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 The collection of American Ballet Caravan Music Scores consists of full scores, parts, piano rehearsal and vocal scores for six ballets, at least two of them unrealized, for Lincoln Kirstein's dance company, which he founded in 1936. Three of the six ballets were commissioned by Kirstein during the Caravan's tour to Latin America in 1941. The works are Pastorela (Paul Bowles); Soirées musicale (Benjamin Britten, arranged for two pianos by Brian Easdale); Estancia (Alberto E. Ginastera);...

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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 ...

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Seymour Barab (1921-2014) was an American composer and performer. He was the founding cellist of the Composer's Quartet of Columbia University and taught at Rutgers University, Black Mountain College, and the New England Conservatory of Music. Barab primarily composed opera and vocal music, especially humorous music and works for young audiences. The collection includes scores, parts, libretti, and sketches, with small amounts of correspondence and ephemera.

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Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born composer, violinist, conductor, and photographer. The collection, which documents his life and work, includes manuscripts (music and lecture material), correspondence, business and financial papers, photographs, programs, promotional material, clippings, writings about Ernest Bloch, personal papers, and printed matter.

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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 Among other accolades, American composer Elliott Carter was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his second and third string quartets. A student of Nadia Boulanger, his works combined American and European styles of modernism, and his compositional style, based around collections of pitches, was later described as musical set theory. Carter was also known for his use of proportional tempo changes, which is referred to by scholars as metric modulation. Carter composed in a...

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 Henry Cowell was an American composer, theorist, writer, pianist, and teacher. A member of the 1920s "ultra-modernists," Cowell's experimental compositions explored a myriad of unusual instrumental techniques and non-Western musical sounds. Works such as The Aeolian Harp (1923), The Banshee (1925), and Mosaic Quartet (1935) are seminal examples of his exploration of 'tone clusters,'...

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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.

Abstract David Diamond was an award-winning American-Jewish composer and prominent symphonist of the mid-twentieth century. A former student of Roger Sessions and Nadia Boulanger, Diamond ultimately composed eleven symphonies and countless other chamber and vocal works, such as his influential Symphony no. 4 (1945), Elegy in memory of Maurice Ravel (1938), and Rounds (1944). His social circle of musical...

Abstract Henry Donch was a musician, conductor, arranger, composer, and educator who lived in Washington, D.C. He led ensembles such as Donch's Band and Donch's Orchestra and taught violin, flute, clarinet, cornet, guitar, and banjo at Georgetown University. The collection is primarily comprised of printed and mansucript sets of parts for society orchestra and band that Donch used with his professional ensembles as they performed at events in the Washington, D.C., area and at summer resorts in the...

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Jerry Valburn was an avid collector of sound recordings and other materials related to Duke Ellington. The Jerry Valburn Collection on Duke Ellington consists of printed music, photographs, programs, promotional material, articles, clippings, and other items. These materials trace Duke Ellington's professional career as a bandleader and his rise as a prominent figure in the development of jazz and its history.

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Selma Epstein (1927-2014) was a concert pianist, teacher, promoter of contemporary music, and champion of 20th-century black and female composers. The collection contains contemporary music scores, many by women and African-American composers, as well as a small amount of clippings and promotional materials.

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Robert Evett (1922-1975) was a composer, arts editor, and critic who made his home primarily in the Washington, D.C., area. This collection contains several scores, sketches, and instrument parts for works composed by Evett; biographical information collected by Evett's family after his death; and his published book and music reviews for the "Atlantic Monthly," "New Republic," and "Washington Star-News."

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Vivian Fine was an American composer, pianist, and educator. The collection primarily consists of Fine's holograph manuscript scores, sketches, and parts for works composed between 1929 and 1993. In addition, the collection contains a small amount of correspondence, programs, and clippings.

Abstract Ross Lee Finney (1906-1997) was a twentieth century American composer and educator. He served on the faculty of Smith College in Massachusetts and as faculty and composer-in-residence at the University of Michigan. His musical education included both classical training and traditional American folk music, both of which directly influenced his compositional style. Finney's music was cateogrized as tonal and melodic and included serial and twelve tone techniques, particularly in his later...

Abstract Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) was a popular and highly-respected American jazz and pop vocalist and recording artist. The Ella Fitzgerald Collection chiefly consists of musical arrangements made for her by more than fifty arrangers and orchestrators. Arrangers whose works are found in this collection include Buddy Bregman, Benny Carter, Frank DeVol, Russ Garcia, Billy May, Marty Paich, Nelson Riddle, and Gerald Wilson. The arrangements consist of a combination of full scores and parts, and are...

Abstract Composer George Gershwin (1898-1937) and his lyricist brother Ira (1896-1983) wrote some of the most significant American popular songs of the first half of the twentieth century. Working with novelist and poet DuBose Heyward, they created the great American opera Porgy and Bess. Additionally, George Gershwin composed several singularly American concert works, including An American in Paris and ...

Abstract Composer George Gershwin (1898-1937) and his lyricist brother Ira (1896-1983) wrote some of the most significant American popular songs of the first half of the twentieth century. After George's untimely death in 1937, Ira worked with many other notable composers and diligently kept his brother's legacy alive. After Ira's death, his wife, Leonore, created the Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Trusts in 1987 to function as a philanthropic fund endowing organizations in areas such as the arts,...

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Don Gillis was an American composer, producer, author, broadcaster, and educator. The collection contains holograph scores, parts, and sketches for Gillis's compositions and arrangements, as well as materials for his book, The Unfinished Symphony Conductor.

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Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and actor. The collection contains materials documenting his life and work, including biographical materials, correspondence, photographs, programs, clippings, business papers, scripts, awards, and honors. The collection also contains music composed by Gordon and others, including manuscript, holograph manuscript, printed, and photocopied scores, lead sheets, parts, and fragments of pieces. Many of the items are annotated.

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American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist. The collection contains music, including holograph and copyist manuscripts, printed scores, orchestral parts, lyric sheets, and sketches of Gould's compositions and arrangements; correspondence; business papers; writings; photographs; scrapbooks; programs and promotional materials related to his career; and financial and legal documents.

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Morton Gould was a composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist. The collection contains materials created by Gould or under his supervision for studio use as well as compositions and arrangements for concert performances, film and television scores, stage works, juvenilia, and sketches. These materials were stored for many years at his principle publisher, G. Schirmer.