The Musical Public Domain in 2025

The Roaring Twenties have finally completely arrived! On 1 January 2025, works published in 1929 entered the public domain in the United States, making publications from the 1920s free to use, at least in the US. In law, the phrase “public domain” refers to works without copyright, usually because copyright...

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The Warsaw Chopin Institute has acquired yet another Chopin autograph

The National Frédéric Chopin Institute (in Polish: Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, abbreviated as NIFC) has acquired a Chopin autograph from the collection of the late Rudolf F. Kallir (1895–1987). The purchase was made possible by the generous support of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The acquired source...

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Goethe’s Muse and Co-Author: Marianne von Willemer

Our RISM A-Z series reaches letter W today and, as so often, we decide in favor of a lady, also with an eye to local history. Marianne von Willemer (born 20 November 1784, Linz (?) – died 6 December 1860, Frankfurt am Main) was an Austrian-born actress and dancer. After...

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Unknown Beethoven sketch leaf acquired by the SLUB Dresden

The Saxon State and University Library (SLUB) has acquired a privately owned Beethoven sketch leaf previously unknown to scholars. It forms part of a small collection (RISM Catalog | RISM Online) that once belonged to the Saxon music teacher Carl Otto Böhme (1807-1874). The Beethoven autograph (D-Dl Mus.4193-T-608, RISM Catalog...

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Looking back on 2024

As in past years, we are using the beginning of a new year to take stock of the previous year and share what was most popular with our website readers. These are the year’s blog posts that were read the most often, according to our website statistics:     The...

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