Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850.
2. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864.

Description

1. 1.5 linear feet (1 box)

Summary

1. The Avery Claflin scores contain eight published music scores composed by Avery Claflin, arranged alphabetically by the title of the piece.

Subject

1. Composers
2. Scores
3. Claflin, Avery, 1898-1979
4. Composers > United States > 20th century

Genre/Form

1. Scores.

Call number

1. JPB 06-8

Location of other archival materials (note)

1. Several manuscript scores by Avery Claflin are also held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Biography (note)

1. Avery Claflin (1898-1979) was an American composer who wrote and studied music while pursuing a long career in banking.

Indexes/finding aids (note)

1. Collection guide available in repository and on internet.

Author

1. Claflin, Avery, 1898-1979.

Title

1. Avery Claflin scores, 1929-1979.

Biography

1. Avery Claflin (1898-1979) was an American composer who wrote and studied music while pursuing a long career in banking. Claflin spent thirty-five years working for the New York-based French-American Banking Corporation. He retired from the bank in 1954 after having risen from its ranks to serve as its president. Claflin began music studies at Harvard, but volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, returning to Harvard after the war to complete his degree in 1921. While in France, he encountered the composers, Georges Auric, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Erik Satie, each of whom would influence Claflin's compositional style. Although Claflin composed many different types of works, he is perhaps best remembered for a madrigal set to the text of the tax code, Lament for April 15 (1955). He also received some attention for his four operas drawn from literary sources, The Fall of Usher (1920-1921), Hester Prynne (1934), La grande Bretèche (1946-1948), and Uncle Tom's Cabin (1964). Only one complete opera, La grande Bretèche, based on a short story by Honoré de Balzac, and excerpts from another opera, Hester Prynne (with a libretto adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, written by Claflin's wife, Dorothea Claflin), were performed during Claflin's lifetime.

Location of other archival materials

1. Several manuscript scores by Avery Claflin are also held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Indexes

1. Collection guide available in repository and on internet.

Connect to:

1. Request Access to Music & Recorded Sound Division Special Collections material
2. Finding Aid

Occupation

1. Composers.

Added author

1. Claflin, Avery, 1898-1979. American legend.
2. Claflin, Avery, 1898-1979. Finale from the Dunciad.
3. Claflin, Avery, 1898-1979. Fishhouse punch.
4. Claflin, Avery, 1898-1979. Four dramatic episodes from Hester Prynne.
5. Claflin, Avery, 1898-1979. Grande Bretèche.
6. Claflin, Avery, 1898-1979. Laudate Dominum string quartet.
7. Claflin, Avery, 1898-1979. Prelude, chaconne & finale.
8. Claflin, Avery, 1898-1979. Sonata for violin and piano.
9. Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850. Grande Bretèche.
10. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864. Scarlet letter.

Research call number

1. JPB 06-8