OXFORD,
Miss. – The exhibit “Partisan Ditties: The Art of Music Politic,”
featuring facsimiles of political sheet music from the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, is on display Sept. 24-Nov. 23 at the University
of Mississippi Museum.
Co-hosted by the Gertrude C. Ford Center
for the Performing Arts and the museum, the display was given to the
university by the Library of Congress and reflects the library’s
extensive collection of sheet music.
“This is an important part of our musical heritage,” said Norm Easterbrook, Ford Center director. “It comes from an era when someone would have this piece of sheet music, and it was a part of their daily life – it was in their parlor, it was in their piano bench.”
Covers of the sheet music are framed and displayed as pieces of art in themselves. Copies of the compositions’ lyrics and scores will be available to museum visitors.
“The beauty of (this collection) is that it all predates 1923, which puts it in the realm of public domain,” Easterbrook said. “That means that it can be distributed freely – it can be performed, it can be sung. This is something that we hope people will not only come and observe, but be involved with interactively, and be able to have some real fun with it.”
The music is organized into four different categories: war, economy, spin-doctoring and morality. There are 38 music score covers in the collection.
“It’s a fun look into the tradition of the past which has disappeared,” said Albert Sperath, museum director. “There are campaign songs out there contemporarily, but they’re not promoted like these were.”
Sperath pointed out two examples. Both titled “Turn the Rascals Out,” the two songs were used in campaigns by opposing parties in different years. The covers of these two music sheets are featured on the banner for the exhibit, Sperath said.
The idea for this exhibit resulted from a partnership between the Library of Congress and UM’s American Music Archives. The goal of the archives is to take the university’s extensive collection of oral histories, films, special collections and recordings and share it will people both regionally and nationally.
“Through the Music Archives, we basically have most of what is on display in the lobby of the building of the Library of Congress (in Washington, D.C.) here at the University of Mississippi,” Easterbrook said. “We thought it was a fitting thing to do to coincide with the presidential debate,” Once the exhibit closes, the collection will be sheltered in the archives.
University Museum is open 1-4:30 p.m. Sundays and 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Admission is free.
For more information regarding the exhibit or for assistance related to a disability, call 662-915-7473. To learn more about the University Museum, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/u?museum/ .