Scope and Content Note
Materials in the Irving Fine Collection span the period 1930-1993, with the majority dating from 1950 to 1962. The Music series primarily consists of holograph scores and sketches that represent virtually Fine's entire musical output. Among these materials are manuscripts for Alice in Wonderland (1942); The Hour Glass (1949), a song cycle for unaccompanied chorus set to texts by Ben Jonson; Mutability, a song cycle for contralto and piano originally commissioned by the Creative Concerts Guild in 1952; Serious Song (1955), for string orchestra; and Symphony 1962, which was performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra shortly before Fine's death in 1962.
In addition to music manuscripts, the collection contains an assortment of Writings, Photographs, Clippings, Programs, and Scrapbooks, as well as Correspondence from twentieth-century musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Alberto Ginastera, Ned Rorem, William Schuman and others.