Sheet Music of the Week: The Midnight Whirl Edition

The midnight whirl rag / Silvio Hein

2012 is almost upon us! The Music Division certainly had an exciting year with many accomplishments from digital projects such as the launch of the Music Treasures Consortium last February, to two successfully curated exhibits (Coast to Coast: The Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939 and I Love Lucy: An American Legend), to the continued production of Concerts from the Library of Congress, now in its 86th season. In the Muse enjoys having the opportunity to relay these updates and the many other events and projects that we work hard to produce – I can hardly wait to see what 2012 has in store!

And of course, I wish all of our readers a very happy New Year! No matter where you ring in the new year tomorrow night, consider taking a “midnight whirl” in honor of this week’s Sheet Music of the Week!

One More Month of “I Love Lucy”

Have you been to the Madison Building yet to see the Library’s “I Love Lucy: An American Legend” exhibit? Local readers, you have exactly one month to plan a trip over here! The exhibit opened last August to celebrate the show’s 60th anniversary as well as Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday and will remain open to …

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Pic of the Week: Deck the Halls with Koussevitzky Edition

Head of Acquisitions and Processing Denise Gallo recently pointed out the ingenuity of her staff’s  Christmas tree, festively adorned with photocopied highlights from the Music Division’s deep coffers. The elves who assembled this holiday centerpiece were the music specialists and technicians who work in the archival processing section.  Gallo notes that the tree is also constructed …

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Rest in Peace, Bob Brookmeyer

The following is a guest post by Acquisitions Specialist and Curator of the Gerry Mulligan Papers, Loras John  Schissel. We were fortunate to have Bob Brookmeyer and members of Gerry Mulligan’s band when the Music Division celebrated the acquisition of the Mulligan Papers with a gala concert in the Coolidge Auditorium in 1999.  I’ve met …

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Pic of the Week: Belated Blue-eyed Birthday Edition

In the Muse has been under the weather lately, and would have otherwise paid timely homage to one of the twentieth century’s greatest entertainers. Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on December 12, 1915.  His long and storied career invited imitation and parody alike,  but it’s hard to imagine popular music without …

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Sheet Music of the Week: Battle Hymn of the Republic Edition

The following is a guest post from Head of Acquisitions & Processing Denise Gallo. Don’t get me wrong – I’m definitely a 21st-century woman. That I’m blogging is proof of that. Yet I frequently find myself in the 19th century. As a musicologist, I rub elbows with Rossini, Verdi, Schumann, and Brahms, but I find …

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Pic of the Week: Uncle Bennie Edition

The following is a guest post by Hope O’Keeffe, Office of General Counsel. This week marks the inauguration of the Copyright Office’s first blog, on the forthcoming digitization of copyright records. The digitization of copyright records for music will be an enormous boon to people trying to clear music rights. But it also has huge …

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Sheet Music of the Week: Coming in with the Comet Edition

This week’s featured sheet music honors one of the great voices of American literature. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, best known by his pen name Mark Twain, was born on this day in 1835, two weeks after Halley’s Comet made its closest approach to the Sun. Celebrate the author’s birthday with the “Mark Twain mazurka” and the …

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Sheet Music of the Week: Thanksgiving Edition

Last year In the Muse celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with Geo. W. Morgan’s “National Thanksgiving hymn“, from the Historic Sheet Music, 1800-1922 collection in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. This year the same collection gives us our featured holiday sheet music.  As I noted last year, “The turkey gobbler’s ball” is not actually about Thanksgiving but is …

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