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Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Rare Book & Manuscript Library

6th Floor East Butler Library
535 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10027, USA
rbml@library.columbia.edu
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is Columbia University’s principal repository for special collections. We collect, preserve, describe, promote, and provide access to the material evidence of diverse individuals and activities in alignment with the University’s research and teaching mission. We build and steward deep collections in select subject areas and connect them to a global audience through reference, teaching, exhibitions, publications, and public programs.
Start Over Repository Rare Book & Manuscript Library Subjects Composers -- United States

Alice M. Ditson Fund Records, 1940-2009 42.2 linear feet (35 document boxes and 22 record cartons)

Alice M. Ditson Fund

The Alice M. Ditson Fund was established at Columbia University in 1940 and is still active in its primary function of providing financial support to composers, performances, and recordings of contemporary American music. The fund also gives out the annual Ditson Conductor's Award, established in 1945, which honors conductors who have a distinguished record of championing American music. The collection includes files regarding the selection of this prize across several decades, as well as financial records, meeting minutes, applicant files, and subject files for the general Fund since its creation.

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Alvin Singleton papers, 1952-2021 9.22 Linear Feet (10 document boxes (Boxes 1-3, 14-20), 6 tall document boxes (Boxes 4-7, 21-22), 6 flat boxes (Boxes 8-13), 1 compact disk box (Box 23))

Singleton, Alvin, 1940-
Composer Alvin Singleton was born on December 28, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York. He has composed music for theatre, orchestra, solo instruments, and a variety of chamber ensembles. The collection includes primarily musical scores, as well as audio recordings, clippings and other biographical materials, correspondence, photographs, programs, scrapbooks.
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Daniel Gregory Mason papers, 1894-1953 35 linear feet (74 boxes)

Mason, Daniel Gregory, 1873-1953

Manuscript materials which include correspondence, business papers, composition scrapbooks and musical scores; books; clippings; records; and photographs.

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George Edwards papers, 1963-2012 16 linear feet (20 document boxes 7 flat boxes and 1 CD box)

Edwards, George, 1943-2011
George Edwards (1943-2011) was an American composer, critic, and teacher. He taught in Columbia University's Music Department from 1977 to 2006 and was named an Edward MacDowell Emeritus Professor of Music by Columbia's Board of Trustees. This collection includes scores, teaching materials, audio recordings, programs, clippings, correspondence, and biographical materials, including medical records and information surrounding Edwards' death from Alzheimer's disease.
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Jack Beeson papers, 1854-2013, bulk 1933-1009 80 linear feet (73 document boxes 25 flat boxes 17 record storage cartons 2 CD boxes)

Beeson, Jack, 1921-2010
Jack Beeson (1921-2010) was a noted twentieth-century American composer, professor of composition, and the chair of the Columbia University Department of Music from 1968 to 1972. The collection includes scores, correspondence, subject files, scrapbooks, datebooks, drafts of written works, biographical materials, programs, and audio and audiovisual recordings.
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Jerome Moross papers, 1924-2018 70.25 linear feet (57 boxes, 42 oversize folders)

Moross, Jerome, 1913-1983

Correspondence, manuscript music scores, copies of scores, playscripts, scenarios, watercolor drawings and other stage designs, contracts, legal papers, programs, clippings and other printed materials, microfilms, records, tape recordings, and photographs. Among Moross's work are the musical play, "The Golden Apple"(1954), dance music for "Ballet Ballads"(1945) and for "Frankie and Johnny"(1938), the film score for "The Big Country"(1958) and for "The Cardinal"(1963), and his Symphony No. 1 (1943). There are some financial papers and production records for the staging of his works. Among the cataloged correspondents are Aaron Copland, Agnes George De Mille, Ned Rorem, Virgil Thomson, and Thornton Wilder.

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John Latouche papers, 1930-1960 2.5 linear feet (730 items in 5 boxes)

Latouche, John, 1914-1956

Correspondence, manuscripts, diaries, notebooks, copies of scores, drawings, programs, clippings and other printed materials, and photographs. Among the cataloged correspondents are: Leonard Bernstein, Carol Channing, and Douglas Moore.

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Paul Bowles papers, 1940-1988 0.5 linear feet (1 manuscript box)

Bowles, Paul, 1910-1999

Correspondence and manuscripts of Bowles. Most of the letters in the collection are from Bowles to his friend, Ira Cohen, and pertain to Bowles' life in Morocco and his interest in the music of Morocco and Thailand. Bowles was particularly interested in Moroccan hypnotic music and made a commercial recording of it. His notes for an insert booklet to be included with the record are in this collection. There are also eight letters from Bowles to Frank Roberts, his friend and collaborator on the screenplay adapted from Bowles' novel, LOVE WITH A FEW HAIRS. There are also 4 letters from Bowles to Irving Stettner and 1 letter from Mohammed Mrabet to Stettner. The Bowles manuscripts also include three short stories, some poems, an interview with Bowles by Ira Cohen, and several pages (thermofax copies) from a notebook. In addition, a reel of tape with one of Bowles' compositions"Wet and Dry" and a short story by Mohammed Mrabet are in the collection.

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Peter G. Davis Papers, 1912-2021, bulk 1948-2021 13 Linear Feet (2 record storage cartons, 21 manuscript boxes, and 2 flat boxes) 78 Megabytes (13 floppy disks (5.25-inch) and 43 floppy disks (3.5-inch).)

Davis, Peter G.
This collection contains the papers of Peter G. Davis (1936-2021), who worked as a classical music critic at various national and specialist publications from 1962-2018. It includes the vast majority of Davis's writings on music (published or draft), along with print material relating to these writings, Davis's compositions (1957-1964), material relating to Davis's early education (1948-1959), and correspondence and interviews with a number of major classical musicians.
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