Happy Halloween!

Portrait of Chubby Jackson, Esquire Club, Valley Stream, Long Island, N.Y., ca. Apr. 1947. Photograph by William P. Gottlieb.

In the Muse recently put out a call to Music Division  staff in search of ghost stories, and while nobody would tell me outright that they felt an unexplained cold spot on the Coolidge Auditorium stage, or that sounds of the Stradivarius would emerge mysteriously from an empty hall, the age and history of this institution, particularly the Jefferson Building, can fire the imagination in ways beyond the academic. The Library of Congress does not keep an official count of their spectral visitors, but Natalie Zanin, a Washington-area native who runs a number of  local ghost tours, has suggested to me that spirits haunt the stacks and walk the dim tunnels that connect the Library campus to the Capitol and environs. She also points out that the Jefferson Building was constructed on what was once known as Carroll Row, whose nineteenth-century structures housed at various points in their history, a hotel and a prison — venue types that are notorious among aficionados of the paranormal.

The Coolidge Auditorium, whose founder celebrates a birthday today, has hosted a number of  ghostly concerts over the years, but we were fortunate that the programs featured living musicians, like the Anthony Braxton ensemble’s 1998 premiere of “Ghost Trance Duo for Violin and Piano ” and the Florestan Trio’s 2008 performance of Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D Major, op. 70, no. 1 – known as the “Ghost Trio” for a theme originally intended for an opera based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Have a spooky and safe Halloween!

Founder’s Day: Remembering Mrs. Coolidge in Coolidge Auditorium

Does the name “Coolidge” sound familiar? If you’re a regular LC concert goer, or have taken a tour of the Jefferson Building, then you know about the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. Were you to assume that this venue was funded by or named for President Calvin Coolidge, you would be wrong! Our famous auditorium was constructed …

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More Songs to Drink Your Blood By

The following is the second part of a two-part guest post by Kevin Lavine, Senior Music Specialist. The vampire  made its musical début on this side of the Atlantic in a slight piece for piano solo titled “Vampire Polka” (Boston, 1850), of unknown authorship (its composer is identified as “Four Eyes”), a work undoubtedly intended for performance …

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We’re A Little Bit Country, We’re a Little Bit West African Jazz

Tickets are now available for two concerts that demonstrate the eclectic range of the Music Division’s programming. Friday, December 3, 2010 @8:00 pm On LOCation Lionel Loueke Trio West African harmonies and jazz rhythms are seamlessly blended by guitarist/singer/composer Lionel Loueke with Massimo Biolcati on bass and Ferenc Nemeth on drums. Visit his web site to …

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The Chilean National Anthem

With the fantastic rescue of thirty-three Chilean miners, the whole world can breathe a sigh of relief. But none can be more relieved than the miners, emerging into the sunshine again after seventy days trapped underground. Chilean president Sebastian Pinera sang their national anthem with Luis Urzua, the last of the miners rescued. Celebrate their return …

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Greil Marcus and Bob Dylan

In the Muse has been known to make unlikely connections along the musical spectrum, from Lawrence Welk to the Velvet Underground, from Paul Williams to DJ Shadow. And if you have a second, we’ll explain how the disco-era novelty singles of Rick Dees,  (the bell-bottomed Jekyll and Hyde of “Disco Duck;” “Bigfoot,” which imagines that the …

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Music is in the House

The thirteenth of October may fill the superstitious with dread, but today we celebrate the birthdays of three great musicians whose work fills the Music Division’s precious vaults. Celebrate  gospel singer Shirley Caeasar (born October 13, 1938) with a medley including “You’re Next in Line,” an excerpt from Gospel: A Joyful Sound, a concert Caesar and her …

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