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Posted by: Pat Padua
Thanks to Christopher Hartten and Robin Rausch, Music Division, for contributing to this post. Prolific Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) wrote music in virtually every genre. He began composing as a child and studied composition under Ildebrando Pizzetti. Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s 1932 meeting with guitarist Andrés Segovia would inspire him to write what would become dozens of …
Posted in: Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Richard Rodgers, one of the great composers of the American Musical Theater, was born on this day in 1902. With Lorenz Hart (lyricist for “Manhattan” and Pal Joey) and Oscar Hammerstein (lyricist for South Pacific, Oklahoma, and The Sound of Music) Rodgers’ music has been part of the musical and cinematic collective consciousness for nearly …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Earlier this week the Library announced this year’s inductees into the National Recording Registry. Among the inductees is Morton Subotnick’s “Silver Apples of the Moon,” a piece composed on one of the unlikely treasures of the Music Division’s instrument collection. The following is a guest post by Steve Antosca, a composer living and working in …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Musical Instruments, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Each of the four seasons has inspired its own songs, but none so much as summer. From the cool breeze of Al Green’s “Feels like summer” to the cool pose struck by Pavement’s “Summer babe,” songwriters seem particularly inspired by the onset of heat, humidity, and vacation. While In the Muse cannot approximate the feeling …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
There are songs of yore whose messages may be lost to modern ears, but Harry Castling’s “As His Father Did Before Him” strikes a chord even today. Published in London in 1898, the song paints a picture of desperate times, when the patriarchal model was apparently as likely to be a burglar as a boxer. …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The Library of Congress Chorale, which draws staff members from all over the library, recently celebrated the birthdays of sundry composers with a lunchtime concert in the Coolidge Auditorium. This was the last concert for their conductor John Saint Amour, who has admirably served his two-year term and awaits a capable successor to arise from …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Concerts and Events, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The events of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses take place in Dublin on a single day, June 16, 1904. Joyceans the world over celebrate Bloomsday with marathon readings and a pint of Guinness or two. Say yes yes to James Joyce with the Performing Arts Encyclopedia, where you can find manuscripts of Samuel Barber’s “Three Songs,” musical settings …
Posted in: Composers, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Celebrate Flag Day with songs from the Civil War Sheet Music Collection, and of course our National Anthem, The Star-spangled Banner, in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia.
Posted in: Holidays, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Guitarist and inventor Les Paul was born on this day in 1915. Paul helped develop the Gibson Les Paul solid-body electric guitar, an instrument so iconic that the foreword to Les Paul’s memoir was written by none other than Paul McCartney. Les Paul died last year, but his handiwork continues to be heard from the …
Posted in: Birthdays, Musical Instruments, Musicians