I'm happy to present a review of how the Music Division contributed to knowledge for 2011-2012. Although my information is based on the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, December seems like an appropriate time to post this information.

Today the pervasiveness of the Internet leads some to question the usefulness of libraries. Many try to determine a library's effectiveness by attendance: Surely 50 users in one day is better than 5? (I recall an article from library school that questioned whether it is worth collecting a book if it is consulted only once in 50 years.) It is my hope that the list below refutes the concept of determining value based on attendance. Many of the authors of the works on this list spent months or years working in the Special Collections Reading Room of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (often copying or transcribing documents to study them more in depth at home). Their work is a testament to them and to the value of a library — determined not by how many use it, but (in part) by the richness of what is contained in its walls, and how it fosters creation of new work and knowledge.

Have you published a book or article, written a dissertation, 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 your work in next year's list.

Books

Great Wagner Conductors: A Listener's Companion.
Jonathan Brown.
Fort Wayne, IN: Parrot Press, 2012.

The author did research with our materials and reproduced a number of our photographs and other visual media from our Iconography files.

 

 

 

Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Felix. Sämtliche Briefe. Band 2: Juli 1830 bis Juli 1832; Band 3: August 1832 bis July 1834.
Herausgegeben und kommentiert von Anja Morgenstern and Uta Wald.
Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2012.

Volumes 2-3 of the massive project to transcribe nearly all of Mendelssohn's letters. The Music Division is proud that many items from its collection of over 700 letters will be eventually included.

 

Henry Cowell: A Man Made of Music.
Joel Sachs.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

The author examined every item in the Henry Cowell papers and consulted many other collections as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Articles

Anesko, Michael. "My Fair Henry?!" The Henry James Review 33, no. 1 (Winter 2012), p. 68-84.

Anesko used the Don Gohman papers to research the musical "Ambassador" based on Henry James's novel.

 

 

 

 

Brown, Richard H. "The Spirit Inside Each Object: John Cage, Oskar Fischinger, and 'The Future of Music'." Journal of the Society for American Music 6, no. 1 (February 2012), p. 83-11.

Used the John Cage Music Manuscript Collection, reprinting several manuscripts in facsimile. (The image is from the DVD collection of films by Fischinger, including "An Optical Poem," the 1937 film on which Cage briefly worked.)

  

Henderson, Ruth. "Marietta Alboni in the New World" in: Music, American Made: Essays in Honor of John Graziano ed. by John Koegel. Sterling Heights,
MI: Harmonie Park Press, 2011, p. 361-96.

Researched much of the article in the Music Division and reproduced 3 images from our collections.

 

 

Pamplin, Terrence. "The Influence of the Bandora on the Origin of the Baroque Baryton," Galpin Society Journal, p. 221-32.

We supplied a unique image of a baryton, a musical instrument (different from the one pictured here).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ponick, Terry. "Rediscoveries: Charles Griffes' 'Kairn of Koridwen'." Washington Times, January 1, 2012.

The article discusses this musical composition and note that the manuscript is in the Music Division.

  

Proksch, Bryan. "'Forward to Haydn!': Schenker's Politics and the German Revival of Haydn." Journal of the American Musicological Society 64, no. 2 (Summer 2011), 319-48.

The author used the Oster Collection (containing the papers of Heinrich Schenker).

 

 

Reichert, Matthew. "Carl Bergmann the Pioneer: The Introduction of Zukunftsmusik to the New York Concert Repertory" in: Music, American Made: Essays in Honor of John Graziano" ed. by John Koegel. Sterling Heights, MI: Harmonie Park Press, 2011, p. 211-26.

A chapter revised from the author's dissertation, the research for which he made extensive use of the Music Division.

 

 

Robinson, Suzanne."Percy Grainger and Henry Cowell: Concurrences Between Two "Hyper-Moderns." Musical Quarterly 94 (2011), p. 278-324;

Made extensive use of the Henry Cowell papers documenting the friendship between Percy Grainger and Henry Cowell.

 

 

 

 

Spilker, John D. "The Origins of Dissonant Counterpoint : Henry Cowell's Unpublished Notebook." Journal of the Society for American Music 5, no. 4 (Nov. 2011), p. 481-533.

Spilker made extensive use of Henry Cowell Papers, in particular the composer's counterpoint notebooks.

 

Recordings

Victor Herbert: Collected Songs. New World Records 80726-2.

Although most of Victor Herbert's manuscripts are in the Library of Congress, the producer of this amazing 4-CD album used the resources of the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to research the circumstances and details of these 102 songs.

 

 

Dissertations

• Gilbert, David. "The Product of Our Souls": Ragtime, race, and the marketplace in James Reese Europe's New York. Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2011.
  
  Used a variety of books, music and ephemera in the Music Division
   
• Portnow, Allison K. Einstein, Modernism, and Musical Life in America, 1921-1945. Ph.D., Musicology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  
  Used the Henry Cowell Papers and the George Antheil Papers.

Blogs

• John Cage Unbound: A New Digital Archive Presented by The New York Public Library. Open Culture, April 18, 2012.
  
  Review of our online space John Cage Unbound.

Talks

• Acker, Faith (University of St. Andrews, Scotland). "From Song to Screen: Rewriting Shakespeare's Sonnets in the Music of Henry Lawes and the Scripts of Star Trek." Collaboration, Authorship, and the Renaissance, January 13, 2012.
  
  The author used the Commonplace Book of John Gamble, particularly for the works of Henry Lawes.
   
• Bernstein, David (Mills College). "John Cage's Music of Changes and Its Genesis." John Cage und die Folgen / Cage & Consequences (International Symposium in Berlin).
  
  The author consulted the John Cage Music Manuscript Collection.
   
• Brown, Nancy (University of Southern California). "'Hearing Through, Seeing Through': John Cage, Richard Lippold, and Open Sculpture - American Musicological Society, November 11, 2011.
  
  Another author who consulted the John Cage Music Manuscript Collection.
   
• Fena, Christine (Stony Brook University). "The 'Sensational' Ballet Mécanique: the General Public and American Musical Modernism in the 1920s." American Musicological Society, November 12, 2011.
  
  The George Antheil Papers (in particular the manuscripts of Ballet Méchanique) were one of the sources consulted by the author.
   
• Ferencz, Jane (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater). "How Long, Brethren? Geneviève Pitot's Music for the WPA's Federal Dance Project." American Musicological Society, November 12, 2011.
  
  Genevieve Pitot's manuscripts are in the Music Division, which the author consulted.
   
• Guy, Nancy (University of California-San Diego). "Thinking Through Performance: Operatic Production Since 1960." American Musicological Society, November 11, 2011.
  
  Guy's ongoing research utilizes Beverly Sills scores.
   
• Lumsden, Rachel (Graduate Center, City University of New York). "Doris Humphrey and Vivian Fine's The Race of Life." Society for American Music, March 17, 2012.
  
  The author's talk used a variety of archival collections involving American women composers.
   
• Payette, Jessica (Oakland University). "Teiji Ito's Watermill : Controversy over the Use of World Music at the Ballet " Society for American Music, March 17, 2012.
  
  The Teiji Ito papers and music manuscripts are part of the Music Division.
   
• Piekut, Benjamin (Cornell University). "Our Modest Witness: John Cage's Modernism." Brooklyn College, November 2, 2011.
  
  Yet another author who used the John Cage Music Manuscript Collection (last year it was our most frequently consulted collection).
   
• Pruett, Laura. "Gottschalk's Tactical Maneuvers during the Civil War." Society for American Music, March 15, 2012.
  
  The author made use of our extensive collection of Gottschalk materials.
   
• Statham, Sabra (Pennsylvania  State University). "Composing the Great American Symphony: George Antheil's Symphony #2-3 Understood through Sources and Documents." Society for American Music, March 16, 2012.
  
  Ms. Statham's ongoing research involves George Antheil, for which she consulted his papers in the Music Division.

Reminder: Have you published a book or article, written a dissertation, 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 your work in the list for the current fiscal year.