Top of page
Posted by: Bryan Cornell
At some point time around the year 2008 the last physical audio format, the cd, seems to have nearly winked out of existence. Its replacement? An army of wispy, intangible files including mp3, .aiff, wave, ogg vorbis, flac and many others. Of course, many of these formats produce very high-quality audio, and I can now pack a collection of …
Posted in: Early Recording Industry, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Karen Fishman
This blog post was co-written with Jan McKee, Reference Librarian, Recorded Sound Section, Library of Congress. This year, after Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family, why not burn off some of those calories and thwart those tryptophans by dancing the Turkey Trot instead of sleeping on the living room sofa? This vigorous dance was developed …
Posted in: Early Recording Industry, Jukebox, Recorded Sound, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized
Posted by: Bryan Cornell
Last night the Library of Congress honored veteran songwriter and performer Billy Joel with its coveted Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The Library of Congress awards the prize annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with George and Ira Gershwin. It’s not entirely coincidental that the Library has also just uploaded a revealing interview with Joel …
Posted in: Recorded Sound
Posted by: Karen Fishman
This blog post was co-written with Megan Harris, reference specialist for the Veterans History Project, Library of Congress. What you’ve just heard is from the Marine Corps Combat Recordings, an amazing and vivid accounting of the war in the South Pacific during World War II. Not only are these recordings one of the most historically …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Marine Corps Combat Recordings, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Recorded Sound, World War II
Posted by: Bryan Cornell
The following post is by David Sager, Processing Technician in the Recorded Sound Section, Library of Congress. This post is in commemoration of the 84th anniversary of Buddy Bolden’s death and the never-ending discussion of his legendary lost cylinder recording. Charles “Buddy” Bolden, 1877-1931, often referred to as the “first man of jazz,” holds an …
Posted in: Early Recording Industry, Jukebox, Recorded Sound, Uncategorized
Posted by: Mike Mashon
A couple of special program notes: we’re postponing Thursday’s scheduled “Verdi and the Silent Film” program and replacing it with the 1982 film version of La Traviata starring Plácido Domingo. And on Saturday we’ll be joined by filmmakers Alex Steyermark and Lavinia Jones Wright as they talk about their documentary The 78 Project. Thursday, November …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, Packard Campus Theater, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Bryan Cornell
This week’s recorded sound update is a guest post by Jan McKee, Reference Librarian, Recorded Sound Section, Library of Congress. Mark Twain was known to have made recordings on three occasions; unfortunately none of them are known to have survived. The earliest recording was made by Thomas Edison in 1888. In 1891, the author himself …
Posted in: Early Recording Industry, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Bryan Cornell
What follows is a guest post by Carla Arton and Harrison Behl, processing technicians in the Recorded Sound Section, Library of Congress In May 2013, the staff-led Packard Campus Institute (PCI) hosted a presentation on the National Jukebox by Gene DeAnna, Head of the Recorded Sound Section at the Library of Congress. In his presentation, Gene showcases …
Posted in: Early Recording Industry, Jukebox, Recorded Sound, Uncategorized
Posted by: Bryan Cornell
This is a guest post by Janet McKee, Recorded Sound Reference Librarian in the Library’s Recorded Sound Section. Repeatedly over the years a recording purporting to be the voice of Walt Whitman has surfaced. Sadly, it has long been the opinion of the reference staff at the Library of Congress that the recording, like …
Posted in: Early Recording Industry, Recorded Sound, Uncategorized