Welcome to the Atlantic Chapter of the Music Library Association (AtMLA)

Join us for a Sheet Music of the Musical Theater Transcribe-a-Thon Event

The Atlantic Chapter of the Music Library Association (AtMLA) invites you to a transcribe-a-thon from the Library of Congress sheet music collections! Details below.

 

Senior Music Reference Specialist, Cait Miller of the Music Division at the Library of Congress, will be our guest speaker. Cait has been extensively involved with the By the People Campaign and will provide an introduction to kick things off! 

Date: Saturday, April 13, 2024, 1-4 pm

Location: Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library (MSPAL), University of Maryland

8270 Alumni Drive

College Park, MD 20742

 

RSVP by Sunday, March 31, 2024 at https://forms.gle/Uo2ok7f8GBQcVWdH9 

 

Instruction and snacks will be provided– all you need to do is bring your own laptop and come ready to explore historical musical theater sheet music!

 

Don’t have a laptop? The UMD libraries can provide a very limited number of laptops to borrow. Desktop computers are also available. Please request this in the Google form.

 

Can’t make it to the event? You can transcribe sheet music right now, without an account! Go to https://crowd.loc.gov/campaigns/musical-theater/ We will also be planning other events within the Atlantic Chapter region– stay tuned!

 

About the campaign: By the People invites you to transcribe, review, and tag digitized pages from the Library’s collections. Everyone is welcome to take part! Volunteer-created transcriptions improve search, readability, and access to handwritten and typed documents for everyone. https://crowd.loc.gov/about/ 

 

About Sheet Music of the Musical Theater: Explore more than 16,000 pieces of sheet music published between 1880 and 1922. These piano-vocal selections come from musicals, revues and operettas primarily of the American and British stage. In this campaign we aim to transcribe nearly all text found in the sheet music selections, including lyrics, advertisements, and cover text. Transcribers will encounter songs by some of the best-known composers and lyricists in American popular music history such as Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and more. Women composers and lyricists such as Anne Caldwell, Rida Johnson Young, and Mabel Daniels are represented in the campaign, as well as trailblazing creative artists who shaped black musical theater like Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, and Will Marion Cook. American Yiddish Theater is also showcased with selections by notable composers Isidore Lillian, Joseph Rumshinsky, and Sholom Secunda. From the sheet music in this campaign, one can view attitudes towards relationships, new inventions (such as automobiles), places around the world, leisure activities, and popular topics of the day. The cover art is also an important resource for commercial art of the period.

 

Content Advisory: Because of potentially offensive and racist language and views, which reflect both their time and circumstances, this transcription project may not be suitable for all volunteers. https://crowd.loc.gov/campaigns/musical-theater/ 

 

Directions and Parking: Park in the Stadium Garage across the street from MSPAL. Remember your spot number, and pay at parking meters located at either end of the garage on the 1st floor. Enter the building near the roundabout, or follow the signs. 

https://www.lib.umd.edu/visit/libraries/mspal