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

Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927-2016), King of Thailand, was prominently known as the longest-reigning monarch in the world at the time of his death in 2016. He was also a gifted reed player with a passion for musical composition and jazz performance. This collection consists largely of his music manuscripts for songs and piano solo works.

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 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 Milton Babbitt was an American composer, mathematician, music theorist, and teacher best known for his innovations in the fields of serial and electronic music. The collection primarily consists of holograph sketches for original compositions by Babbitt, including his highly-regarded Philomel (1964), Reflections (1966), and Quintet for clarinet and strings (1997). Also included is a selection...

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

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 Irwin "Bud" Bazelon (1922-1995) was an American composer of both concert and film music, as well as a conductor and author. His compositional output includes symphonies, chamber music, music for documentaries and television commercials, and other works. His Knowing the Score: Notes on Film Music, first published in 1975, was one of the early scholarly texts on film music. The collection consists of Bazelon's music, writings (especially pertaining to...

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

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

Charles Zachary Bornstein (b. 1951) is a conductor, composer, teacher, and playwright. The collection contains music manuscripts, sketches, and correspondence with friends and colleagues, such as Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, and André Watts. Also included are photographs and one book.

Abstract Bradbury's secular music is represented by published vocal scores, some in photocopy, and probable holograph of Song of the South. Contains an album compiled by Bradbury in Europe (1847-1849) of autograph musical sketches by Franz Abt, Niels Gade, Joseph Joachim, Jenny Lind, Albert Lortzing, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Ignaz Moscheles, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Louis Spohr, Richard Wagner, and others; sketches by Felix Mendelssohn, Walter Damrosch, and Ignace Paderewski added later....

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

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

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 The Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation Collection documents the life and professional activities of composer, pianist, and patron of music Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (E.S. Coolidge). In 1925, she created the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation (E.S.C.F.) at the Library of Congress in support of chamber music and established the gift to construct the Coolidge Auditorium in the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building. E.S. Coolidge spent her career promoting chamber music and musicians...

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,'...

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

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 Léo Delibes was a French composer known primarily for his stage works, including operas, ballets, and incidental music. His compositions display the wit, lightness, and elegance characteristic of nineteenth century French music and were premiered at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Opéra-Comique, and Théâtre Lyrique, among others. His ballets Coppélia and Sylvia and opera Lakmé have remained...

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...