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Music

Illustration of the cat piano from 1657.

Music or Animal Abuse? A Brief History of the Cat Piano

In the early 1800s, the katzenklavier was hailed as a treatment for distracted people

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Latest National Report Card Shows Little Student Improvement in Music and Art

This is the third time that the National Center for Educational Statistics has assessed eight-graders in music and visual arts

The "Black Sunday" dust storm was 1,000 miles long and lasted for hours. It blacked out the sky, killed animals, and even blinded a man.

This 1000-Mile Long Storm Showed the Horror of Life in the Dust Bowl

In the American history of extreme weather events, ‘Black Sunday’ sticks out

Naomi Weisstein was a feminist activist, a neuropsychologist and, for a brief time, a rock 'n roll musician.

This Feminist Psychologist-Turned-Rock-Star Led a Full Life of Resistance

Naomi Weisstein fought against the idea of women as objects in both the fields of psychology and rock ‘n roll

April 25, 2017, marks the centennial birthday of Ella Fitzgerald (above, in a triple-exposure undated photograph).

Women Who Shaped History

Never Mind Her Stellar Jazz Career, Young Ella Fitzgerald Just Wanted to Dance

The preeminent vocalist didn’t actually start out as a singer

"Straight Outta Compton" just landed a spot in the National Recording Registry.

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N.W.A., NPR Among This Year’s National Recording Registry Inductees

The latest class of 25 also includes Judy Garland and Vin Scully

John Cohen photographs a young Bob Dylan playing his guitar and harmonica in New York City in 1962.

Bob Dylan Will (Finally) Collect his Nobel Prize for Literature

But the songwriter won’t be delivering a Nobel Lecture at this time

Chuck Berry's Eldorado Cadillac in the National Museum of African American History and Culture

How Chuck Berry’s Cadillac and His Guitar, Maybellene, Came to the Smithsonian

Curator Kevin Strait from the African American History Museum details the day he met the great musician

Adolphe Sax made this alto saxophone in 1857, long after he had switched to brass. The sax is still a woodwind instrument, though.

The First Saxophone Was Made of Wood

The instrument was invented by–you guessed it–Adolphe Sax

Did Catherine Parr Write a Propaganda Song for Henry VIII?

‘Gaude gloriosa Dei mater,’ purportedly penned by the king’s sixth wife, will be performed in London for the first time in more than 470 years

Frescoes inside the Brömserhof, the building where Siegfried's Mechanical Musical Instrument Museum is housed.

Europe

This Medieval Knight’s Manor Houses Over 350 Mechanical Musical Instruments

From tiny music boxes to the bus-sized Orchestrion, Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet in Germany’s Rhineland is the perfect musical detour

Lou Reed graffiti in France is a reminder of the rock star's international infuence.

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Lou Reed’s Papers Have Found a Home

The vicious Velvet Underground frontman will live on at the New York Public Library

“Music is a way of looking at someone in a different way,” says ethnomusicologist Ben Harbert. “You see them as a singer, not a prisoner.”

Finding Music Behind Prison Bars

At the Louisiana State Penitentiary and at a maximum-security prison in Malawi, the benefits of music are far-reaching

Playing the flute isn't easy even for some humans, but in the 18th century, inventor Jacques de Vaucanson figured out how to make a machine play it.

This Eighteenth-Century Robot Actually Used Breathing to Play the Flute

It was one of a trio of automata that had functions like living creatures

The Original Dixieland Jass Band included cornetist Nick LaRocca, trombonist Eddie Edwards, clarinetist Larry Shields, pianist Henry Ragas, and drummer Tony Sbarbaro.

The First Jazz Recording Was Made by a Group of White Guys?

A century ago, a recording of the startlingly novel “Livery Stable Blues” helped launch a new genre

Interior of Historic RCA Studio B today.

Play Paul Simon’s Piano or Croon Into Elvis’ Mic at These Seven Historic Recording Studios

Take a tour through Americana music history

Now on display in the museum’s “Musical Crossroads” exhibition, the boombox is a striking symbol of the early years of hip-hop.

The Ballad of the Boombox: What Public Enemy Tells Us About Hip-Hop, Race and Society

Thirty years after Public Enemy’s debut album, the group’s sonic innovation and powerful activism resonate powerfully today

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield

The Soprano Who Upended Americans’ Racist Stereotypes About Who Could Sing Opera

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was in many ways the nation’s first black pop star

In the summer of 1946, Holocaust survivors lent their voices to the "Henonville Songs," which psychologist David Boder recorded on this wire spool.

Spool of “Holocaust Songs” Found in Mislabelled Container

The “Henonville Songs” are being heard for the first time in 70 years

Vera Lynn performing a lunchtime concert at a munitions factory in 1941.

WWII Songstress Croons Her Way to Age 100 With a New Album

Dame Vera Lynn “the Forces’ Sweetheart” will make the history books with the release

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