Abstract

Lucille "Sweets" Preston (1921-2020), a dancer at the Cotton Club and member of the vaudeville comedic duo Slim & Sweets, was an intimate partner of jazz legend Louis Armstrong beginning in the early 1950s. This collection consists of correspondence, photographs, and other materials formerly owned by their daughter Sharon Preston-Folta. The items document both the relationsip between "Satchmo" and Lucille Preston as well as Preston's colleagues in the entertainment industry.

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 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

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.

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

Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. The Etelka Freund Collection on Béla Bartók consists chiefly of correspondence between the composer and pianist Etelka Freund (1879-1977), and printed music for his early works, some of which are annotated. Additional materials include photographs, clippings, programs, publicity materials, and journal articles that document Bartók’s professional activities.

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,...

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Yearbooks and championship programs of local and international drum corps organizations.

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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.

Abstract Anthony Braxton (b. 1945) is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, and teacher known for his innovative work in avant-garde music, improvisation, and jazz. His papers contain scores and parts for his musical compositions beginning in 1968, including the completed portions of the Trillium opera complex, as well as extensive writings that detail the philosophical frameworks of his music. The collection also contains materials from courses that Braxton...

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

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was an Italian composer. The collection, which consists of materials related to his professional and personal activities, includes holograph music manuscripts, printed scores, libretti, writings, correspondence, business papers, photographs, programs, and clippings.

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...

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The Edward Cogan Correspondence documents aspects of Cogan's career as leader of the Hill Billy Boys, a young, New Jersey-based mountain music band that performed on Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour and did tours for Major Bowes from 1935 to 1936. Correspondence is primarily between Edward Cogan and his family, friends, and associates.

Abstract

Dr. Cyrilla Barr (1929-2021) was a musicologist, author, and educator. The collection includes articles, correspondence, notes, photographs, and programs for the biography she published in 1998, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge: American Patron of Music .

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 Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975) was an Italian composer known for his twelve-tone compossitions. The collection contains Dallapiccola's correspondence with Margaret (Peggie) Dwight, including more than 300 letters (written mostly in French) as well as postcards and telegrams. In addition, there are more than 200 articles and programs relating to Dallapiccola's career, most of them collected during those years. The collection also includes a few of Dallapiccola's holograph music manuscripts,...

Abstract Includes biographical materials, correspondence, writings, music, programs, clippings, artwork, photographs, awards, and other materials. Biographical materials include a copy of autobiography of Leopold Damrosch and memoirs of Marie von Heimburg, the aunt of Clara, Frank, and Walter Damrosch. Both items also exist in Damrosch-Tee Van Collection and Damrosch-Blaine Collection. The correspondence consists of letters between members of the Mannes and Damrosch families and other important...

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Oliver Daniel was an American arts administrator, musicologist, radio director and producer, and composer. The collection includes correspondence, manuscript and printed scores, photographs, programs, clippings, scrapbooks and periodicals.

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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

Vernon Duke (born Vladimir Dukelsky) was an American composer and songwriter. He rose to success in the 1930s with hit songs such as "April in Paris" and "Autumn in New York" and later collaborated with many leading composers and lyricists of the period, including George and Ira Gershwin, Serge Prokofiev, and Serge Koussevitzky. The collection contains manuscript and printed music, correspondence, subject files, photographs, and other materials related to his career.

Abstract Alice Eversman (1885-1974) and Elena de Sayn (1884?-1966) were a performing duo active in the early 1900s. Eversman was an operatic soprano and de Sayn was a violinist. During the 1930s, they both settled in Washington, D.C., and became music critics for the Washington Star. They were important members of the local musical community as well as newspaper writers' groups. De Sayn also continued her performing and teaching career through the early 1960s. The...

Abstract

Geraldine Farrar was an American opera singer and film actress. The collection consists of Farrar's personal papers relating to her life and career, including correspondence, scrapbooks and clippings, photographs and music materials containing sketches, autograph manuscripts, and printed music composed or edited by Farrar. In addition, the collection contains biographical materials, Farrar's writings, contracts, radio scripts, concert programs, awards, and other miscellaneous items.

Abstract The Federal Theatre Project, created by the U.S. Works Progress Administration in 1935, was designed to conserve and develop the skills of theater workers, re-employ them on public relief, and to bring theater to thousands in the United States who had never before seen live theatrical performances. The collection includes correspondence, memoranda, play and radio scripts, reports, research studies, manuals, publications, bulletins, forms, lists, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, charts,...