-act opera for the first time. Although I could not always understand the words, I had to admit that the mother’s operatic …

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Celebrating that “Parisienne Gaiety”

Posted by: Gilbert Busch

When I was a teenager, I began learning about classical music by listening to radio programs in the evening. Often the shows would begin with an overture or “light classic”, such as the Light Cavalry Overture (which our school band played), or the William Tell Overture (the “Lone Ranger” to me). There was also a …

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The Music and Sounds of the Vietnam Era

Posted by: Katie Rodda

Like many other Americans, I have been tuning in to the documentary The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick this past week. This 10-part series depicts the grim realities of the Vietnam War at home and abroad, and the soundtrack of the movie transports one back to the late 1960s quite perfectly. With …

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We Just Keep Adding…to BARD!

Posted by: Mary Dell Jenkins

One of the fun and interesting parts of working at the NLS Music Section is being able to upload files to BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download). Our patrons are always checking to see what is new in the “Recently Added” link, and we frequently remind them that not all the NLS Music Section collection is …

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American Composers and Musicians from A to Z: A (Part 1 – Adams, John)

Posted by: Katie Rodda

The following is a guest blog post from the new section head of the NLS Music Section, Juliette Appold. Have you ever thought about listing classical and contemporary composers by their last names from A to Z? How about identifying American composers from A to Z? And how about filling the alphabet with names of …