Scope and Content Note
The papers of Louise Talma span the years 1861-1998 with the bulk of the material dating from 1906 to 1994. The papers are in English and French and are organized into the following series: Music, Harmony and Teaching Materials, Correspondence, Files, Photographs, Biographical and Family History Materials, and Miscellany. The Music materials span the period 1875 to 1996, with the majority dating from 1928 to 1994 and consist chiefly of holograph manuscript scores, sketches, tone rows, and photo-reproduced manuscripts bearing annotations in the composer's hand. Many works are accompanied by errata, correspondence, programs, notes, and other items of interest. Talma's tendency to date sketches and manuscripts at different stages in her creative process is useful for tracing her compositional shift from neoclassicism to serialism and atonality. Her final work, Spacings (1994), was completed at Yaddo only two years before her death and marked the end of a nearly seventy-year career as a composer. Notable manuscripts in the collection include holograph scores for the opera The Alcestiad (1958) and the oratorio The Divine Flame (1946-1948), Four-Handed Fun (1943), Piano Sonata no. 1 (1943), and her award-winning Toccata for Orchestra (1944).
Talma also possessed a variety of music manuscripts from other composers, many of whom she met while at Fontainebleau, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. Her close relationship with Lukas Foss is evident by the significant quantities of inscribed holograph scores that the composer gave to Talma throughout the 1940s and 1950s. These include his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra no. 2 (1949-1951), Fantasy Rondo (1944-1945), The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1949), Psalms (1956), and Song of Songs (1946). The collection also contains holograph scores by Leonard Bernstein, Norman Dello Joio, and Irving Fine, as well as an 1875 printed edition of Karl Goldmark's Symphony no. 1 inscribed by Marian MacDowell to Talma.
The study and teaching of harmony and composition was a lifelong pursuit for Talma. The Harmony and Teaching Materials series contains notebooks, exercises, lecture notes, and other course materials dating from 1922 to 1977 and culminating with drafts of her co-authored monograph, Functional Harmony (1971). The most significant of these materials reflect nearly a decade of her classes and studies with Nadia Boulanger from the late 1920s-1930s. Talma's notebook subjects include composition, counterpoint, pedagogy, history of music, harmony, keyboard harmony, and fugue. These have been arranged chronologically where possible, although there is a substantial amount of undated material that may be related to her formative years at Fontainebleau. Of particular interest are notes for Boulanger's 1938 harmony course and Talma's extensive summaries for Boulanger's lectures on music history.
Correspondence in the collection is divided into two subseries: general and family. General correspondence includes letters, telegrams, postcards, greeting cards, notes, and other communications from a wide range of people: composers, performers, colleagues, publishers, organizational representatives, friends, and students. Among musical and literary personalities, substantial quantities of letters are present for Nadia Boulanger, Lukas Foss, Claudio Spies, and Thornton and Isabel Wilder. Other notable correspondents include Leonard Bernstein, Elliott Carter, Theodore Chanler, Arthur Cohn, Doda Conrad, Aaron Copland, Walter Damrosch, Norman Dello Joio, David Diamond, Irving Fine, Nikolai Lopatnikoff, Marian MacDowell, Isidor Philipp, Daniel Pinkham, Walter Piston, Guiomar Novaes Pinto, Ned Rorem, William Schumann, Charles Seeger, Leo Smit, Isaac Stern, Igor Stravinsky, Ernst Toch, Rosalyn Tureck, and Virgil Thomson. Lesser-known friends of Talma for whom copious amounts of letters exist include Clarence and Marie Brodeur, Annette Dieudonne (Boulanger's secretary), Lucy Hubbell, Gladys Huss, and Eleanor Venables.
Family correspondence consists chiefly of letters to and from the children of Henry Jacques Garrigues and Louise Reimer Garrigues (Talma's grandparents). These materials present a fascinating history of a family with an educated female line of musicians, including Talma's mother (Alma Bertha Cecile Garrigues i.e. Cecile Talma), great aunt (Eleanor Garrigues Ferguson), and first cousin once removed (Lydia Ferguson). Although some of these letters are addressed specifically to Louise Talma, a larger portion of them are between other family members. Talma communicated frequently with her mother and was devastated by her death in 1942, an event that generated some discussion as to her mental health and well-being. The Garrigues family history is challenging to navigate. Researchers are strongly advised to examine the family trees in the collection's Biographical and Family History Materials series and consult photographs of the family members as an aid in using these materials.
The Files series contains mostly assorted materials grouped together under subject headings. These may include business papers, institutional records, correspondence, financial documents, clippings, publicity materials, and other items of general interest. Folders for specific personalities consist mostly of clippings and programs related to that individual's performances or media headlines. Files for Fontainebleau, The MacDowell Colony, and Hunter College are significantly larger than others and contain papers detailing Talma's administrative activities with those institutions, as well as historical brochures and other ephemera. Photographs in the collection are divided into four subseries: Louise Talma and Nadia Boulanger; composers, performers, and other people; miscellaneous subjects; and family. The majority of Talma's personal photographs document her activities in Europe between the early 1920s and late 1940s. Featured are portraits of Talma, scenic images of Fontainebleau and Paris, Nadia Boulanger, group portraits of music classes, and various candid photographs of social gatherings, friends, and Talma's living quarters. Notable composers and performers are indentified in the container list wherever possible. The family photographs mainly document the history and activities of the Garrigues family. Most are undated and unlabeled. Included as well are several photographs of Thomas G. Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia and a relative of Talma.
The Biographical and Family History Materials series contains personal effects, writings, programs, awards, and other items pertaining to the lives of Talma and her various family members. Talma constantly refined her resumé and work lists, the drafts of which form a comprehensive picture of her career output. These are augmented by Robert Fertitta's 1975 thematic catalog of Talma's works. Highlights among the family materials are Eleanor Garrigues Ferguson's music lesson ledgers, programs for joint performances by Louise and Cecile Talma, and some rare literary materials that chronicle the life of Thomas G. Masaryk. The final Miscellany series rounds up materials owned or possibly used by Talma, including artwork, inscribed items, and a box of periodicals and miscellaneous clippings of interest.