Peter G. Davis Papers, 1912-2021, bulk 1948-2021
Summary Information
Abstract
At a Glance
- Call No.:
- MS#2058
- Bib ID:
- 15628428 View CLIO record
- Creator(s):
- Davis, Peter G.
- Repository:
- Rare Book and Manuscript Library
- Physical Description:
- 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). )
- Language(s):
- Most of the materials are in English. However, there is some correspondence in German, and some print material in Italian.
- 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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All original copies of audio / moving image media are closed until reformatting. Please email rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
Description
Scope and Contents
This collection consists primarily of material relating to Davis's career as a writer and a music critic (circa 1962-2018), which spanned a number of national and specialist publications, including The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Times of London, High Fidelity, Musical America, and Opera News. A significant portion of the collection is devoted to notated music—mostly relating to Davis's early work as a composer—including sketches, fragments, manuscript vocal and full scores, and performing scores/parts. The collection also contains material relating to Davis's education and early compositions.
The collection contains both and draft copies of Davis's writings on music, including clippings/tearouts, printouts, and full published editions of the publications that Davis wrote for. Various other items - such as correspondence from editors, theater tickets, and clippings - are tucked within full publications. These materials are complemented by correspondence that Davis exchanged with his editors and his readers - among whom a number of major musical figures are represented. Davis also collected a number of photographs of prominent opera singers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - for publication in his book and as personal memorabilia. Notably, the collection holds an array of material relating to the publication of Davis's 1997 monograph, The American Opera Singer: The Lives and Adventures of America's Great Singers in Opera and Concert from 1825 to the Present, including a large amount of draft and editorial material stored on floppy disks. Other textual materials held in this collection include notebooks, diaries, souvenir programs and ticket stubs, and related print materials. Many textual items have been printed on the back of reused paper, which also may contain material with research value (such as drafts, annotated radio schedules, etc.).
The Peter G. Davis papers contain a significant audio component, which includes recordings of: Davis's interviews with a number of prominent opera singers, conductors, impresarios, and instrumentalists; Davis's compositions; Davis's radio appearances; and Davis's early performances.
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Series I: Music criticism, 1963-2018
This series contains material relating to Peter G. Davis's published music criticism, spanning his entire professional career as a journalist and commentator (1963-2018). The series includes clippings or tearings of Davis's published reviews and feature articles, complete editions of publications in which Davis's criticism was published, print-outs of reviews and articles that were published online, along with drafts (handwritten and printed, annotated and unannotated) of his published work. Publications featured in this series include publications which Davis wrote for regularly as a full-time staff columnist (The New York Times, 1975-1981; New York Magazine, 1981-2007), publications to which he contributed criticism on a freelance or part-time basis (The New York Times; Ovation Magazine; Opus Magazine; Opera News; Keynote Magazine; Connoisseur; Musical America), and publications where he also served as an editor (The New York Times, 1975-1981; High Fidelity; Musical America). This series includes correspondence with editors at Opera News, and material relating to Davis's dismissal from New York magazine in 2007. This series also comprises floppy disks containing drafts of his music columns. This series contains a number of reviews that were sent in correspondence by Davis's husband, Scott Parris, which have been filed together.
This series also includes Davis's professional correspondence - primarily addressed to Davis - in the form of letters, cards, and emails, spanning much of his career as a professional music critic (1970s-2010s). This series also contains a number of full publications that were sent to Davis through and as correspondence. Davis appears to have organized his correspondence thematically: reader correspondence is interspersed with correspondence from Davis's editors and other ephemera. Additionally, Davis kept correspondence from certain prominent musicians separate from his other professional correspondence, mostly celebrated musicians who wrote to thank Davis for his review(s) of their work. Musical figures represented in this differentiated correspondence include (among others) conductors (Leonard Bernstein, Erich Leinsdorf), pianists (Glen Gould, Emanuel Ax), singers (Régine Crespin, Dawn Upshaw), composers (Ned Rorem, Virgil Thomson), critics (Tim Page, Donald Henehan), and impresarios (Speight Jenkins, Lou Galterio). Autographed memorabilia (from singers Renata Tebaldi, Anna Russell, and Frances Bible) is interspersed among this separate correspondence. This series also contains posthumous tributes to Peter Davis, including published obituaries of Peter Davis and letters written to Davis's husband, Scott Parris, sharing condolences in the wake of his passing in 2021.
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Series II: The American Opera Singer, circa 1997-1999
This series includes correspondence, publicity material, clippings, and photographs related to Davis's 1997 monograph The American Opera Singer: The Lives and Adventures of America's Great Singers in Opera and Concert from 1825 to the Present (New York: Doubleday, 1997). Also included are clippings and printouts of reviews of his book, and printouts of online message boards about the publication. This series comprises floppy disks containing various drafts of the monograph.
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Series III: Other writings, research, and professional activities, circa 1960s-2009, undated
This series features Davis's other writings from across his professional career (1960s-2010s), including program notes and essays (in academic journals or in other special volumes). The series comprises full editions of publications containing Davis's articles, and clippings or tearings of individual articles by Davis. Additionally, this series includes two cassette tapes of Davis's radio appearances. There are some unlabeled floppy disks within this series; these disks were housed with other identifiable disks relating to Davis's work as a writer and a critic.
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Series IV: Interviews, undated
Materials relating to Davis's interviews with various singers (Dawn Upshaw, Victoria de los Angeles, Thomas Hampson, Frederica von Stade, Elisabeth Söderström, among others) conductors (Zubin Metha, Karl Böhm, Trevor Pinnock, Christopher Hogwood, among others), composers (Robert Wright), and other musicians. The series consists primarily of audio material (interview recordings on CD and cassette tape), but also includes a pad containing interview notes. Further interview notes may be found within Davis's professional notebooks, housed in Series I. Notably, this series features cassette recordings of a number of interviews with musicians, conductors, and administrators at the New York Philharmonic. This series also includes a number of unidentified cassette tapes that were stored alongside cassette tapes which contained recordings of interviews.
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Series V: Compositions, circa 1950s-1964, bulk 1959-1962
This series consists primarily of musical compositions written by Peter G. Davis, mostly in the form of autograph manuscript scores and recordings. Davis undertook a MA in composition at Columbia University from 1959-1962, and many of the materials in this series were likely produced during this time. This series also contains various materials (annotated scores, annotated and autographed parts, reel-to-reel tapes) relating to the 1964 performance of Davis's opera, Zoe, at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. A number of musical genres are represented in this series in various forms, including opera (Zoe and its predecessor The Catalyst), string quartet (the String Quartet on E-flat), art song (the song cycle Shards and its predecessor Sherds, various lieder), orchestral music (Changes for orchestra), operetta (settings of two different W.S. Gilbert libretti), and cabaret (the musical revue Miss Informed). This series contains notebooks, sketches, rough drafts, fragments, lyric sheets, and correspondence relating to many of these pieces, in addition to complete manuscript scores, manuscript vocal scores, and other performing materials in Davis's hand. This series contains a significant audio component, including reel-to-reel tapes, long-playing records, and a number of cassette tapes.
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Series VI: Education, 1948-circa 1960
This series contains material relating to Davis's education at Belmont Hill School in Massachusetts (1948-1954), Harvard College (1954-1958), and the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik (1958-1959). Material relating to his MA in composition at Columbia University is housed under the series "Compositions." This series includes notebooks, diaries, essays, and correspondence produced while Davis was enrolled at these institutions. This series also contains material relating to performances that Davis gave during his high school, college, and post-college schooling, such as audio recordings (on reel-to-reel tape and cassette tapes), programs, and annotated scripts. (Note that some material relating to performances which he gave or attended during his time at high school and college is kept in the scrapbooks house in the series "Programs.") Throughout this series, there are a number of documents relating to Davis's high school friend, actor Earle Edgerton, who he continued to collaborate with beyond his time at Belmont Hill School.
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Series VII: Personal and musical memorabilia, 1912-1913, 1953-2021, bulk 1953-1989
This series consists of musical and personal memorabilia that Davis collected over the course of his life. This series primarily includes souvenir programs and ticket stubs, photographs, and scores that Davis owned. Davis collected a number of souvenir programs and ticket stubs for a range of musical, operatic, and theatrical performances. These materials mainly date from the 1950s through to the 1980s and were primarily collected during Davis's travels in Europe. However, there are some programs from the 1950s and 1960s that were collected from performances in the United States of America (primarily around Boston, and New York). Many of these programs were held in a ring-bound scrapbook kept by Davis, where they were taped to lined paper containing Davis's handwritten annotations on the performance. This series contains full programs for a number of major international Classical music festivals (the Bayreuth Festspiele, the Salzburger Festspiele, the Spoleto Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival). Other institutions that are significantly represented include the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the New England Opera Theater.
Additionally, this series contains photographs collected by Davis: photographs of Davis himself, of various musical figures (composers and singers), of Davis's personal acquaintances, and of the 1965 recording of Mahler's Symphony No.10 at Columbia Records (which Davis attended). This series also contains an autographed portrait of soprano Lisa Della Casa. Note that photographs collected for publication in The American Opera Singer were largely kept separate by Davis and have been filed under the series relating to that monograph. This series also includes two published scores that Davis kept in his papers (an annotated score of songs by Carl Loewe, a score of Tobias Picker's String Quartet with Bass), and cassette tapes of various radio broadcasts.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in seven series. Floppy disks and audio-visual materials have been housed separately from print materials. Oversized items have also been housed separately. Original order has been maintained wherever possible.
Series I and III are organized firstly by publication, then chronologically. The order and grouping of materials in Series I follows Davis's own. Series V is organized according to musical genre, then according to musical work, with sketches and fragments housed separately.
Series VI is organized into three roughly chronological groupings (corresponding to the institutions where Davis studied prior to 1959): Belmont Hill School, Harvard College, and Davis's education after his graduation from Harvard in 1958. Series VII consists primarily of souvenir programs, which are organized chronologically by year and then by institution. All other items are foldered thematically, while maintaining Davis's original sequence at the item level.
- Series I: Music criticism, 1963-2018
- Series II: The American Opera Singer, circa 1997-1999
- Series III: Other writings, research, and professional activities, circa 1960s-2009, undated
- Series IV: Interviews, undated
- Series V: Compositions, circa 1950s-1964, bulk 1959-1962
- Series VI: Education, 1948-circa 1960
- Series VII: Personal and musical memorabilia, 1912-1913, 1953-2021, bulk 1953-1989
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.
All original copies of audio / moving image media are closed until reformatting. Please email rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
Conditions Governing Use
Single photocopies 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.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Peter G. Davis Papers; Box and Folder (if known); Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Related Materials
New York City Opera records, 1924-2019, bulk 1965-1991: Peter G. Davis reviewed a number of New York City Opera performances until the company filed for bankruptcy in 2013.
Jack Beeson papers, 1933-2010: Davis was a student of Jack Beeson during his MA at Columbia (1959-1962) and wrote his obituary in 2010.
Virgil Thomson papers, 1920-1981: Davis both corresponded with, and reviewed the works of, composer Virgil Thomson.
Pulitzer Prizes collection, 1917-2017: Davis was a judge for the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2002.
Accruals
No additions are expected.
Custodial History
Parts of this collection were organized and labeled by Davis's husband, Scott Parris, prior to their arrival at the RBML. Parris's handwritten labels have been retained within the collection.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Received from Scott Parris, Peter G. Davis's husband, in 2021-2022.
About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Callum Blackmore (GSAS). Finding aid written by Callum Blackmore in June 2023.
The processing of this collection was made possible by a Graduate Internship in Primary Sources from Columbia Libraries.
Part of this collection was reboxed and refoldered by Jennifer Lee upon its arrival at the RBML. Further reboxing and refoldering was performed by Callum Blackmore (GSAS) in June 2023. Generally, the original order of items has been maintained (where known).
Davis generally organized his published print material firstly according to publication, and then by time period (loosely chronologically, usually by decade). Consequently, the processing archivist has organized loose materials chronologically by year and then according to publication. Clippings, tearsheets, and printouts have generally been refoldered in the loose chronological order in which Davis kept them. All paper clips were removed by the archivist but the original order of the materials that were clipped together has been maintained wherever possible. Groups of print material from the same publication were combined in a single chronological order, following the arrangement of each individual grouping. A small number of unrelated articles found interspersed with clippings in Series I were left in place.
Davis organized his manuscript scores primarily according to work. The processing archivist has roughly maintained this ordering. Loose materials relating to the same work have been housed together (for example, much of the loose material relating to Davis's song cycle Shards). Loose fragments and sketches (those that Davis did not organize according to work) have been housed in their original ordering.
CDs, floppy disks, cassette tapes, long-playing records, and open-reel audiotape were rehoused into boxes 20 and 21. Some CDs, floppy disks, and cassette tapes were grouped together with rubber bands: these rubber bands have been removed. Where items were rubber-banded together, the processing archivist has maintained that original order in the order of the numbering. Loose paper notes have been kept with the items which they describe. CDs are organized thematically.
Bulky items were placed in a separate box (box 13): the portrait of Lisa Della Casa has been removed from its original framing. Loose print material relating to Davis's education (prior to his MA at Columbia in 1959) were housed (box 13) according to the educational institution that it corresponds to (while maintaining the original order of documents from the same institution). Where an institution could not be identified, items have been kept alongside the materials that they were originally stored with.
Davis generally printed materials single-sided and frequently reused his printing paper: thus, many of the documents in this series are printed on the back of unrelated material. In these cases, the materials have generally been kept in their original order and housed according to the side of the paper whose content is most consistent across the grouping. These materials can primarily be found in series I; however, they may be marginally present in series II, III, and VII.
Biographical / Historical
Peter Graffam Davis (1936-2021) was a music critic for various national and specialist publications. Based in New York City, he wrote primarily about opera, reviewing recordings and performances from a range of artists and institutions from 1962 to 2018, including (among others) the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and the Bard Festival.
Davis was born in 1936 in Concord, Massachusetts. He attended Belmont Hill School from 1948-1954, before graduating from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1958. After a one-year exchange at the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik, Davis completed a Master of Arts in composition at Columbia University in 1961. During this period, he composed a number of pieces, including a song cycle for soprano and tenor, two string quartets, a cabaret-style revue, an operetta to a text by W.S. Gilbert, and the opera Zoe (a reworking of Davis's earlier opera The Catalyst), which was recorded in Milan by the musicians of La Scala.
Davis began his career as a music critic by writing reviews of recordings for the journal Musical Letters in the early 1960s. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Davis served as a music editor for both High Fidelity and Musical America, while also writing freelance about opera for the Times of London, the New York Times, Playbill, and Opera News. In 1974, he was hired as the full-time music critic and classical music editor for the New York Times. Davis left the Times in 1981 to serve as the full-time classical music critic for New York magazine: he remained at the magazine for over 25 years, publishing a regular review column, along with various feature stories about the opera industry. Davis was laid off from New York magazine in 2007 as part of a sector-wide trimming of full-time classical music critics. In the last fourteen years of his life, Davis returned to Musical America, the New York Times, and Opera News as a freelance writer, penning regular reviews and profiles for these publications.
As a critic, Davis penned a number of influential commentaries on the development of operatic aesthetics in the late twentieth century: his controversial writings on the career of Beverly Sills and "Three Tenors" phenomenon questioned the relationship between mass media, vocal performance, and operatic celebrity; similarly, his blunt appraisal of the musical biopics of Ken Russell brought a new critical lens to the representation of music history in cinema. In 1992, he coined the term "CNN opera" to describe a fashion for "ripped-from-the-headlines" plots in American operas of the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, Davis was a prolific commentator on the relationship between opera and American national identity: his 1997 monograph, The American Opera Singer: The Lives and Adventures of America's Great Singers in Opera and Concert from 1825 to the Present, charted the role of American singers in shaping global operatic aesthetics, seeking out a distinctly American vocal identity on both sides of the Atlantic and questioning the role of "Americanness" within an artform that was once viewed as a distinctly European export.
Peter Davis passed away in New York in 2021. He is survived by his husband and long-time partner Scott Parris. A couple since 1979, they married in 2009 in South Kent, Connecticut.
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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