Library Of Congress Magazine - September/October 2014

technologyAT THE LIBRARYits sibling glass flutes. The research will allowthe Library to care for these rare instrumentswith the most up-to-date preservation methods,provide a new understanding about the place ofLaurent’s flutes in history and enrich the world’sknowledge of 19th-century glass preservation.ANATOMY OF THE FLUTENEW TECHNOLOGY IS SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE STRUCTURE OF EARLY 19THCENTURY GLASS FLUTES HOUSED AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.The Library of Congress holds the largest collection of flutes in the world,due in great measure to the generosity of Ohio physicist and amateur flutistDayton C. Miller (1866-1941). Miller donated his collection of more than1,700 flutes and wind instruments to the Library upon his death.Housed among Miller’s gold, silver, wood and ivory flutes are 18 flutes madeout of glass during the first half of the 19th century by Claude Laurent ofParis. The Library holds nearly half of the approximately 40 glass flutesknown to exist worldwide, in institutions like the Metropolitan Museum, theCorning Museum of Glass and the Smithsonian Institution.Although trained as a clockmaker, Laurent took out a patent for his “crystal”flutes in 1806 and won the silver medal at the Paris Industrial Expositionthat year. Laurent’s flutes, with their intricate cut patterns and ornate jeweledkeys, are also functional instruments. Some were made for heads of state.One such flute, which was crafted in 1813 and presented to James Madisonduring his presidency, is permanently on display at the Library of Congress.The Laurent flutes are the subject of a collaborative research project betweenthe Library’s Music Division and its Preservation Directorate. This crossdisciplinary collaboration is shedding new light on the Madison flute and4LCM Library of Congress MagazineThe sheer number of Laurent’s flutes in theDayton C. Miller Collection makes the Libraryan ideal place for researchers to carry out thiswork, which was prompted by senior curatorof instruments Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford.She observed that some of the flutes wereundergoing subtle changes in appearance andenlisted the help of research chemist LynnBrostoff and conservator Dana Hemmenway.The team is moving forward with an in-depthstudy that seeks to bring to light the remarkablestory behind Laurent’s creation of glass flutes,as well as their current preservation needs. Theirtools include a high-powered microscope andthe use of X-rays to “see” into the glass anddiscover its composition.This glass fluteby Claude Laurent,which was presentedto President JamesMadison in 1813, is onpermanent display atthe Library of Congress.Dayton C. Miller FluteCollection, MusicDivisionLynn Brostoff of thePreservation Directorateand Carol Lynn WardBamford of the MusicDivision perform anX-ray fluorescenceanalysis on a glassflute from the Library’scollections. Abby BrackLewisThe materials analysis carried out thus far byBrostoff has revealed that only two of the 18flutes are, in fact, made of “crystal,” which istechnically leaded glass. The remaining flutesare made of potash glass, so named due tothe presence of potassium from the ash usedin their manufacture. As the study continues,Library researchers—aided by glass chemists atthe Vitreous State Laboratory of The CatholicUniversity of America—will investigate howa new understanding of the materials andmanufacturing methods that Laurent used indifferent flutes may aid in their conservation.Library Junior Fellows Dorie Klein and WilliamSullivan also are assisting in the Library’s effortsby learning more about Laurent, including apossible family connection to the famous Parismaker of cut crystal, Baccarat.“The project is amazing,” said Klein, a historyand museum studies major at Smith College—and a trained glassblower. “Our goal todetermine the structure and significance of theserare flutes is important, both to the Library andto the larger mission of preservation of history.”MORE INFORMATIONDayton C. Miller /item/scdb.200033586Close-up of a glass flute undergoing X-ray analysis Abby Brack LewisAT THE LIBRARYCONCERTS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESSFOUNDED IN 1925, the “Concerts from theLibrary of Congress” series offers a range ofgenres from classical to pop, jazz to country andAmerican to world music. The series is held inthe 485-seat Coolidge Auditorium, consideredto be one of the finest acoustic environments inthe world.WHAT: Library of Congressconcert series and preconcert presentationsWHERE: Unless otherwisenoted, all concerts are held inthe Coolidge AuditoriumCOST: FREE but tickets arerequired for concerts.With a theme of “Beyond Labels,” the 20142015 concert season (October through May)will offer 26 concerts, plus 28 other eventssuch as lectures, films, master classes andconversations with the artists. This year’s seasonwill include performances by Mavis Staples,the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Broadwayicon Jeanine Tesori, tenor Ian Bostridge, pianistPierre Laurent-Aimard and jazz artist EtienneCharles. Also featured are five new Library ofCongress commissions.Concert schedule: loc.gov/concertsTicket information: loc.gov/concerts/tickets.htmlS eptember /O ctober 2014 loc .gov/lcm5

my jobpageAT THE LIBRARYSOLOMONHAILESELASSIECOLUMBUS’“BOOK OF PRIVILEGES”SOLOMON HAILESELASSIE DISCUSSES HIS JOBAS PRODUCTION MANAGER IN THE LIBRARY’SMUSIC DIVISION.“Right beforethe show, wheneverything comestogether—the setis up, the lights areon and the peopleare in the seats—alittle bit of magic iscreated.”– SolomonHaileSelassie6How did you prepare for your current position?I was born and raised in Washington, D.C., andstarted my professional career performing onstage at the age of eight. I studied at the DukeEllington School of the Arts and volunteered inthe offices of the Studio Theatre as a teenager,doing every job from selling tickets to sweepingthe floor. When I returned home to Washingtonfrom Winston-Salem State University inNorth Carolina, I was offered a paid positionat the Studio Theatre as director of audienceservices and special events. It was there that Ireceived my training as a stage manager andproduction manager. I managed more than 1,500performances and a wide range of productions—from Chekov and Stoppard to “Reefer Madness”and “Jerry Springer: The Opera.” My theaterbackground prepared me for my current position,which I assumed in 2008.LCM Library of Congress MagazineAbby Brack LewisHow would you describe your work at theLibrary?The Music Division presents about 30performances and upwards of 50 special eventsthroughout the Library’s annual eight-monthconcert season. As production manager, it’s myjob to maintain the schedules of each production,manage staff and volunteer needs, arrange forthe technical equipment and protect the artisticintegrity of the Library’s prestigious concertseries—now in its 89th season. I am also theresident stage manager and lighting designer.In short, I try to make things pretty and makethings happen. I support the producers to get theshow that they want and introduce more than17,000 patrons each year to performers and musicthey might not normally get to see and hear. Sure,there’s also a lot of carting around water andinstruments, and the work may not be glamorous,but it’s a blast!FROM THE PASTWhat are some of the most memorable Libraryproductions that you’ve managed?The most recent memorable event was theMay 2013 concert honoring Carole King, whoreceived the Library’s Gershwin Prize for PopularSong. To quote her, “This is the most beautifulexperience of my career.” As the lighting and setdesigner for the show, it’s pretty much the reasonI do this work.Another memorable production was the March2012 regional premiere of Samuel Beckett’s rarelyproduced play “Ohio Impromptu.” The eventinaugurated the Dina Koston and Roger ShapiroFund for New Music. It was extra thrilling to beable to take the production to New York for anoff-Broadway run at Classic Stage later that year.What are the biggest challenges?The talent—making them happy and keepingthem on schedule. That’s tough. Everything elseis a piece of cake. But seriously, the work wedo is a dance of spinning plates. Keeping eachone in the air, knowing how fast to spin and,most importantly, when to take one out of theequation. My mentor would always say, “A goodproduction manager knows how to always say‘yes.’ A great production manager knows whento say ‘no.’ ”On Sept. 26, 1493,Pope Alexander VIissued a letter to QueenIsabella I of Castileand her husband, KingFerdinand of Aragon,granting them the rightto claim for Spain futurediscovered lands. Thisletter, pictured at left, isone of 36 original documents that compriseChristopher Columbus’ “Book of Privileges,”recently translated and reproduced bythe Library of Congress in association withLevenger Press.Columbus’ “Book” granted titles, revenues,powers and privileges to the explorer and hisdescendants. The Library of Congress holdsone of three copies written on vellum—theonly one that includes the 1493 letter, knownas the Papal Bull Dudum siquidem. This rarepapal correspondence is thought by somescholars to contain the earliest manuscriptreference to the New World.“‘The Book of Privileges’ is a story ofexploration, bravery, greed, law, the possibilityof vast riches and a high-stakes gambit playedout in newly discovered worlds for historicalimmortality,” said John Hessler, a specialistin cartography and geographic informationscience in the Library’s Geography and MapDivision. “It is the story of a business contractbetween a visionary explorer and the colonialpower of one of the most influential husbandand-wife monarchs ever to rule, and who,during the late 15th and early 16th centuries,exerted their reign over a substantial portionof the then-known world.”The charters and privileges granted toColumbus by the king and queen of Spainwere, at some time, given by the explorerto a scribe or legal notary and copied forsafekeeping. Through that act, history waspreserved.“Christopher Columbus Book of Privileges:The Claiming of a New World” is availablefor 89 in the Library of Congress Shop:888.682.3557S eptember /O ctober 2014 loc.gov/lcm7

Of aMovementBY KATE STEWARTFrom gospel to folk, jazz to R&B, music gavevoice to the social unrest of the 1960s. Songslike “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (the NegroNational Anthem) and “We Shall Not Be Moved”bolstered the spirits and resolve of those at sit-insand on picket lines and may have inspired someon the sidelines to march for equal rights underthe law. Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are AChangin’ ” and Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is GonnaCome” announced the end of the status quo. Butone song—“We Shall Overcome”—became theanthem of the Civil Rights Movement.Folksingers Pete Seeger, Guy Carawan and FrankHamilton registered a copyright on “We ShallOvercome” in 1960 as a derivative work. But8LCM Library of Congress MagazineFrom its origins in gospel to its reinventionin folk music, “We Shall Overcome” becamethe anthem of the Civil Rights Movement.the song is deeply rooted in African-Americangospel hymns. Folklorists have traced it back totwo separate songs: the lyrics from “I’ll OvercomeSome Day” written by the Reverend CharlesTindley in 1903, and the melody from a 19thcentury African-American gospel song called “I’llBe All Right.”According to Seeger, Zilphia Horton, a folk singerand activist from the Highlander Folk School inTennessee, taught him the song when he visitedthe school in 1947. She had heard the song theprevious year when she went to help tobaccoworkers with a labor strike in Charleston, S.C. Shewas struck by the moving simplicity of it and howone picketer, Lucille Simmons, would sing it veryslowly and powerfully. Simmons is credited withchanging the lyrics from “I” to “We.”Horton and Seeger published the song in hisnewsletter “People’s Songs” in 1948, althoughSeeger later thought this published version wasincorrect. He notably changed the lyrics from“We Will Overcome” to “We Shall Overcome.”He also added several new verses, including“We’ll walk hand in hand.”In a July 2011 interview for the Civil RightsHistory Project (a joint project between theLibrary of Congress and the SmithsonianNational Museum of African American Historyand Culture), Seeger remembered his return toHighlander in 1957, where he met Rev. MartinLuther King Jr. for the first time, Rosa Parks andRev. Ralph Abernathy. King gave a short speechand Seeger sang “We Shall Overcome” for thegroup. “What really made the song spread wasGuy Carawan and Frank Hamilton learningto put it in a special kind of rhythm,” recalledSeeger. In 1960, Carawan was asked to teachthe song to participants at a Student NonviolentCoordinating Committee (SNCC) meeting inRaleigh, N.C. Seeger recalled that members ofSNCC adopted the criss-crossing of hands andswaying right to left that often accompanied thesong’s performanceat events like the1963 March onWashington.Columbia RecordsTracing the MusicAs recently as 2012,new informationcame to light on thesong’s origins. Thatyear, Robert AnthonyGoins Shropshire presented Seeger withinformation about the role of his grandmother,Louise Shropshire, in the song’s creation. In1954, Shropshire, the granddaughter of slaves,copyrighted “If My Jesus Wills.” Composedsometime between 1932 and 1942, the songincludes these lyrics: “If my Jesus wills, I dobelieve, I’ll overcome someday.” The Alabamanative held many fundraisers in her Cincinnatihome to support the civil rights struggle. Dr.King often stayed at the home of Shropshireand her husband, a bail bondsman, on theseoccasions. Seeger reportedly observed thatperhaps it was Shropshire who taught the songto Simmons—or perhaps it was the woman hethought of as Lucille Simmons. Shropshire diedin 1993. Her grandson claims her final wordswere, “Someday, somebody’s gonna do somethingwith all my music.”Background: “WeShall Overcome” songsheet Ludlow Music,Inc., Music DivisionA performance of“We Shall Overcome”at the Newport FolkFestival, July 1963,featured from left,Peter Yarrow, MaryTravers, Noel PaulStookey (Peter, Paul& Mary), Joan Baez,Bob Dylan, The SNCCFreedom Singers(Bernice Johnson,Cordell Reagon, RuthaHarris, Charles Neblett),Pete Seeger andTheodore Bikel. JohnByrne CookeKate Stewart is the archivist for the Civil Rights History Project in the American Folklife Center.S eptember /O ctober 2014 loc .gov/lcm9

AKING OFCE: THE MNADGINTNEMDOCUDCOLLABORATEE INDIVIDUALSBLKAATARMETRELLFA GROUP OE-WINNING BAPULITZER PRIZTO PRESENT AF CONGRESS.THE LIBRARY Od at the LibrarySpring” debuteanhitacalpp“Ahenthe one-act balleOct. 30, 1944,onsiaesgranlvonsyCofral Pennstor y. Set in rumade dance hilic stor y ofidecentur y, th ylth19ethngriduhouse evoked atheir first farmginat warildbusednewlywaled to a nationpeapattheacd plntinuedsimpler time anthe ballet has coa,anicermAinsince itsabroad. Rootedng the 70 yearsridusceendih auto resonate witce.anmorrffirst pees, each at theral creative forcveseofencueto the work’sThe conflkey ingredientaise,mgareiand dancertop of thchoreographeredudkins;clineesrtner Erick Hawsuccess. Thpaencdarhem andand set designerMartha Grahaland and artistopicConarArvotal role: muscomposehers played a piotedutonB.siishimucmogwho coIsamu Ngue Coolidge,raSphetf,ieabchlizpatron Eic Divisione Library ’s Musesario.the work, and thserved as imprhow,keacivSpHaroldNAIHCALWAPPAGNIRSPBY RAYMOND WH10LCM Library of Congress MagazineITEThering,” 1944 ppalachian Sp“AinlelonnnDivisiand May O'Dollection, MusicMartha GrahamFoundation CogeidolCoeguring” on theElizabeth Sprappalachian Sp“AsrmrfopempanyThe Elizabethaham Dance Co torium on Oct. 30, 1944.The Martha Grdige Aubrary’s Coolidusic Divisionstage of the LiCollection, MntiodaunFoidgeSprague CoolS eptember /O ctober 2014 loc .gov/lcm11

RESEARCHING THE DANCEDocumentation of the genesisand premier performance of“Appalachian Spring” remainsavailable for scholarship in thecollections of the Library’s MusicDivision. These items includeGraham’s original scenarios,Copland’s sketches and completedscores, correspondence amongthe key collaborators, photographsfrom the original production at theLibrary and documentation fromsubsequent productions of thework by the Martha Graham DanceCompany.1946 photograph ofAaron Copland in hisstudio Victor Kraft,The Aaron CoplandCollection, MusicDivisionLetter from MarthaGraham to AaronCopland, July 22,1943 The AaronCopland Collection,Music DivisionThe story behind the original commission of “Appalachian Spring”began in June 1942 with an idea of Hawkins, a Graham companydancer (and Martha Graham’s future husband). He wrote to Librarybenefactor Coolidge, suggesting she commission work by the renownedchoreographer and dancer Graham.Mrs. Coolidge, whose 150th birthday will be celebrated with a concert atthe Library on Oct. 30, 2014, was a composer and pianist. Although hermusical interests were extremely wide-ranging, her greatest musical lovewas chamber music, and her chief musical passion was the compositionand performance of new works in the Library’s concert auditorium, builtwith her financial support. Since its establishment in 1925, the CoolidgeFoundation has commissioned more than 100 works in various musicalgenres, including four ballets. “Appalachian Spring” is by far the most wellknown and most significant of Mrs. Coolidge’s Library commissions.Graham came to prominence in the 1930s as director and, often, as aprincipal dancer of her own company. From 1934 on, the woman knownas “the mother of modern dance” relied almost entirely on original scoreswritten for her dances (as opposed to creating choreography for preexisting music). However, she was limited in the choice of composers forher commissions by a perennial shortage of available funds. Thus, whenpresented with the prospect of a program of new works with scores bycomposers of the first rank and commissioned by the Coolidge Foundation,Graham wrote to Mrs. Coolidge with excitement: “It makes me feel thatAmerican dance has turned a corner, it has come of age.”The idea took hold, and prompted a flurry of correspondence amongCoolidge, Graham and Spivacke. Graham was officially commissioned tocreate the choreography and Copland to compose one of the scores.12LCM Library of Congress MagazineBy the early 1940s, Copland was widely regarded as thedean of American composers. He was hailed for works ina variety of genres, many of which are still regularly playedtoday, including his “A Lincoln Portrait,” “El Salón México”and ballets “Billy the Kid” and “Rodeo.” In his letter toMrs. Coolidge in reply to the offer of the commission,Copland said, “I have been an admirer of MarthaGraham’s work for many years and I have more than oncehoped that we might collaborate.”Martha Grahamand Erick Hawkins inthe first production of“Appalachian Spring,”1944 The ElizabethSprague CoolidgeFoundation Collection,Music DivisionAlthough he is best remembered as an eminent musiclibrarian and administrator, Spivacke was a key force inbringing “Appalachian Spring” to the Library’s stage.When Mrs. Coolidge expressed concern that her firstchoice composers might be unwilling to accept hercommissioning fee of 500, Spivacke encouraged her tomake the offer regardless, arguing that Graham’s reputation wouldserve as adequate enticement.The original schedule was for the premiere performances to be held in1943, but for a variety of reasons the concert was delayed. It was Spivackewho pressed Graham and the three composers for progress reports, andhe ultimately suggested rescheduling the concert for Oct. 30, 1944—Mrs.Coolidge’s 80th birthday.Mrs. Coolidge left it to Graham to devise the ballet scripts. Grahamultimately supplied the initial story line and scenario for what would become“Appalachian Spring” for Copland. Letters between Graham and Coplandreveal the give-and-take between choreographer and composer that resultedin the final course of the ballet.Its evocation of simple frontier life appealed to Copland and, in the wordsof Coolidge biographer Cyrilla Barr, “drew from him some of his bestexpressions of Americana in the form of hymnlike melodies and fiddletunes, ending appropriately with variations on the Shaker hymn tune‘Simple Gifts.’ ”S eptember /O ctober 2014 loc .gov/lcm13

At long last, and more than a year laterthan its originally scheduled prem

Library of Congress Magazine . is issued . bimonthly by the Office of Communications of the Library of Congress and distributed free of charge to publicly supported libraries and research institutions, donors, academic libraries, learned societies and allied organizations in the United States. Research institutions and