The Saga of L'Oseau-Lyre

In a recent trip to the Library of Congress, I was able to make a few more discoveries about the interaction that Louise B.M. Hanson Dyer had with the music librarians there.

Copyright Office Catalogue, Library of Congress
photo credit Elina G. Hamilton


An article which I quote below ("The Lyrebird Press-Paris," Notes, second series, vol. 3, no. 2 (1946)) indicated that at some point before WWII there was an exhibition of Louise's publications at the Library of Congress. After emailing a librarian to inquire about the matter, I was delighted to hear that in the letter collection retained by the Music Division were a pile of letters written between Louise and the heads of music, as well as the copyright office. I am in the process of transcribing these for a short article I hope to produce in the near future. Between the 'Mystery of the lost 140 LP recordings,' a 'Professor "X",' the scandal of transferring the Laborde Manuscript to Europe (which never happened), and the hardship of negotiation before and after the war, the letters reveal great effort by Louise who tried to keep her publication business afloat.

The exhibition of her publication seems to have been a part of an evening concert of chamber music that took place on 30 October, 1936. Interestingly, Louise was actually present at the first exhibition of her works which seems to have been well received at the time and the brief article in Notes was in fact a partial marketing ploy to sell her editions.

I have now the autumn and winter months to finalize my transcriptions and gather more information to write about one of the 20th-century's greatest Patroness/entrepreneur publishers of music.

In the meantime, a beautiful image of the cover art for her publication catalogue...

Catalogue for L'Oiseau-Lyre Publications (1936), Library of Congress
photo credit Elina G. Hamilton