In our last blogpost we introduced blind musician Francis Joseph Campbell. Today’s entry is about one of the most famous American composers who had close connections to the Library of Congress: Aaron Copland. Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 14, 1900. He studied music from an early age and received formal …
“Why is it called a recorder when it doesn’t record?” I wondered as the unmistakable sound of recorders reached my ears. We were on our way home from church, and the car radio was playing a Baroque concerto. Later, a computer search showed that recorder is from the Latin word recordari, to remember, or to …
Are you a braille music reader or know someone who is? Wouldn’t you like to find more braille music scores online, in one place? We have some great news for you: The Music Section at the Library of Congress’ National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is developing a Digital Braille Music …
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 …
Continued from last week 5. When should a music student start learning braille music? As soon as a youngster is reading braille somewhat comfortably, I believe they can begin to read music braille. If they keep playing by ear, then the desire to learn to read music diminishes. And sadly, very often there is no …
I’m always reminding myself how fortunate I am to live in an area that offers not only great classical music, theater and dance performances, but many popular music performers make a stop, especially during the summer. Being a child of the sixties, rock and roll concerts usually meant performances in smoky nightclubs (missed out on …
Recently, I read Willie Nelson’s autobiography “It’s a Long Story.” Willie and his sister Bobbie were raised by their paternal grandparents who were avid amateur musicians. From when they were very young, the Nelson children spent much of their time making music together and singing gospel songs at their church. Willie still cherishes those times …
We are approaching a holiday that signifies many things to people on the calendar: Labor Day. For children and teachers, it’s back to school. For the sports fan, anticipation for Friday night high school football (and half-time shows; a shout-out to the band kids) and Sunday afternoon professional leagues. But I would like to remind …
In a recent NLS Music Notes blog post, “The Festival That Changed American Music,” I read about rock stars such as Jimi Hendrix who performed at the first Monterey festival in 1967. Because of the recordings listed there, and my own experience of the NLS collections, I assumed that anything we have on Hendrix would be in audio format. So …
