Alvin Singleton papers, 1952-2021
Summary Information
Abstract
At a Glance
- Call No.:
- MS#2003
- Bib ID:
- 14410252 View CLIO record
- Creator(s):
- Singleton, Alvin, 1940-
- Repository:
- Rare Book and Manuscript Library
- Physical Description:
- 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))
- Language(s):
- English .
- Access:
- You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
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There is one file of recommendation letters that is restricted until 2077. Otherwise, the collection has no restrictions.
This collection is located off-site.
Description
Scope and Contents
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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Series I: Music Scores and Related Materials
This series consists primarily of musical scores, including sketches, pencil scores, parts, transparencies, photocopies, and published versions. The series includes some related materials, including notes, mock-ups, and research materials.
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Series III: Correspondence, 1966-2019
This series includes professional and personal correspondence.
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Series IV: Biographical Material, 1968-2018
This series includes biographical information on Singleton. The information documents his life through biographies written by himself and others, the awards and fellowships awarded to him and his Curriculum Vitae throughout the years. These are full catalog lists of Singleton's published works over the years from the two publishing companies his music printed under, European American Music Corporation (earlier in his career) and Schott Music (currently). The only speech found in the collection is his Keynote speech at the 1994 Unisys African-American Composers Forum and Symposium.
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Series V: Performance Materials, 1969-2021
This series includes concert programs from performances featuring Singleton's work and others.
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Subseries VI: Articles, Review and clippings, 1970-2016
This series includes articles, reviews and interviews from newspapers and magazines featuring Singleton or featuring information Singleton deemed significant.
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Series VII: Scrapbooks, 1966-1986
This series contains two scrapbooks from the early years of Singleton's career. Each includes newspaper clippings, correspondence and concert programs.
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Series VIII: Photos, 1952-2009
This series contains photos of Singleton, mostly non-professional. It included event photographs, family photographs, group photographs, and photographs from his childhood and time abroad. There are few cards and pieces of correspondence filed here.
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Series IX: Audio Recordings, 1995-2014
This series contains audio material for Singleton and his recorded works. The materials include audio cassettes, commercially produced compact audio disks and non-commercial audio disks.
Arrangement
- Series I: Music Scores and Related Materials
- Subseries I.1: Orchestra, 1968-2012
- Subseries I.2: Improvising Orchestra, 1970
- Subseries I.3: Chamber Orchestra, 1974-1979
- Subseries I.4: Wind Band and Other Band
- Subseries I.5: Chamber Ensemble, 1964-2019
- Subseries I.6: Voices and Instruments, 1971-2016
- Subseries I.7: Chorus, 1966-1988
- Subseries I.8: Solo Instruments, 1966-2011
- Series II: Incomplete Pieces and Ideas
- Series III: Correspondence, 1966-2019
- Subseries III.1: Arranged Correspondence, 1994-2019
- Subseries III.2: Yale University, 1966-2000
- Subseries III.3: Professional Correspondence, 1974-1980
- Subseries III.4: Personal Correspondence, 1966-2016
- Series IV: Biographical Material, 1968-2018
- Series V: Performance Materials, 1969-2021
- Subseries VI: Articles, Review and clippings, 1970-2016
- Series VII: Scrapbooks, 1966-1986
- Series VIII: Photos, 1952-2009
- Series IX: Audio Recordings, 1995-2014
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Access
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
There is one file of recommendation letters that is restricted until 2077. Otherwise, the collection has no restrictions.
This collection is located off-site.
Conditions Governing Use
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Related Materials
Maurice Peress Papers, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library. The Peress papers include a 16.5 x 23.5" poster from the premiere of Alvin Singleton's Dream Sequence 1976, with Peress conducting, in Box 121.
Composers' Forum concert, 1971 April 24, Composers Forum Concerts Collection, Gabe M. Wiener Music & Arts Library, Columbia University Library. Concert of instrumental works by Jeffrey Levine and Alvin Singleton, including a discussion with the composers; moderator, Charles Wuorinen. Includes recordings of Argoru II (1970) (Ronald Crutcher, cello) ; Woodwind quintet (1968-69) (Sara Miranda Vargas, flute ; Richard Killmer, oboe ; Allen Blustine, clarinet ; Dean Corey, horn ; Carol Rupert, bassoon) ; Cinque (1969) (Robert Miller, piano) / Alvin Singleton, as well as a question period.
Darmstadt On Air #20: Singleton in Darmstadt Again. Interview with composer Alvin Singleton, conducted by historical musicologist Harald Kisiedu and composer George Lewis on July 19, 2021.
Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD). IMD holds some Singleton material; search for "Alvin Singleton" in the search box.
Accruals
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Additions are expected.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchase, Alvin Singleton, 2019.
About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Sasha Doster (Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, 2027) in 2023. Finding aid written by Sasha Doster, except that the biographical history was taken from Singleton's website, 2023.
Revision Description
2023-09-11 Finding aid updated and revised after processing was completed. CCR.
Biographical / Historical
Alvin Singleton was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended New York University and Yale. As a Fulbright Scholar, he studied with Goffredo Petrassi at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy. After living and working in Europe for fourteen years, Singleton returned to the United States to become Composer-in-Residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (1985-88). He subsequently served as Resident Composer at Spelman College in Atlanta (1988-91), as UNISYS Composer-in-Residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1996-97), and was the 2002–03 Composer-in-Residence with the Ritz Chamber Players of Jacksonville, Florida. In addition, he has served as Visiting Professor of Composition at the Yale University School of Music.
Singleton has amassed numerous awards throughout his compositional life. He is the recipient of a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship and was commissioned by The Serge Koussevitsky Music Foundation and American Composers Orchestra for the orchestral work When Given a Choice, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in April 2004. His other awards include the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis by the City of Darmstadt, Germany, twice the Musikprotokoll Kompositionpreis by the Austrian Radio, the Mayor's Fellowship in the Arts Award by the City of Atlanta, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Also in Spring 2004, Singleton joined the American Composers Orchestra as "Music Alive" Composer-in-Residence and Artistic Advisor for the IMPROVISE! Festival.
Singleton has composed music for theatre, orchestra, solo instruments, and a variety of chamber ensembles. TRUTH, a work for chorus, ensemble and dance based on the life of Sojourner Truth, was premiered in 2006 at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota by the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers and TU Dance. His music is published by Schott Music Corporation, and is recorded on the Albany Records, Elektra/Nonesuch, First Edition, Tzadik, and Innova labels. Singleton's latest CD "Sing to the Sun" was released in February 2007 on Albany Records and is the fourth all-Singleton disc. His recent work, Through It All, was commissioned by The ASCAP Foundation and Spivey Hall, and was premiered by the Grammy-nominated ensemble Imani Winds in February 2008.
In October, 2008, Singleton served as Composer-in-Residence in Tirana, Albania. He was invited by the cultural organization Eurynome Corp., who presented the Albanian premieres of selected works performed by the Orchestra of Albanian Radio and Television conducted by Oleg Arapi. Singleton also conducted a Masterclass at the Fine Arts Academy in Tirana. In November, 2008 Singleton's Brooklyn Bones, written in commemoration of the Fort Greene Park Prison Ship Martyrs Monument and setting an original text by Patricia Hampl, received its world premiere at the Brooklyn Technical High School in New York City, performed by the Monmouth Civic Chorus and Orchestra, tenor Cameron Smith, and conducted by Mark Shapiro.
His compositions have been performed by the symphony orchestras of Boston, Pittsburgh, Houston, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit, Oregon, Baltimore, Syracuse, Louisville, and Florida, the American Composers Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, l'Orchestre de Paris, das Guerzenich-Orchester Koelner Philharmoniker and also the Kronos Quartet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Nash Ensemble of London, the Asko Ensemble of Amsterdam, Ensemble des 20. Jahrhunderts of Vienna, the London Sinfonietta, Trio Basso of Cologne and the Bremer Tanztheater.
Important international festivals have also programmed Singleton's music. They include Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR, Tanglewood, Aspen, Bravo! Colorado, Music from Angel Fire in New Mexico, Cincinnati May Festival, Cabrillo Music Festival, Bang On A Can, the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Other Minds in San Francisco, Festival Miami, the Vienna Summer Festival, Pro Musica Nova in Bremen, the Styrian Autumn Festival in Graz, Nuova Consonanza Festival in Rome, the Brussels ISCM World music Days, and IRCAM in Paris.
Subject Headings
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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