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Posted by: Pat Padua
Last night I watched the host of Animal Planet’s River Monsters spend three hours trying to land a giant freshwater stingray. And I wondered, what might we have in the Music Divisions coffers that conveys such adventure and derring-do? I had to look no further than the Federal Theater Project collection, subject of the exhibit …
Posted in: Holidays, Pic of the Week, Special Collections, Theater
Posted by: Pat Padua
The results of last week’s World Beard and Mustache Championship provides a hirsute backdrop to this week’s featured sheet music. Our esteemed colleagues at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art occasionally blog the praises of historical facial hair, and In the Muse has previously noted the Flickr meme, Great Mustaches of the Library of Congress . …
Posted in: Composers, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post from Senior Cataloging Specialist Sharon McKinley, with thanks to fellow staff members Irina Kirchik, Leslie Long, and Jurij Dobczansky. The Library of Congress Chorale will present a free concert of Russian choral masterpieces at noon on Thursday, May 26 in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. Conductor Chad Becker and …
Posted in: Composers, Concerts and Events, Guest bloggers, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
As I opened up the Style section of The Washington Post today, I was excited to see a story by the Post’s music critic Anne Midgette on eighth blackbird, who will be performing here in Coolidge Auditorium tonight! Thought I’d share the story with our In the Muse readers to highlight the quality of performers …
Posted in: Concerts and Events
Posted by: Pat Padua
Thanks to Acquisitions Specialist Loras Schissel, whom In the Muse interviewed last month, for contributing to this post. Our Pic of the Week depicts two legendary figures whom you might be surprised to know had an occasional working relationship. The Sousa Band enjoyed its longest single engagement as a headlining feature for Charles Dillingham’s New York …
Posted in: Composers, Musicians, Pic of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Melanie Guitreaux, Reader Services. Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was a Creole composer and performer who combined the syncopated music of Louisiana and the Caribbean in a manner that anticipated ragtime and jazz. As a child growing up in New Orleans, Gottschalk experienced many …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Theater Specialist Walter Zvonchenko. Among the most significant collections acquired by the Library of Congress in very recent time is the Oliver Smith Collection of theatrical design, now in the custody of the Music Division. One of the most highly regarded and sought after stage designers of the …
Posted in: Special Collections, Theater
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Head of Acquisitions & Processing Dr. Denise Gallo. Although the Mason-Dixon Line originated in the 1760s to resolve a border conflict between the colonies of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware, the role it assumed in the Civil War was deeply cultural and philosophical. To its north lay the states …
Posted in: Guest bloggers, Sheet Music, Sheet Music of the Week, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
In her list of “not to miss” DC performances this year, The Washington Post music critic Anne Midgette included the premiere of Finnish composer Olli Kortekangas’s Seven Songs for Planet Earth, which will be performed in a concert called “Northern Lights: Choral Illuminations from Scandinavia and Beyond” by The Choral Arts Society of Washington and …
Posted in: Composers