Archive for the Instruments Category (13 posts)

Pic of the Week: Whistle While You Bike Edition

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Whistle, Staffordshire pottery boy (with red cap and pants and a green jacket) on a white velocipede. Provenance: N. E. Carter, Elkhorn, Wisconsin, 19 Nov. 1938. Part of Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection.

The third annual Washington Tweed Ride (the autumnal iteration of the Seersucker Social, which we mentioned in the late spring) is upon us again, in which local hipsterati don their finest and pedal vintage bicycles around our increasingly bike-friendly town. In honor of the dapper velocipedists primed to pedal among the hills of our great capital this Sunday, November 13,  In the Muse presents a two-wheel curiosity from the Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection.

On an unrelated note, our colleagues on the other side of the transom in Recorded Sound have begin a Record of the Week feature as a way of highlighting items from the National Jukebox.  This week’s selection is the Victor Orchestra’s “Cocoanut dance.” In the Muse plans to coordinate with Recorded Sound specialists to bring you the best of our collections.

Five Questions: Intern Edition

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Thanks to Sharon McKinley, Senior Cataloging Specialist, for conducting these interviews with Carolyn Turner and Rachel Weiss, two of this summer’s crop of interns. What made you want to do a volunteer internship at the Library of Congress? Carolyn: My older sister Jessica was a Junior Fellow when I was twelve years old and she …

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Pic of the Week: Birth of the Sax Edition

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On this date in 1846, Belgian-born Antoine-Joseph “Adolphe”  Sax patented the family of instruments that bear his name.  The saxophone was originally developed in two categories,  an orchestral group and a band or military group, of seven instruments each.  Only a handful of these varieties are in common use today, although composer/musician Anthony Braxton, who …

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Arf Musica

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Today the blogosphere celebrates National Puppy Day. In the Muse throws their august paw into the ring with this unusual whistle made by an unknown crafstman.   According to the item’s description, “the dog’s neck contains a threaded hole indicating this was a handle for something, possibly a small walking cane.”  We do not know if …

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And the Strads Play On…

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The Strads. They make string players salivate, and everyone knows the name to be synonymous with excellence. But how much do you really know about these pristine creatures of sound? Let’s start with the name – “Stradivarius”. Many are at least familiar with the fact that these string instruments were created by the famous violin …

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The Art of Music: The Dayton C. Miller Collection

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The following is a guest post by Jan Lancaster, Music Division. Works of art on paper invite contemplation. Drawings express an artist’s most immediate thoughts. They have a purity, an elegance. Every touch of the pencil, pen, or brush distills and crystallizes a moment in the artist’s thought process. Printmaking – the art of making …

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Come for the Stradivarius, Stay for the Buchla 100 Modular Synthesizer

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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 …

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