Category: Folklore

Close-up of the fingers of two hands as the touch a paged filled with raised dots

Song Stories: Woody Guthrie’s “Dust Bowl Ballads”

July 14, 2022

Born on July 14, 1912, Woody Guthrie earned the nickname "The Dust Bowl Troubadour" with the 1940 release of "Dust Bowl Ballads." In this week's NLS Music Notes blog post, learn more about the most successful album of Guthrie's career and how it influenced a new generation of artists.

Posted in: American Braille, American Composers, American Folklife Center, Audio, Audio Preservation, Blues, Braille, Braille and Audio Reading Download BARD, Braille Music, Folk Music, Folklore, Free Braille Music Scores, Guitar, Johnny Cash, Labor, Library of Congress, Music Composition, Music History and Appreciation, Musical instruments, NLS Music Section, NLS Online Catalog, Popular Music, Popular Music Lead Sheets, Smithsonian Folkways, Texas, Uncategorized, Vocal music, Voyager Catalog

Hokusai's “Laughing Demon,” depicts an evil looking, wrinkled woma laughing while crushing the head of a small person in her right, long-nailed hand, held up to her right ear. She points with her left long-nailed index finger to the little bleading head. The woman is boney, wrinkled, has long fingernails, brown hair, and small horns on her head.

Seeing Music: Gnomus and Baba Yaga from Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”

January 20, 2022

Posted by: Juliette Appold

Who are Baba Yaga and Gnomus? This blog shows how Mussorgsky represents them in his piano suite "Pictures at an Exhibition," and what kinds of related NLS materials you may be interested in.

Posted in: Audio, Braille, Braille and Audio Reading Download BARD, Braille Music, Folklore, Folklore-Russia, Instrumental Music, Music and Art, Music History and Appreciation, Music Instruction, NLS Music Section, Piano, Piano Music, Uncategorized, Violin music, Women in Music