The Nation - News from Sept. 1, 1988

The Library of Congress said it has received a major gift of several thousand documents written by composers, musicians and literary figures dating to the 12th Century, including handwritten musical scores by Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin and Felix Mendelssohn. The library said the bequest from Hans Moldenhauer, a Spokane, Wash., pianist, teacher and musicologist who died last October, was the greatest composite gift ever to its music division, whose collection already contained more than 8 million items. The bequest, received in July, represents the bulk of Moldenhauer’s collection, which the library described as “one of the greatest archives of musical primary source materials ever assembled.”