The following is a guest post by Vincent J. Novara, Head, Acquisitions & Processing Section, Music Division, Library of Congress.
The Music Division at The Library of Congress is thrilled to announce six new finding aids to performing arts special collections:
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 “Knowing the Score”), correspondence, business papers, programs and promotional materials, and clippings.
Harry Chapin (1942-1981) was an American singer-songwriter and philanthropist. Primarily active in the 1970s, he was known for songs written in a narrative style, such as the hits “Cat’s in the Cradle” and “Taxi.” Chapin was also one of the founders, along with Bill Ayres, of the World Hunger Year organization, now known as WhyHunger. This collection consists of interviews, writings, photographs, song and poetry books, scrapbooks and clippings pertaining to Chapin’s personal life, career, and philanthropy, collected by Peter Coan, author of “Taxi: The Harry Chapin Story” (1987).
Ann Murphy Collection on the Rockettes and Radio City Music Hall
Ann Murphy was a member of the Rockettes dance company at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. She first began her career with a Rockettes-sponsored touring company in 1959 and performed with the company for 20 years. Her late spouse, Tom St. John (birth name: John Thomas St. John Jr., 1913-1989), also employed by RCMH, operated the Radio City Music Hall control board. The collection chiefly contains photographs and performance programs, as well as a small number of schedules, stage management documents and event invitations. Murphy’s descriptive key to photograph subjects is also included.
Alfred Newman Film Music Manuscripts
Alfred Newman (1901-1970) was a prominent composer, arranger, and conductor of film music active from the 1930s until his death in 1970. He worked on more than 230 films and won nine Academy Awards. The collection includes scores, sketches, and parts from a number of films he composed for, including “Wuthering Heights” (1939), “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939), “The Robe” (1953) and “The Song of Bernadette” (1943). Some materials are in Newman’s hand, while others are in the hands of arrangers and copyists.
Park Avenue Synagogue Commissioning Project Correspondence
The Park Avenue Synagogue is a congregation in New York City. The commissioning project documented here was conceived to encourage composers to write music to be set to ancient prayers for the synagogue’s prayer services. According to the preface of “Synagogue Music by Contemporary Composers” (1951), the commissioned works were meant to contribute to and enhance the synagogue’s music while also being worthy additions to the “mainstream of contemporary music.” Notable composers who produced commissioned works as part of the project are Leonard Bernstein, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Paul Dessau, Lukas Foss, Morton Gould, Darius Milhaud, Leo Sowerby, Alexandre Tansman and Kurt Weill. The collection consists of approximately 200 letters, telegrams, contracts, and other documents relating to this commissioning program for Jewish liturgical music.
Hans Spialek (1894-1983) was an orchestrator, composer, and conductor active from the 1920s to the 1940s. He primarily orchestrated musical theater works, including those by Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers. The collection includes his compositions and arrangements as well as music owned by him and his wife Dora Boshoer, personal and professional correspondence, photographs, programs and clippings.
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