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 >[log in to unmask]