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Posted by: Pat Padua
Friday we released another batch of images from the William P. Gottlieb Collection to Flickr. This set of images includes figures such as pop singer Frankie Laine (seen posing with a souvenir throw pillow bearing his likeness), blues icon Leadbelly, Latin Jazz legends Machito and Graciella Grillo, just to name a few. Among these pictures is an …
Posted in: Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following post is by Daniel Walshaw, Music Division. Today is the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the greatest composers to ever put pen to paper, and what exactly does that mean? I never quite understand our fascination with celebrating the birthdays of our favorite minds that are long gone. Does it make …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post by Music Reference Specialist Lisa Shiota. “It always makes me smile when the Library of Congress asks me to keep my sketches for their collection. When I get through I don’t have any sketches—they’re all rubbed out. I write an awful lot of notes that don’t stay.” ~Walter Piston, …
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers
Posted by: Pat Padua
The city and the Nation have their eyes on the Main Reading Room, which is currently hosting an unexpected visitor in the studious form of a Cooper’s Hawk. This edition of Sheet Music of the Week features a pair of creatures that are unlikely to find their way to our workplace – but if they …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
This week’s featured sheet music is from the songwriting team of lyricists Sam Lewis (whose most famous lyric is probably “For All We Know”) and Joe Young (whose biggest hit was “I’m Gonna Sit Myself Right Down and Write Me a Letter”), with music by Maurice Jerome. The bittersweet “Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post by Music Division Archivist Chris Hartten. Roy Harris spent a lifetime searching for the American in American music. Born in Chandler, Oklahoma on February 12, 1898, Harris was profoundly influenced by American folksongs and poetry as a young student. He studied with Arthur Farwell and Nadia Boulanger during the …
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Special Collections
Posted by: Larry Appelbaum
The Music Division has uploaded its latest batch of William P. Gottlieb jazz photos onto our Flickr site. Several are particularly eye-catching, notably the two images of bassist Chubby Jackson: one with dramatic lighting, the other showing Jackson’s irrepressible personality. There is an impressive triple exposure of bandleader Jerry Jerome, and an unusual shot of …
Posted in: Digital Collections, Jazz, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Our fellow bloggers at In Custodia Legis and Inside Adams: Science, Technology and Business have instituted running features called Pic of the Week, in which they bring you, the reader, a visual slice of their worlds. In the Muse follows suit with Sheet Music of the Week, in which we will show you some of …
Posted in: Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week
Posted by: Pat Padua
On this Feast of Three Kings, celebrate the recent birthdays of a pair of musical kings: bandleader Xavier Cugat and rock and roll icon Elvis Presley. Francesc d’Asís Xavier Cugat Mingall de Bru i Deulofeu was born in Spain on January 1st, 1900. Cugat, was dubbed “The Mambo King” in the 1995 Walt Disney feature A Goofy …
Posted in: Birthdays, Musicians, Special Collections