Abstract

John Adams (1947-) is an American composer, conductor, and writer. He is the winner of five Grammy Awards and recipient of the 2003 Pultizer Prize for his work On the Transmigration of Souls in tribute to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The collection includes music scores by Adams and others, correspondence, business and financial papers, biographical materials, programs and promotional materials, and clippings.

Abstract

Milton Ager (1893-1979) was an American arranger and composer of popular songs, primarily in the 1920s and 1930s. His notable compositions include the songs, "Everything Is Peaches Down in Georgia," "Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah)," and "Happy Days Are Here Again." The collection chiefly contains scores of Ager's compositions, sketches, and lyrics, as well as a small amount of correspondence.

Abstract Laurindo Almeida was a Brazilian-American guitarist and composer. Often credited for contributions to the development of jazz samba, Almeida was a prolific composer and arranger of music for both classical Spanish guitar and popular guitar. He was an acclaimed recording artist and became the first person to win Grammy Awards for both classical and jazz performances. The collection contains manuscript and printed music, correspondence, publicity materials, photographs, and other items related...

Abstract George Antheil was a composer, pianist, author and inventor. The collection consists of materials related to the professional and personal activities of George Antheil and his wife, Elizabeth (Böske) Antheil. It contains holograph music manuscripts, printed scores, published and unpublished writings, business and personal correspondence, subject files, photographs, programs and promotional materials, scrapbooks, artwork, biographical materials, and memorabilia which document the life of this...

Abstract

Arsis Press was a music publishing company in Washington, D.C., founded by composer Clara Lyle Boone in 1974 to publish music by women composers. The Arsis Press Records include printed music by nearly forty composers, financial records, business papers, and correspondence.

Abstract Luiz Heitor Corrêa de Azevedo (1905-1992) was a Brazilian musicologist, folklorist, educator, and music critic. His papers document his life and career through correspondence, writings, teaching materials, notebooks, research and subject files, photographs, and awards. Correspondence, as well as holograph, facsimile, and inscribed scores, illustrate Azevedo's relationships with twentieth-century composers from South America, North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. His own...

Abstract

Composer, conductor, record producer, and performer Burt Bacharach (1928-2023) wrote hundreds of popular songs, 52 of which were U.S. Top 40 hits, as well as film scores and musicals. His arrangements are known for their unusual instrumentation, shifting meters, and unique chord progressions. The collection contains many of his compositions as well as photographs, correspondence, promotional materials, production files, and awards.

Abstract

Ernst Bacon was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. Largely a self-taught composer, Bacon also became an esteemed administrator and educator, serving as director of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Music Project in 1935 and later as composer-in-residence at Syracuse University from 1947-1963. The collection contains music, writings, correspondence, iconography, programs, clippings, publicity materials, and other miscellaneous items.

Abstract Pearl Bailey was an American singer and actress who established herself as a prominent nightclub entertainer on the East Coast during the mid-twentieth century. She also appeared in several Broadway productions, including House of Flowers and Hello, Dolly! Bailey also starred as Maria in the 1959 filmed production of Porgy and Bess. She later hosted her own televised variety series, the ...

Abstract The Barry Sisters (Merna and Claire Barry) was a popular American Jewish vocal group whose careers as Yiddish jazz singers spanned from the late 1930s through the early 1970s. They made their first recordings on Victor Records, and they performed on the radio and television, at New York's Catskill resort hotels, and toured in the United States and abroad. The collection chiefly documents their musical careers through musical scores, parts, and lead sheets, as well as other related...

Abstract Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson comprised the piano duo Bartlett and Robertson, who were active in the first half of the twentieth century. They met as students at the Royal Academy of Music and married in 1921, forming their piano duo shortly thereafter. The collection includes primarily manuscript music, both newly composed works for piano duet and two-piano transcriptions and arrangements, as well as compositions written by Bartlett and Robertson. Of note are holograph scores of...

Abstract Collection of field documentation, including photographs and field recordings made by Brenda E. F. Beck during her research in the Kongu area of Tamil Nadu, India from 1964-1966. Includes audio recordings of long epic stories and shorter tales, local legends, myths, proverbs, riddles, and songs, including chants, lullabies, devotional songs, wedding songs, and funeral songs. The collection is rich in documentation of oral narrative, especially tied to temple rituals and rites of passage....

Abstract Ellen Bender is an American composer, flutist, and educator who has based her career in Boston, Massachusetts. She was married to composer, flutist, and educator Robert Di Domenica until his death. Bender’s works range from solo compositions (Suite for Flute Solo, 2008) to those for small ensemble (Trio for Flute, Viola, and Piano, 2005) and orchestra (Variations for Orchestra, 1984; The Tragic Triad, 2008). Many of her compositions are written for flute,...

Abstract

Alban Berg (1885–1935) was an Austrian composer and member of the Second Viennese School, along with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, who together advanced atonal and twelve-tone music. The Willi Reich Collection on Alban Berg consists of correspondence between the composer and musicologist Willi Reich (1898-1980), articles and clippings, and printed music for Berg's vocal and instrumental works.

Abstract Irving Berlin was an American lyricist and composer of over 1,200 songs. He was also a music publisher, theater owner, and a founding member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). The collection, which documents all aspects of his life and career, contains music scores, Berlin's handwritten and typewritten lyric sheets, publicity and promotional materials, personal and professional correspondence, photographs, business papers, legal and financial records,...

Abstract

John William "Blind" Boone was a Black composer, concert pianist, and a significant figure in early ragtime music. The collection contains Boone's published works, Charles Dean Humberd's transcriptions of works by or attributed to Boone, and an unfinished biographical article by Humberd.

Abstract

Dudley Buck (born Dudley Buck Jr.) was an American composer, pianist, and organist, as well as founder and director of the Apollo Club, a men's chorus and organization in Brooklyn, New York. This collection consists of correspondence, manuscript and printed music, and biographical materials related to Buck's personal life and career.

Abstract Collection of more than 500 audio recordings, plus digital audio files, video recordings, film, photographs, papers, and ephemera documenting the history of the Caffè Lena coffeehouse, a folk music club and theater in Saratoga Springs, New York, founded by Lena Spencer and Bill Spencer in 1960. The collection includes a large number of live concert performance recordings by folk musicians and singer-songwriters, as well as some theater, storytelling, and poetry performances. The collection...

Abstract Collection of field recordings, photographs, video recordings, a film, and manuscripts created by Roxane Connick Carlisle primarily in Darfur Province and other locations in the Sudan region, which now includes South Sudan, from 1963-1968. The collection also includes photographs of musicians, musical instruments, markets, gardens, buildings, weddings, and wildlife taken in Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda from 1963-1968. Includes field recordings of music of various groups and photographs...

Abstract José María Castro was an Argentine composer, conductor, and cellist. He was a member of the Sociedad del Cuarteto and a co-founder of Grupo Renovación, an avant-garde musical youth movement in Argentina that became the International Society for Contemporary Music’s Argentine Section in 1932. The collection includes musical compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions by Castro; music by others; correspondence; writings; programs; clippings; scrapbooks; personal papers; photographs; and...

Abstract Collection of papers and audiovisual materials representing the life work of ethnomusicologist Vida Chenoweth. Manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, and films mainly of her work with the Usarufa and numerous other people in Papua New Guinea, but culture groups from other places are also represented, including Vanuatu, Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands New Zealand, Kenya, Zaire, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Ghana, South Africa, Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, Sierra Leone,...

Abstract The collection consists of sound recordings, photographs, manuscript materials, videorecordings, publications, ephemera, administrative files, and field notes produced and collected during the 1977 Chicago Ethnic Arts Project field survey from 1976-1981; but primarily during fieldwork conducted by fourteen folklorists directed by the American Folklife Center in 1977. The final project report presented to the Illinois Arts Council summarized the current conditions and folk arts needs in a...

Abstract

George Crumb was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer who was long associated with the University of Pennsylvania. The collection consists of holograph manuscript scores and sketches, correspondence, business papers, subject files, and a series of meticulously assembled scrapbooks that chronicle Crumb's career as a composer.

Abstract Nora Marks Dauenhauer, of Yakutat and Tlingit heritage, along with her husband Richard Dauenhauer, recorded hundreds of personal narratives during the 1960s to the 1980s. Nora was one of a group of Tlingit women who undertook language revitalization during the same period. The collection consists of interviews with Tlingit language speakers in Alaska. The bulk of the recordings were made between the 1960s to the 1980s, some in the 1950s, a few are copies of field recordings made by Frederica...

Abstract

Mario Davidovsky was an Argentine-American composer, teacher, and pioneer in the field of electro-acoustic music. The collection contains music by Davidovsky and other composers, project and business files, correspondence, teaching materials, biographical information, photographs, clippings, promotional materials, and files related to Composers Conference.