Top of page
Posted by: Pat Padua
The brooding artist type: you know one, you’ve been one, you’ve seen one in the coffeshop thinking deep thoughts and crying as they type furiously into their laptop. But does depression help or hinder creative thought? Last year the Coolidge Auditorium hosted a symposium on “Depression and Creativity” as part of the “Music and the …
Posted in: Composers, Sheet Music
Posted by: Pat Padua
“He was our benefactor and inspiration. Even more, he was the Martin Luther King of Music.” Pianist Eubie Blake said this of composer/bandleader James Reese Europe, who was born in Mobile, Alabama on February 22, 1881. Europe’s accomplishments run from the grand “Concert of Negro Music” that he conducted for a 125-man orchestra at Carnegie Hall in …
Posted in: African American History, Birthdays, Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The holiday weekend may have been last week, but George Washington’s actual birthday is celebrated on February 22 [1]. The Music Division has in its storied coffers a number of ways to celebrate this historic date in song. You may know that George M. Cohan composed Over There and countless other melodies for the Broadway …
Posted in: Birthdays, Sheet Music
Posted by: Pat Padua
Next Thursday, February 25, 8:00, the Coolidge Auditorium will ring with the sounds of seventeenth-century Italy as the Music Division hosts Concerto Soave. This intimate ensemble from southern France was founded by Jean-Marc Ayme and Grammy-winning soprano Maria Cristina Kiehr. Their tapestry of instrumental timbres is woven from harp, cello, harpsichord, and portative organ for …
Posted in: Concerts and Events, Musicians
Posted by: Pat Padua
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the day before the Christian season of Lent begins. In New Orleans, this is the *last* day of carnival: the party started on Twelfth Night, January 6th. With the New Orlean’s Saints‘ victory in Super Bowl XLIV, this Mardi Gras season has given the City of New Orleans something …
Posted in: Sheet Music
Posted by: Pat Padua
If music be the food of love, then the Music Division has enough in the refrigerator to play on for a lifetime and then some. Among the more romantic pieces in the collection is a self-published work by Dayton C. Miller, whose collection of flutes and other instruments is one of the treasures of the Library. …
Posted in: Holidays, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
We all can’t be Marilyn Monroe cooing a personal birthday greeting to the Commander-in-Chief. But this President’s Day weekend gives all Americans a chance to remember our iconic leaders and take advantage of holiday sales — and gives the Mid-Atlantic States more time to dig out from the record-breaking snowfall that brought the region to …
Posted in: Birthdays, Digital Collections, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
This week the Boy Scouts of America turn one hundred years young – and they still look like kids! Earn your merit badge in Music with this piece from The March King: John Philip Sousa on the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. More scout-related material can be found in An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The Mid-Atlantic United States has weathered an unusual amount of snow this winter. In the Muse rang in the season with wintry songs to while away the eve of a storm that left the Washington, D.C. area with a blanket 19 inches thick. Today’s forecast predicts a storm to match or exceed that total. The …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections