Classical music fans will want to check out the Juilliard Manuscripts Collection, a spectacular collection of very rare manuscripts. These documents were donated to the school in 2006 by Bruce Kovner, a business professional and philanthropist who served as chair of the board at Juilliard. This collection includes engraved first editions of manuscripts by Johannes Sebastian Bach; an autographed...

Recently, the Library of Congress created the "I Hear American Singing" digital project in order to allow visitors the ability "to experience the diversity of American performing arts". One of its first online digital collections pays tribute to Katherine Dunham, who was born in Chicago in 1909 and is best known for incorporating Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles and themes...

The online Leonard Bernstein Collection that is part of the Library of Congress American Memory project is rich with a variety of media, including: "Professor Lenny", an essay about Bernstein from the New York Review of Books; many endearing photographs; over 1,100 pieces of correspondence to and from family, friends, and colleagues; 177 scripts from his "Young People's Concerts"; and a timeline...

This beautiful collection from the Library of Congress traces the multitude of cultures and voices that inform American music, from Irish hymns to Indian ragas. Educators will find rich resources on the page, starting with the Educator’s Guide to Songs of America, but also covering topics like Stand Up and Sing: Music and Our Reform History. Click on any of the Featured Items or navigate to...

Possessed with a remarkable voice and a flair for fashion, Celia Cruz was an artist who brought the music of her native Cuba to millions of people around the world for six decades until her death in 2003. Recently, the National Museum of American History created this well-done online exhibit to complement an in situ exhibit that is in place until the end of 2005. The site offers three primary...

Artist colonies have always fascinated the American public, and whether they have been informally organized or not, they seem to provide great opportunities for a variety of collaborations. One of the oldest of these colonies is the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The colony was started in 1907 by the composer Edward MacDowell and his wife Marian, and over the past century it has...

Created through a collaboration between the University of Maine's Fogler Library and other Maine libraries, The Maine Music Box contains hundreds of digitized sheet music scores from five major collections. First-time visitors to the site will want to click on the "About Maine Music Box" project as a way of getting started. Here they can check out the "User Information" area, which contains...

Arguably the most well-known marching band leader of all time, John Philip Sousa's music can be found in a number of likely places, such as 4th of July parades, and a number of less likely places, including the humorous introduction to Monty Python's flying circus. During his long life, Sousa composed hundreds of marches, fifteen operettas, and seventy other separate vocal works. This prodigious...

The Metropolitan Opera (or the "Met", as it is known to many) is perhaps the most well-known and beloved opera company in the United States, and possibly, the world. The website is a mirror onto the world of the Met's numerous opera productions, its history, and the overall portrait of this delightful melding of words, emotions, and song. Visitors will want to start by perusing the "Discover...

In A Tribe Called Quest's hit song, "Can I Kick It," they declare their song as "a rhythm recipe that you'll savior." So, how can their music and other hip-hop hits light a spark for rhymes, rhythm, and similar literary tools? The poetry of hip-hop: A playlist for your classroom offers guidance. This hour-long playlist promises "squeaky clean" tracks (including "Can I Kick It?") for teachers to...