Harold Arlen

Scrawled in pencil on a scrap of yellow legal paper by lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, the artifact is among dozens of treasures from The Wizard of Oz donated by composer Harold Arlen's sister-in-law Rita Arlen.

The KPAC series of more than a decade ago, "The Art of American Popular Song," followed a blueprint laid out by the composer and writer Alec Wilder. His…

It's a sign of the inevitable passage of time that we find ourselves weekly, even daily, bidding farewell to our few remaining links to that great gesture…