Works Created with the Help of the Music Division, 2010-2011

As we go over statistics from the previous fiscal year (ending on June 30), we note with pleasure and pride numerous works that have been created utilizing materials from the Music Division.

Have you published a book or article, given a talk, or participated in a performance where your have benefited from research in the Music Division? We want to know about it! Please send me an e-mail so that I may include you in the list of works for the current fiscal year.

Schoenberg's New World: The American Years by Sabine Feisst
New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

I used to often see Professor Feisst in our reading room when she resided in New York City. Now a professor at the Herberger Institute for Design and Arts at Arizona State University, she returned several times to work with our archival collections to complete this book.

Annotated Catalogue of Chopins' First EditionsNew York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Initial publications of Chopin are unique. In 19th century Europe, a work had to be published in France, Germany, and England to receive proper copyright protection. What makes an examination of first editions fascinating is that Chopin sometimes changed details, so that small differences can be seen between different editions. This is valuable information for those concerned with compositional development and bibliographic history. The Music Division is gratified that this project found a number of first editions of Chopin’s music in our collection.

To Broadway, To Life! by Philip Lambert
New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

A professor at Baruch College of the City University of New York, Lambert thoroughly examined the Jerry Bock Papers and the Sheldon Harnick Papers to produce this study. Those who think they may know Fiddler on the Roof well might be surprised to see all the changes that went into producing the hit musical, including many rejected songs.

Good Music For a Free People: The Germania Musical Society in 19th Century America by Nancy NewmanEastman Studies in Music. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 2010.

A professor at the University of Albany of the State University of New York, Professor Newman examined many items from this little-known musical society from the 19th century to show how German immigrants escaping the turbulence of the 1848 Revolution came to the U.S. and adapted themselves to their new homeland.

Amore: The Story of Italian American Song by Mark RotellaNew York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010.

Rotella did research in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to reveal the story of the transition and adaptation of Italian song to an American idiom.

Beethoven, ritratti e immagini byBenedetta Saglietti
Torino: EDT, 2011.

Benedetta Saglietti was very enthusiastic about including our contemporaneous oil painting of Beethoven (seen in an earlier blog post) in her comprehensive study of Beethoven iconography.

Cage & Cunningham Collaboration: In- und Interdependenz von Musik und TanzbyJulia H. SchröderHofheim: Wolke Verlagsges, 2011.

As far as I know, Julia H. Schröder’s book is the first to extensive materials from both the John Cage Music Manuscript Archive (held by the Music Division) and the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Papers (held by the Jerome Robbins Dance Division in order to analyze and synthesize the nature of Cage and Cunningham’s collaborations.

Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage by Kenneth Silverman
New York: Knopf, 2010.

Probably the leading biography of John Cage, Kenneth Silverman made extensive use of the John Cage Music Manuscript Archive for this book.

Showtime by Larry Stempel
New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010.

Professor Stempel, who teaches at Fordham University, has been a frequent user of the Music Division for many years. We congratulate him on publication of this book.

Orpheus in Manhattan: William Schuman and the Shaping of America's Musical Life by Stephen Swayne
New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Stephen Swayne, a professor at Dartmouth College, had used the Music Division for previous projects. He is the rare kind of researcher who did not want to leave any stone unturned, and saw every piece of paper in the over 200 boxes of our William Schuman Papers (and examined many other collections as well) sometimes going over boxes multiple times in the search for elusive material. William Schuman was not only a composer but the first president of Lincoln Center and had a role in the creation of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. I’m particularly interested to see what Swayne says about his role in the creation of our Library.

The publication of musical scores always excites us when researchers have taken advantage of our holdings.

The publisher Henle Verlag produced a new edition of Frederic Chopin’s Rondos using some of our early editions, and a revised edition of 4-hand piano music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, having consulted a unique manuscript of his Fantasia for Mechanical Organ, K. 594 (today usually played by two pianists at one piano).

We are particularly proud of Katherine Preston, professor at the College of William and Mary, for seeing into publication George Frederick Bristow’s Symphony No. 2 in D minor, subtitled “Jullien,” the manuscript of which is in the Music Division. Professor Preston has written extensive documentation about this symphony and reveals a neglected part of 19th century American musical life.

The Music Division has long been a valuable resource for students. We are proud of the three dissertations that have been a direct result of their author’s research here:

• Reichert, Matthew. Carl Bergmann in New York: Conducting Activity 1852-1876. Graduate Center, City University of New York, 2010.
• Spilker, John D. 'Substituting a New Order': Dissonant Counterpoint, Henry Cowell, and the Network of Ultra-Modern Composers. Florida State University, 2010.
• Stallings, Stephanie N. Collective Difference: The Pan-American Association of Composers and Pan-American Ideology in Music, 1925-1945. Florida State University, 2009 [published 2010].

Lastly, here is a list of talks that have benefited from research in the Music Division.

• Nancy Guy (University of California, San Diego). “Beverly Sills and Her Transcendence of the American Class Divide.” Presented at the Society for American Music, March 10, 2011. (Prof. Guy used our Beverly Sills scores, JPB 09-7.)
• Jason Hooper (University of Massachusetts, Amherst). “Heinrich Schenker's Early Theory of Form, 1895-1914.” American Musicological Society, November 7, 2010. (A doctoral student at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Mr. Hooper used the Oster Collection: Papers of Heinrich Schenker, JOB 89-25.)
• James Leve (Northern Arizona University). “'Golden Boy' and 'Black-Jewish Relations.'” American Musicological Society, November 6, 2010. (Prof. Leve is writing a biography of Charles Strouse, and has used our Charles Strouse Papers JPB 06-64 extensively.)
• John D. Spilker (Oklahoma State University). “The Resonance of Dissonant Counterpoint in American Musical Culture.” Society for American Music, March 11, 2011. (Prof. Spiler has worked extensively with our Henry Cowell Papers JPB 00-3 as well as other collections.)

Have you published a book or an article, given a talk, or participated in a performance where you have benefited from research in the Music Division? We want to know about it! Please send me an e-mail so that I may include you in the list of works for the current fiscal year.