Guido Adler, annotated copy of Alexander Wheelock Thayer's Chronological Catalog of the Works of Ludwig von Beethoven
Musicology Thematic catalogs Music libraries
Jewish scholar, writer, critic, pedagogue, and editor Guido Adler’s library was a working collection: like this interleaved copy of Thayer’s Beethoven thematic catalog, many of the books and offprints are heavily annotated and corrected, and illustrate Adler’s place at the heart of the new discipline of historical musicology. This particular image shows Adler's annotation of themes from Beethoven's 23 Songs of Various Nationalities, including his re-transcription of the three Russian tunes. Geolocation: Adler's residence in Vienna.
Alexander Wheelock Thayer. Chronologisches Verzeichniss der Werke Ludwig van Beethoven’s (Berlin: Ferdinand Schneider, Matthäi Kirchstrasse 24, 1865). Guido Adler Collection Merritt Room ML134.B4 T4 1865
Thayer's book published in 1865; Adler's death in 1941; acquired in 2015
Guido Adler's Library (2017 Music Library Exhibition)
"Beethoven: 23 Songs of Various Nationalities, WoO 158a - 13. Vo lesocke komarockov mnogo urodilos',"performed by soprano Janice Watson (YouTube)
"Niurba ohuokaia," recorded by Eduard Alekseyev
Dance music Folk music Ethnomusicology Ritual Sakha/Yakutia
This recording of songs from the Yakut round dance was made by ethnomusicologist Eduard Alekseyev in the village of Maar in the Niurba district on June 23, 1977, during a celebration commemorating the 10th anniversary of Markhinskiy sovkhoz (collective). Geolocation: The Niurba district of Yakutia.
“Niurba ohuokhaia” The Eduard Alekseyev Fieldwork Collection of the Musical Culture of Yakutia,​ 1969-2009. AWM RL 16267
"Tree of Life: Cosmography and Environment in Yakutian Epic" (2019 Music Library Exhibition)
Alekseyev's Website
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Six Easy Keyboard Sonatas (Wq. 53)
Sonatas Keyboard music Classical era Amateur pieces
This collection of six “easy” pieces, composed between 1762 and 1766, was the last of C.P.E. Bach’s seven Berlin sonata collections, and one of several he assembled to appeal to the amateur musical market. The first Breitkopf publication dedicated solely to Bach’s work, the set was published simultaneously in treble- and soprano-clef editions. Pictured here, from the latter edition, is the third movement (Presto) of the sixth and final sonata, in F major. Peruse the full set of the six sonatas here. Geolocation: The Berliner Schloss in Berlin, where Bach worked at the court of Frederick of Great as member of the royal orchestra.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Sechs leichte Clavier Sonaten von Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, 1st ed. (Leipzig: Bey Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf und Sohn., 1766). Merritt Room Mus 627.2.426.6
Bey Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf und Sohn (Leipzig, Germany)
"Keyboard Sonata in F Major, Wq. 53/6, H. 183: III. Presto," performed on clavichord by Miklós Spányi (YouTube)
"C.P.E. Bach at 300" (2014 Houghton Library and Music Library Exhibition)
Jeanne Beauvais, annotated score for Vernon Martin's Ladies' Voices
Musical theatre/opera Interpretation and style Off-Broadway
This copy of Vernon Martin's nine-minute Ladies’ Voices contains veteran Broadway and classical singer Jeanne Beauvais’ performance markings from the show's 1963 New York premiere by the After Dinner Opera Company. Geolocation: The site of the Pocket Theatre in New York, an Off-Broadway house where the After Dinner Opera Company performed.
Vernon Martin. Ladies’ voices: a chamber opera. Text by Gertrude Stein. Dyeline vocal score (1955). Jeanne Beauvais Scores, correspondence and other materials, 1927-1988. Ms. Coll. 127, Box 1, Folder 23
New York premiere in 1963; composed 1955; acquired in 2007
"The Woman Who Saved Carnegie Hall - Jeanne Beauvais," excerpts from a c. 1980s Beauvais recital filmed by downtown New York videographer Nelson Sullivan (YouTube)
Rubén Blades, Antecedente and the 1989 Grammy Awards
Salsa Dance music National heritage Awards
While the original version of this exhibition exclusively featured memorabilia from Rubén Blades's appearance at the 1989 Grammy Awards, such as the backstage pass included here, the online version also incorporates materials related to the album (Antecedente) for which Blades won a Grammy that year, like the poster for the record. Also shown here are a lightly annotated copy of the official lyrics for the track "Nacer de tí" ("Born from you"), addressed to Panama itself, and a handwritten list of possible lyrics to draw from for the traditionally improvised soneos in the song's chorus sections. Variants of these soneos made their way into the final album, first sung by Blades at 1:23 on the studio recording. The third, unused couplet reads: "I am the embrace that waits for those who long to return, I am the hand greeting he who just arrived." Geolocation: Plaza Herrera in the San Felipe neighborhood of Panama City, where Blades grew up.
The Rubén Blades Archives at Harvard University AWM SC Spec Coll 100
Antecedente released 1988; Grammy Awards in 1989; acquired in 2008
"Nacer De Tí", from Blades's 1988 album Antecedente (YouTube)
MaestraVida.com, a website dedicated to Blades' life and work created by Alison Weinstock
Memorabilia (backstage pass); promotional poster; printed lyrics; and manuscript lyrics
Stephen Blum, recordings from Iranian Khorāsān
Folk music Urban music Sung poetry Ethnomusicology Musical and linguistic exchange
Pictured are labels for a cassette featuring recordings of four men performing songs and improvised poetry, made at Stephen Blum’s house in Mashhad, Iran (in the northern province of Khorāsān) in January of 1969. This song, young tailor Mahmud Gaffāriān's "Vakilābād," shares its name with a major prison in Mashhad (a theme also found in another song from his session, "Shabi be gusheh-e zendān"): Hear the recordings of Ebrāhim Eqtesādi, Mohsen Hasanzāde, and Hossein Nazari here. Hear more recordings of Mahmud Gaffāriān here. (Click on a link under "contents" until reaching the page for a particular recording, then click on the link under "digital content" to access the audio file.) Geolocation: Mashhad, Iran.
The Stephen Blum Collection of Music from Iranian Khorāsān at Harvard University: original ethnographic sound recordings, 1968-2006. AWM RL 16201-16202
Cassette label and digitized sound recording
Lili Boulanger, Cortège, arranged by Nadia Boulanger
This manuscript of Lili Boulanger's 1914 violin-piano duet Cortège is an arrangement by her sister Nadia for solo violin and chamber orchestra. The full score is in Nadia’s hand; the parts are partly autograph, and partly in a copyist’s hand. While there is no solo violin part, markings in the score indicate it may have been used by the soloist. Geolocation: The Boulangers' family home in Paris, where Nadia lived her whole life.
Lili Boulanger. Cortège​​. Arranged by Nadia Boulanger. (19--). Merritt Room Mus 631.856.200
Cortège composed in 1914; toured in different arrangement by U.S. by Nadia Boulanger in 1925; acquired in 2014
"Yolanda Bruno (Violin) and Isabelle David (Piano) - Lili Boulanger: Cortège," the violin-piano version of the piece (YouTube)
Harvard Music Library collections related to Nadia Boulanger: scores by Boulanger's students; various American music scores collected by Boulanger; and Boulanger's letters to the Chanler and Pickman families
A 1962 profile on Nadia Boulanger in the Harvard Crimson
Autograph full score (plus individual instruments' parts partly in autograph, partly in a copyist's hand)
The Harvard Jazz Band commissioned this piece from saxophonist Benny Carter in honor of Myra Mayman, director of Harvard’s Office for the Arts from 1973-2001. Carter faxed his handwritten lead sheets to the band before its first performance, to be supplemented by a lead sheet arranged by Allen Feinstein, piano arrangement by Gene Di Novi, and 6-part vocal arrangement by Rob Opdycke. This performance by Sarah Lazarus and the Harvard Jazz Band was included in the concert "Mood Crimson: 30 Years of Jazz at Harvard," which took place on April 6, 2002 in Sanders Theatre and continued a long-running concert series pairing major professional figures in jazz with Harvard undergraduates. This rendition includes solos by Lazarus and tenor saxophonists Don Braden and Anton Schwartz, culminating in a special "Happy Birthday" coda. Geolocation: Sanders Theatre at Harvard University.
Benny Carter. “Myra,” revised lead sheet and vocal score (2001). The Tom Everett Collection of Jazz Scores, 1971-2011. Ms. Coll. 135, Box 1 "Mood Crimson: 30 Years of Jazz at Harvard" (Cambridge, Mass.: Office of the Arts, Harvard University, 2002). Lamont Library Media CD CDISC LFP 2002cd D
Bee Cee Music Co. (score) Office of the Arts at Harvard University (CD)
Handwritten leadsheet; published piano arrangement; digitized CD recording
Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht, "In Praise of Learning"
Leftist politics Labor songs Musical theatre collaborators
"In Praise of Learning" is one of three rare 78s of leftist songs recorded around the time of Hanns Eisler’s first visit to the United States in early 1935. With texts by Bertolt Brecht, the record featured the New Singers conducted by Lan Adomian, baritones Mordecai Bauman and Felix Groveman, and alternately Marc Blitzstein and Eisler himself at the piano. The full set includes the songs “United Front,” “The Soup Song,” “The Internationale,” “We’ve Not Forgotten,” “In Praise of Learning,” and “Rise Up.” Geolocation: The Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., where Eisler was interrogated by the House Un-American Activies Committee on the basis of songs like "In Praise of Learning."
Hanns Eisler. In Praise of Learning; Rise Up. Text by Berthold Brecht (N.Y.C.: Timely Recording Co., [1936?]). Record Collection 78-36634
Full track of "In Praise of Learning" (archive.org)
Duke Ellington, arrangement of Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler's "Stormy Weather"
Jazz Big band music Musical revues Arranging
This score for "Stormy Weather," in Ellington’s hand, notates the saxophone section accompaniment to the soloists' melody line. This arrangement, one of at least half a dozen he would devise over three decades, appears in his first recording of the song in 1933. Geolocation: The Cotton Club in Harlem, where Ellington and Ethel Waters made "Stormy Weather" the main attraction of the 22nd Cotton Club Parade revue.
Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. “Stormy Weather.” Holograph of Duke Ellington arrangement. Merritt Room Mus 662.524.41
Written (and first recorded by Ellington) in 1933; acquired in 2008
"1933 HITS ARCHIVE: Stormy Weather - Duke Ellington (instrumental)" (YouTube)
The Duke Ellington Recording Collection at Harvard, which contains three different entries of "Stormy Weather" recordings