Scope and Content Note
The Harold Spivacke Collection spans the years 1923 to 1984, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1930 to 1978. The collection reflects the life of a musicologist, music librarian, and administrator of the Music Division of the Library of Congress. It includes his doctoral dissertation and student notebooks, correspondence with composers and colleagues in the fields of musicology and librarianship, awards and honorary degrees, manuscript and printed music, programs, clippings, artwork, photographs, and papers and printed matter from his numerous associations.
The Correspondence series contains both personal and business-related correspondence, dating from 1924 to 1984. The correspondence spans his adult life and reflects his friendships with musicologists, librarians, and musicians. It includes letters from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Gertrude Clarke Whittall, Jascha Heifetz, Leonard Bernstein (photo-greeting cards), Aaron Copland, Carl Engel, Otto Kinkeldey, Luigi Dallapiccola, Dayton C. Miller, Isaac Stern (photo-greeting cards), Riccardo Malipiero, Roy Harris, Elie Siegmeister, Higini Anglès, Richard Angell, Igor Stravinsky, and many other notable figures from the worlds of music and music librarianship. There is extensive correspondence with the composer Alberto Ginastera, the music critic Olin Downes, and Fritz Oberdörffer, a friend from Spivacke's student days in Berlin who Spivacke assisted in his efforts to leave Germany around the time of the Second World War.
The Writings series contains representative material from Spivacke's studies at the University of Berlin, his dissertation Über die objektive und subjektive Tonintensität (Beyond Objective and Subjective Tonal Intensity), and student notebooks. Other materials include essays, notes for speeches and presentations, writings about Spivacke by others, and a number of articles and essays dealing with music.
The Photographs series includes official and professional photoprints of Spivacke, notable individuals, and friends and family. There are photoprints, some of which are signed, of Gertrude Clarke Whittall, Patrick Saul, Olin Downes, Otto Kinkeldey, Alberto Ginastera, Ira Gershwin, Percy Grainger, and several performing groups, including the Budapest and London string quartets. In addition, there are photographs of Albert and Alfred Einstein, Eugen d'Albert, family portraits of Spivacke with his wife Rose Marie, and a large number of scenic shots of Spivacke's home and from trips to Europe, including two photo albums dating from 1929-1930.
The Artwork series includes small watercolors by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, a charcoal portrait of Spivacke from 1929 by George Beline, and a reproduction of a charcoal portrait of Spivacke's first wife, Carolyn Le Fèvre, also by Beline. The Music series includes holograph scores inscribed to Harold Spivacke and signed by Luigi Dallapiccola and Riccardo Malipiero. Other materials in the collection include printed programs from various concerts, clippings and other printed matter, numerous awards and medals, and a few financial and legal papers, primarily dating from his days in Germany.
Arielle J. Siebert and Wilda M. Heiss, 1995-1996