Scope and Content Note
The Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Papers span the period 1822-1998, with the majority of the materials dating from 1920-1968. The collection includes holograph and copyist music manuscripts, printed music, libretti, writings, personal and family correspondence, business papers, photographs, programs, reviews, biographical materials, film music materials, and an assortment of books owned by the composer.
"Music" consists chiefly of holograph or copyist manuscripts and printed scores of Castelnuovo-Tedesco's compositions and arrangements. Many of these scores, especially the photocopied manuscripts, contain pencil or ink annotations in the hand of the composer. Works with opus numbers are distinguished from those without numbers and instrumentation is identified wherever possible. Much of this supplementary descriptive information is taken from the Catalogue of Works by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco by Nick Rossi. Included among the manuscripts are scores by students of Castelnuovo-Tedesco and various other composers, including Vittorio Rieti, Fernando Liuzzi, and Miklos Rozsa. Researchers are also encouraged to examine additional Castelnuovo-Tedesco manuscript materials in the Library of Congress that are closely affiliated with those from this collection. Nearly two hundred holograph scores deposited by the composer and his wife prior to 1979 are cataloged in ML96.C34, while other materials are located in the Jascha Heifetz Collection (ML31.H4a) and the Moldenhauer Archives (ML31.M6). Detailed references to these works are provided in the container list.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco's working scripts for operas, oratorios, ballets, incidental music for plays, and song cycles are arranged by opus number or title under "Libretti." Most of these materials are original adaptations of other texts: plays and poetry by Shakespeare, Savonarola, Wilde, and Alfieri, as well as the Bible. There is also a collection of texts for his abandoned Reconstruction Symphony. Scripts for films are located with the "Film music materials" series. "Writings" indexes Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s published and unpublished literary works, as well as numerous substantial pieces about him by other authors. It includes drafts of books Una vita di musica, La penna perduta, and Under the Sign of Orpheus, as well as articles, essays, lectures, program notes, interviews, work lists, and musings on a variety of musical subjects. La sua fede, a bound volume of interviews with Clara Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and a revised, annotated copy of the Rossi Catalogue are standouts among the various writings about the composer.
"Correspondence" is categorically designated as "general" or "family," with the former arranged alphabetically within by correspondent. The general file chiefly contains letters to Castelnuovo-Tedesco or members of his family, with occasional attached drafts or copies of the composer's own letters. Notable correspondents include Ernest Bloch, Jascha Heifetz, Hans Moldenhauer, Ildebrando Pizzeti, Andrés Segovia, Arturo Toscanini, and many others. The largest of these files consists of letters between conductor and scholar Nick Rossi and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, as well as his family. Researchers are also advised to examine ML94 for additional letters between the composer and Pizzeti, Ernst Toch, Darius Milhaud, and others. Castelnuovo's handwritten logs of correspondence from 1947-1968 (box 128, folder 27) are especially useful points for departure. Family correspondence contains letters both to and from parents Amedeo and Noemi, sons Pietro and Lorenzo, wife Clara, and other extended family members and friends. Correspondence from Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco appears first under each heading.
"Business papers" are chiefly files related to publishers, concert agents, recording companies, and film studios, arranged alphabetically by corporate name. Materials include contracts, correspondence, royalty statements, and receipts. A substantial portion of this material is between Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s heirs and the publishers. "Photographs" portray diverse experiences from the lives of various Castelnuovo-Tedesco family members. These images are loosely arranged by date, subject, or opus number. Included are portraits of Castelnuovo-Tedesco, snapshots of the composer with distinguished musical personalities (Cesar Cui, Walter Gieseking, Jascha Heifetz, and Igor Stravinsky), and production photographs from The Merchant of Venice, Aucassin et Nicolette, The Song of Songs, and other stage works.
Concert performances by Castelnuovo-Tedesco and performances of his works by others are documented in "Programs." Many are annotated by performers or include attached reviews. These programs continue for nearly thirty years after Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s death, culminating in the 1995 centenary concerts. Although the majority are arranged chronologically, a small subset are organized by performer or subject. "Reviews" contains clippings, telegrams, promotional materials, and other documents associated with performances of specific opus-numbered works. There are also several small scrapbooks related to particular works or concert tours, such as Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s 1924 concert tour as an accompanist to singer Solomiya Krushel'nytska. Similar documents are also found in the "Merchant of Venice materials," a series of subject files directly related to the work's 1961 and 1966 staged productions.
"Biographical materials" is a topical array of financial, educational, military, and other personal documents related to Castelnuovo-Tedesco and his family members. It contains correspondence regarding the composer's emigration from Italy to the United States in 1939, including letters to Mussolini, D’Annunzio, and Alessandro Pavolini. Also included are naturalization papers, passports, datebooks, address books, lists of students, newspaper clippings, and notebooks from Castelnuovo-Tedesco's days as a student in Italy. "Film music materials" is a subject file of assorted scripts and materials, some annotated, related to motion pictures for which Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed music. The final series, "Bound materials owned by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco," contains annotated, inscribed, or specially bound books and scores that belonged to the composer.