Just want to remind you to beware of copyright!  If you play music directly
off of a CD purchased in a store, that constitutes illegal "public per-
formance" and ASCAP will get you.  Don't think they won't, either, since
they took after the Girl Scouts for singing "Happy Birthday" around the
campfire!

Claudia

In article <[log in to unmask]>, Christine Mouw
<[log in to unmask]> says:
>
>>>> John B. Bunch <[log in to unmask]> - 10/9/96 10:19
>AM >>>
>Query:  Anyone have anything of interest to address the question of
>how/why/what kinds of music is instructionally or thematically
>fitting to exhibits?  If you use it, what were the criteria for doing
>so?  For selecting the particular music?
>And what have been the visitor reactions, if any?
>John Bunch
>****************
>Dear John:
>
>We've used music in several of our temporary exhibits and have it in
>our permanent galleries as well.  We pick interesting music from the
>time period that is performed on original instruments, or try to get
>original recordings.  For instance, for our Civil War exhibit, our
>curator chose a recording of a tune called "Aura Lee."  It was an
>interesting song because it was the tune Elvis used for "Love Me
>Tender."  However, it is always a good idea to include a variety of
>tunes, because even though the visitors liked it,  after 7 months, we
>had very irritable security guards.
>
>Next spring, we're doing an exhibit on the 1950s and our AV archivist
>found a set of CDs of 50s music.  We'll choose from that, and he'll
>rig up an old, broken juke box to play the CDs.  I believe that there
>are catalogs of this music.  If you're interested, I can look into it
>for you.
>
>One concern in the galleries is the volume of the music (this is more
>true of videos, though).  We have docents who complain if the music or
>video is too loud to talk over, but many of our elderly "visitors"
>(and I choose this word with care) can't hear if the volume is too
>low.  It's hard to make everyone happy, but I think the music adds
>quite a bit to create an atmosphere.
>
>Christine Mouw
>Assistant Curator
>Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum
>West Branch, Iowa  52358
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