Norman Dello Joio papers, 1898-2003 (Bulk Dates 1920-2003)

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Creator

Dello Joio, Norman, 1913-

Location

Music Division

Extent

• 33.55 linear ft. (66 boxes)

Scope/Contents Note

The papers of Norman Dello Joio document his professional life from the early 1920's until 2003. The few items found within this collection that precede the dates of hislife are all connected to his professional career. Manuscripts that reveal the evolution of several of Dello Joio's most notable scores are within the collection. Dello Joio's creative path to The Triumph of St. Joan, canbe found within this collection under the various names itheld through revision, i.e. Triumph of Joan, Trial at Rouen and, finally, Triumph of St. Joan. There is also an extensive amount of compositional work in this collection on his 1961 opera Blood Moon. Though his scores, manuscripts and reproductions, make up the bulk of the collection, there is limited material on his award winningcompositions Meditations on Ecclesiastes (José Limón's There is a Time) and The Louvre. The papers contain few personal items; one of the few exceptions would be the correspondence he received from family members (Box 1, Folder 23-24).

Biographical/Historical Notes

Norman Dello Joio, pianist, organist, educator and a Pulitzer Prize winning composer, was born in New York in 1913. His father, his grandfather and his great grandfather were church organists. Dello Joio acquired skill as an organist and pianist at home from his father, Casimiro Dello Joio, from the 1918 to 1930. He took additional organ lessons from his godfather, Pietro Alessandro Yon from 1931 to 1933; and studied piano with Gaston Déthier at the Institute of Musical Art (1933 - 1938). From 1939 to 1941 he studied composition with Bernard Wagenaar at the Juilliard School of Music (1939-1941). In 1941 he enrolled in the composition class led byHindemith at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood; andthen continued to study with Hindemith at Yale University (1941-1943).

From the beginning of his career, he received a number of grants and awards and his works were regularly performanced. He won an Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Award for his Piano Trio (1937), a Town Hall Composition Award for the orchestral work Magnificat (1942), and Guggenheim Fellowships (1943 and 1944). In 1945 he received a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His Variations, Chaconne and Finale, first performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Bruno Walter, won the New York Music Critics' Circle Award for the best new orchestral piece (1948); he won a second Critics' Circle Award (1962) for the opera The Triumph of St. Joan. The Pulitzer Prize for music was awarded to him in 1957 for Meditations on Ecclesiastes for string orchestra. On February 16, 1958, he was the subject of a CBS television documentary titled Profile of a Composer. In 1961 he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1965, his music for the NBC program The Louvre won the Emmy award for outstanding television score.

As music director for the Dance Players Company (1940 - 1943), Norman Dello Joio began to extend his influence into the world of dance. Some of his most considerable works for dance include On Stage! (1945), choreographed byMichael Kidd for Ballet Theatre, two works for Martha Graham, Diversion of Angels (1948) and Seraphic Dialogue (1955), and There is a Time (1956; a composition based on the Pulitzer Prize winning Meditation On Ecclesiastes for José Limón). Dello Joio taught composition and choir at Sarah Lawrence College (1945 - 1950), composition at the Mannes College of Music (1960 - 1972), and was Professor of Music and Dean of the Fine and Applied Arts School of Boston University (1972 - 1977). From 1959 until 1973, he directed the Ford Foundation's Contemporary Music Project,which placed young composers in high schools.

Controlled Access Terms

• Dello Joio, Norman, 1913-
• Anderson, Barbara Tunnell, Mrs., 1894-
• Anderson, Dwight D., 1896-1962.
• Autori, Franco, 1903-
• Benswanger, William Edward, 1892-
• Boatwright, Howard.
• Bumgardner, Thomas A. (Thomas Arthur), 1942-
• Downes, Olin, 1886-1955.
• Gibson, William, 1914-
• Graham, Martha.
• McCray, James E.
• Composers -- United States.
• Scores.
• Correspondence.
• Scrapbooks.
• Programs.
• Photographs.
• Speeches.

Additional Creator Names

• Anderson, Barbara Tunnell, Mrs., 1894-
• Anderson, Dwight D., 1896-1962.
• Autori, Franco, 1903-
• Benswanger, William Edward, 1892-
• Boatwright, Howard.
• Bumgardner, Thomas A. (Thomas Arthur), 1942-
• Downes, Olin, 1886-1955.
• Gibson, William, 1914-
• Graham, Martha.
• McCray, James E.
• Bumgardner, Thomas A. (Thomas Arthur), 1942- Norman Dello Joio.
• American Music Collection.