The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts > Collections > Music Division

Calendar of Exhibitions
1970s

* a concert was sponsored by the Music Division in the Bruno Walter Auditorium in conjunction with the exhibition

2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s

Love You Madly: A Celebration of Duke Ellington
Vincent Astor Gallery
July 11, 1979 through August 18, 1979 (extended to December 1979)

Material that has never before been made available to the public is exhibited, including original music, book manuscripts, and preliminary music sketches, many of which Ellington informally wrote on paper towels, menus, and hotel stationery.  In addition, early sheet music and recordings from the 1920s, numerous photographs and posters from all over the world, sketches for stage sets, as well as an original Ellington oil painting and personal memorabilia are displayed.  Taped recordings of Ellington’s music are played continuously for the duration of the exhibit.

 

 

Luigi Dallapiccola
Music Division Reading Room
June 1, 1978 through September 16, 1978

The exhibition, highlighted by original designs lent by the Italian Cultural Institute for Dallapiccola’s most important stage works (Volo di Notte, Marsia, Job, Il Prigioniero, and Ulisse), traces Dallapiccola’s career from a photograph of Pisino, the small Istrian town of his birth in 1904, to a facsimile of the final bars of manuscript left on the piano at his death in 1975.

Image: Luigi Dallapiccola.  Clipping File, Music Division

 

Frank Loesser Remembered
Amsterdam Gallery
April 27, 1977 through September 9, 1977

On the occasion of the Music Division’s recently acquired autograph manuscripts of the late Frank Loesser as a gift from his widow, Mrs. Jo Loesser Osborn, an exhibition of selected manuscripts of his shows, photographs, programs, showcards, awards, citations, stage designs, and personal memorabilia, including his portrait, cartoons, and drawings done as a hobby by Loesser himself, celebrates Loesser’s life.

 

Columbian Gems: American Musical Rarities in The New York Public Library
Vincent Astor Gallery
October 5, 1976 through January 21, 1977

On the occasion of the bicentennial celebration of the Declaration of Independence, an exhibition of the over 150 important examples of American music from Colonial times to the present, with accompanying programs, letters, and drawings.

 

Copland for the Theatre
Music Division Reading Room
November 1975 through June 25, 1976

Features materials from the Dance, Theatre, and Music collections as well as items loaned by Mr. Copland.  The exhibition salutes Copland’s extensive work for the theatrical world, including ballet, opera, and film scores; as well as music for theater, radio, and television.  On display are photographs, correspondence, and programs spanning Copland’s career.  Of unusual interest are unpublished manuscripts of three of the composer’s little-known works: an early ballet, “Grogh” (1922-25), incidental music for Orson Welles’s production “Five Kings” (1939), and a background score for a television production of Hemingway’s “The World of Nick Adams” (1957).  Also displayed is the shooting script of the movie “The Heiress” (1949) and the Oscar Copland received for the best film score of the year.  Also on view is Copland’s studio score of “Song of the Guerillas” from “The North Star” (1943), lyrics by Ira Gershwin.  A special letter album of tributes from prominent composers, organized by Claire R. Reis on the occasion of his 70th birthday, is a highlight of the exhibit.

Image: Aaron Copland.  Iconography Collection, Music Division

 

Music of, by and for the People: The WPA Federal Music Project of New York City
Music Division Reading Room
July 14, 1975 through October 31, 1975

The WPA Federal Music Project of New York City, 1935-43, designed to provide work for unemployed musicians and enrich American cultural life, was one of a number of arts programs established in August 1935 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration.  Among the items on display are brochures and flyers of performance units of the Project, such as the New York Civic Orchestra, and documents from the Music Education Program, which gave musicians jobs teaching.  Music scholars were also put to work in The New York Public Library’s Music Division copying into score form individual instrumental parts of rare works, cataloging, and researching materials from the NYPL and the Library of Congress.  A number of items show the Project’s emphasis on scholarship about American composers and research in American folk music.  Examples of programs encouraging contemporary composers are also on view, including the acclaimed Composers’ Forum performance workshops.

 

Collection of a Lifetime - Opera Scores of Harry G. Schumer
Vincent Astor Gallery
April 16, 1975 through July 31, 1975

The exhibition features selections from the recently acquired private library of Harry G. Schumer, librarian of the Metropolitan Opera from 1938-1969, who amassed a rare collection of both printed and manuscript full scores, vocal scores, stage band scores, and some parts to hundreds of Italian, French, German, English, Russian, and Irish operas and operettas.  Accompanying the exhibition are color slides of Metropolitan Opera musicians and dancers made by Schumer from the 1940s through the 60s, as well as tapes of Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, including the voice of Schumer on “Opera Quiz” programs.

 

The Silent Battle: Women in American Music
Music Division Reading Room
March 8, 1975 through June 28, 1975

This exhibition, marking the beginning of International Women’s Year, highlights the victories and rebuffs women have encountered over the past 200 years in their efforts to work in the field of professional music.  The title “Silent Battle” is taken from a small pamphlet published in 1918 to promote a concert of the works of Emma Steiner, probably the first woman ever to earn her living as an operatic conductor.  The keynote quote from the pamphlet reads, “The greatest battles ever fought are the silent ones fought by women.”  The exhibit illustrates the gradual emergence of women musicians from this “silent battle” phase to the forefront of the music profession.

 

Ives, The Great Commoner: His Musical Sources
Music Division Reading Room
October 16, 1974 through January 10, 1975

An exhibition on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of American composer Charles Ives.  Although Ives is often remembered as America’s lone “avant garde” composer of the turn of the century, the exhibit presents Ives as an artist whose strong ties with traditional music of the American people and also with that of the European heritage profoundly influenced his work.  This theme is illustrated with scores of compositions quoted in Ives’s works.

Image: Charles Ives.  Iconography Collection, Music Division

 

The Met at The New York Public Library: Treasures and Trivia
Music Division Reading Room & The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound
June 1974 through October 1974

Items on display range from original set and costume designs for such recent Metropolitan Opera productions as Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Richard Strauss’s Salomé and Electra, and Wagner’s Ring to a comic book version of the life of Bidu Sayão.  Chronologically, the exhibition extends from an autograph manuscript of a portion of Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia to a large poster advertising a festival being presented at the Met.  Other displayed materials include souvenir programs; contracts and letters, especially from the Gatti-Casazza period; fan magazines devoted to stars, particularly from the Edward Johnson period, including Eleanor Steber and Jerome Hines; cylinder recordings made in 1902 and 1903 from the files of the house by Lionel Mapelson, the Met’s librarian of the time, and recordings made by Enrico Caruso.

 

Vivian Fine and Five Dancers
Music Division Reading Room
March 20, 1974 through May 31, 1974

This exhibition of Vivian Fine’s manuscripts for the dance combines manuscripts loaned by the composer with photographs, reviews and programs from the Library’s collections, focusing on music for Doris Humphrey’s “Race for Life” (1938), Charles Weidman’s “Opus 51” (1938), Hanya Holm’s “Tragic Exodus” (1939) and “They Too are Exiles” (1940), Martha Graham’s “Alcestis,” and José Limón’s “My Son, My Enemy” (1965).

 

W. C. Handy Centennial Exhibit: 1873-1973
Music Division Reading Room
January 17, 1974 through March 13, 1974

Features sheet music, anthologies compiled by Handy, clippings and other memorabilia assembled from loans from W. C. Handy’s son and daughter, Wyner Handy and Katharine Handy Lewis, and his grandson Homer Lewis, as well as from the Division’s own archives.

Image: W. C. Handy photographed by Otto Hess.  Iconography Collection, Music Division

 

Elliott Carter: Sketches and Scores in Manuscript
Vincent Astor Gallery
November 30, 1973 through February 1974

A tribute to the composer for his 65th birthday.  Autograph sketches and manuscripts trace the genesis of some of the works of this outstanding composer, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes; photographs and memorabilia document some of the important events of his life.

 

The Oratorio Society Centennial, 1873-1973
Music Division Reading Room
June 6, 1973 through August 15, 1973

Memorabilia on display from the archives of the Music Division and of the Oratorio Society in celebration of the its 100th anniversary.

 

Rhapsody in Blue: A Pictorial Souvenir
Music Division Reading Room
March 7, 1973 through May 1973

This exhibition presented by the Music Division and ASCAP celebrates the U. S. Post Office’s issuance of a Gershwin memorial stamp on February 28.  Among the items in the display are the full orchestral score of Rhapsody in Blue, which was owned by Gershwin’s mother, Mrs. Rose Gershwin; numerous programs and reviews actually constitute a history of performances of the Rhapsody; Gershwin’s original piano roll recording of the work with a score bearing manuscript markings used in the recording; a rare early printing (a piano-conductor’s score and complete set of parts) of the Rhapsody, one of them in Gershwin’s own  hand, and the other in the hand of Ferde Grofé.

Image: George Gershwin.  Iconography Collection, Music Division

 

New Acquisitions from Memorial Funds
Music Division Reading Room
September 1972 through October 1972

The Music Division has encouraged the establishment of special funds to allow purchases of rare printed scores and manuscripts which would otherwise be unavailable to the collection.  Often such funds take the form of a memorial to a musician or music lover whose friends and family wish to keep his or her name alive through gifts to the Division.  This exhibit highlights recent acquisitions from three such funds, those established for Nathan Broder, musicologist and editor, Ted Hart, baritone and choir director, and Herbert Weinstock, authority on 19th-century opera and author of biographies of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini.

 

Verdi in New York
Vincent Astor Gallery
June 12, 1972 through September 30, 1972

The exhibition illuminates the theatricality of the Verdi opera repertoire with major emphasis on the changing styles of set and costume designs in New York City, drawn from the archives of the Music Division, the Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Opera as well as from personal collections of performers, designers, and private collectors.  The realization of opera designs is documented with production photographs as well as some of the actual costumes.  Other materials range from stage props, posters, unpublished photographs, photographic slides, and sheet music to bronze sculptures.  The display demonstrates the variety of New York responses and approaches to Verdi’s operas. 

Image: Giuseppe Verdi photographed by Disderi.  Iconography Collection, Music Division

 

Stravinsky: Manuscripts, Documents, Memorabilia Selected by Vera Stravinsky
Music Division Reading Room
May 31, 1972 through July 1972

Igor Stravinsky would have reached his ninetieth birthday on June 17, 1972 had he not died in April of 1971.  In the late spring of 1972 the New York City Ballet presented an elaborate Stravinsky festival in observance of the anniversary, and an exhibition organized in the Music Division Reading Room by the Committee for the Dance Collection added to the celebration.  The display included music manuscripts, drafts, letters, photographs, posters, objets d’art, and other memorabilia selected from Stravinsky’s legacy and lent by his widow.

 

Franz Liszt: Pianist / Composer / Teacher
Vincent Astor Gallery
October 7, 1971 through January 8, 1972

An exhibition coinciding with the New York Philharmonic’s Franz Liszt retrospective; autograph letters and manuscripts, photographs of Liszt and of the nineteeth-century composers and performers who were part of Liszt’s life, first and early editions of Liszt scores, caricatures, and books from the holdings of the Music Division.

Image: Franz Liszt photographed by Fr. Hanfstaengl, Munich.  Rare Photo Collection, Music Division

 

*Scott Joplin and the Ragtime Era
Plaza Gallery
October 1971 through December 31, 1971

An exhibition of music and illustrative material, including the published score of Joplin’s opera, Treemonisha, covers and illustrations giving the flavor of the musical era at the turn of the century in America, and sheet music by the composer whose collected works are being published by the Library.

Image: Scott Joplin.  Iconography Collection, Music Division

 

Josquin Des Prez
Music Division Reading Room
June 1971 through September 1971

To celebrate the 450th anniversary of the death of the great Renaissance composer Josquin Des Prez and coincide with the International Josquin Festival-Conference taking place at the Juilliard School (June 21-25), a selective exhibit of rare 15th- , 16th- , and 17th-century books concerning Josquin’s music and times are displayed.  The focal point of the exhibit is the exceedingly rare Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A, printed by the great Venitian Ottaviano Petrucci in 1504.

Image:  Josquin Des Prez.  Iconography Collection, Music Division

 

Homage to Beethoven
Music Division Reading Room
through May 1971

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the Library’s Music Division displays autograph letters and original sketches for three musical compositions, as well as first editions and pictorial material from its collections.

Image: Ludwig van Beethoven, painting by Joseph Willibrod Mähler, ca. 1904.  Iconography Collection, Music Division

 

Giuditta Pasta: Letters of a Prima Donna
Vincent Astor Gallery
July 1970 through October 1970

Recently acquired correspondence of a famous early 19th-century opera singer is on display along with prints, lithographs, and playbills relating to her and to the people she knew.

Image: Engraving of Giuditta Pasta by J. Woolnoth from an original painting by Dubase.  Iconography Collection, Music Division