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Music Library Special Collections: Archival Collections R-S

Finding and using archives, manuscripts, rare books and scores, and other special collections at the Music Library.

Archival Collections R-S

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Reed, Edward Bliss

MSS 127 - The Edward Bliss Reed Carol Index; 0.5'

Edward Bliss Reed (1872-1940) earned the B.A. (1894) and the Ph.D. (1896) at Yale University. A member of the Yale faculty from 1900 to 1940, he taught both English and music. His research focused on Christmas carols. This collection is a card index of Christmas carols. (Not yet processed)

See also: the Edward Bliss Reed Papers at Manuscripts and Archives, as well as the Edward Bliss Reed Carol Collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. 

Rockwell, Julia Ludlow

Misc. Ms. 173 - Selected Compositions of Julia Ludlow Rockwell; 1'

Biographical information about Julia Ludlow Rockwell is scarce. She was the daughter of James Meeker Ludlow, a clergyman and author. In 1900, while living in East Orange, New Jersey, she married Theron Rockwell. She composed songs, keyboard works, and other music. Julia Ludlow Rockwell died on June 7, 1943 in Norfolk, Connecticut. This collection contains manuscript sketches and scores of musical compositions by Rockwell, including organ music, piano works, and numerous songs. In addition, the collection holds a small number of published compositions by Rockwell, as well as poetry copied in her hand and an autographed photograph of Louise Homer.

Rome, Harold

MSS 49 - The Harold Rome Papers; 46' 

Harold Rome (1908-1993) is the composer and lyricist of the well-known musicals Pins and NeedlesCall Me Mister,FannyDestry Rides Again, and I Can Get It for You Wholesale. These and other works, printed and in manuscript, are included in his Papers, along with numerous lyrics, correspondence, clippings, and photographs.

Rose, Sidney

See The Sidney Rose Collection of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Ruggles, Carl

MSS 26 - The Carl Ruggles Papers; 39' 

The relatively small output of Ruggles (1876-1971) is represented in his Papers by fourteen songs, seventeen other works, and hundreds of pages of sketches. There are also several works by other composers; a large amount of correspondence to and from Ruggles, including correspondence with Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, Charles Ives, and Edgard Varese; a vast number of programs and clippings; photographs; and Ruggles's paintings. See also: the John Kirkpatrick Papers.

Sauter, Eddie

MSS 64 - The Eddie Sauter Papers; ca.15' 

Eddie Sauter (1914-1981) arranged for Red Norvo, Benny Goodman, and the Sauter-Finegan bands, among others, and did the arranging of the Broadway musicals 1776 and Superman. His original compositions included the movie score Mickey One, Focus Suite, and the Tanglewood Concerto. To date Yale has received from his estate the movie and Broadway scores, his original compositions, and fifteen dance-band arrangements, all autograph manuscripts. This material, combined with Sauter arrangements in the Red Norvo Papers (MSS 48) and the Benny Goodman Papers (MSS 53), comprise an unusually large collection of a jazz arranger's output. The Sauter-Finegan arrangements are classified as a separate collection (MSS 140). (Partially processed)

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra

MSS 140 - The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra Papers; 18'

The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra was formed in 1952 by Eddie Sauter (1914-1981) and Bill Finegan (1917-2008). Sauter and Finegan were prominent arrangers for big bands led by artists such as Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. Sauter and Finegan were strongly influenced by classical music, and their orchestra included non-traditional big band instruments like the recorder, piccolo, English horn, and tympani. The collection contains orchestral arrangements by Sauter and Finegan.

Schmitz, E. Robert

MSS 54 - The E. Robert Schmitz Papers; 12' 

The French-born Elie Robert Schmitz (1889-1949) immigrated to the United States in 1918 after studies in Paris, service in the French army and a successful career as pianist and conductor. In the United States he and his wife, Germaine, founded the Franco-American Society in 1920, which was renamed Pro-Musica, Incorporated, in 1923. The aim was to promote new music, which it did through Pro-Musica's forty international chapters, offering concerts, lecture-recitals, and publications. Schmitz brought Ravel, Bartók, and Respighi to the United States for tours of the chapters and sponsored a variety of composers for American concerts and lectures, e.g., Hindemith, Schoenberg, Honegger, Milhaud, Roussel, Tansman, and Prokofiev. Pro-Musica sent the American composers Marion Bauer, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, and Louis Greenberg to its Paris chapter and the tenor Roland Hayes to Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Papers include correspondence and manuscript music by many of these persons, as well as business files of Pro-Musica and documentation of Schmitz's remarkable career as pianist and teacher.

See alsoThe Vivian Perlis Collection of Schmitz, Ornstein, Copland, and Kirkpatrick

Schoen-René, Anna

MSS 110 - The Anna Schoen-René Collection; 1'

Anna Schoen-René (1864-1942) was a remarkably successful voice teacher. A student of Pauline Viardot, she taught at the Juilliard School for many years. The list of her pupils includes Risë Stevens, Paul Robeson, Mack Harrell, and Kitty Carlisle. The collection includes typescripts, notebooks, correspondence, programs, music, photographs, clippings, and other materials. It is is a gift of Marshall Bartholomew, and was extracted from MSS 24, the Marshall Bartholomew Papers. (Not yet processed)

Schneeloch, Emma and Emilie

MSS 6 - The Schneeloch Family Papers; 2' 

These are the professional records of two New Haven sisters, Emma and Emilie Schneeloch, during their concert tours throughout the country from 1886 to 1893. Most of the travels were with the Gilmore Band. Included are letters, programs, photographs, and two diaries. Additional information about the sisters is in the Bacon-Schneeloch Family Papers, Manuscript Group Number 707, in the Manuscripts and Archives department of Yale's Sterling Memorial Library.

Schrade, Leo

MSS 42 - The Leo Schrade Papers; ca.6' 

The Papers of the German musicologist Leo Schrade (1903-1964) consist chiefly of materials from his years on the Yale faculty from 1938 to 1958, after which he returned to Europe and was appointed to the music faculty of the University of Basel. They include lectures, research notes, committee minutes, and correspondence. (Not yet processed)

Schreker, Franz

MSS 51 - The Franz Schreker Collection; ca.12' 
The main holdings of Schreker's papers are in European libraries. Yale's Papers were a gift of Schreker's daughter, Mrs. Haidy Schreker-Bures of Argentina. They include Schreker's personal copies of the scores of his last four operas, some manuscript music, his literary writings, personal documents, photographs, and clippings. Universal-Edition in Vienna has sent copies of the autograph manuscripts of four of Schreker's operas, and the Music Library has purchased numerous letters as they have come on the market. (Not yet processed.)

Scranton, Helen Douglas Love

See The Love Family Papers

Segovia, Andrés

MSS 120 - Andrés Segovia, Correspondence with Sophocles Papas; 0.25'

Letters from the guitarist Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) to the guitarist and teacher Sophocles Papas (1894-1986) and carbon copies of letters from Papas to Segovia. (Not yet processed)

Shackford, Charles

MSS 38 - The Charles Shackford Papers; 10.4' 

After bachelor and master degrees at Yale, where he studied with Paul Hindemith and Ralph Kirkpatrick, et al., Charles Reeve Shackford (1918-1979) received a Ph.D. at Harvard, where he studied with Walter Piston and Archibald T. Davison and was a research fellow in acoustics. His longest teaching experience was at Connecticut College from 1964 to 1979, when he was killed in an automobile accident. The Papers include his compositions, correspondence, programs, photographs, and a body of writings on music theory and history and musical perception.

Shaw, Robert

MSS 86 - The Robert Shaw Papers; ca. 200' 

Robert Shaw was the most influential American choral conductor of the 20th century. Born in Red Bluff, California in 1916, Shaw was educated at Pomona College and in private studies with Julius Herford. Over the course of his long career, he directed the Fred Waring Glee Club, the Collegiate Chorale, the Robert Shaw Chorale, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra (as associate conductor under George Szell), and from 1967 to 1988, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Shaw died in New Haven in 1999. The Shaw Papers include the conductor's personal library of over annotated 1,600 musical scores and parts, as well as correspondence, files on musical topics, general files, writings, speeches, programs, clippings, photographs, sound recordings, videos, annotated books, and other materials.

Shepard, Thomas Z.

MSS 112 - The Thomas Z. Shepard Papers; 12'

Thomas Z. Shepard is a 12-time Grammy Award winner, producing both Classical and Broadway projects. The collection contains a wide variety of material relating to Shepard's work at Columbia and RCA Victor from approximately 1960-1990, along with some personal materials dating from the early 2000s. The largest part of the collection comprises production materials, such as text, music, and correspondence related to specific projects, and photographs taken during recording sessions.

Shifrin, Seymour

MSS 36 - The Seymour Shifrin Papers; 26' 

Seymour Jack Shifrin (1926-1979) studied composition with William Schuman, Otto Luening, and Darius Milhaud, and taught composition at the University of California at Berkeley and at Brandeis University. His Papers include manuscript and published music, correspondence, programs, clippings, his writings, photographs, and two manuscripts of Roger Sessions.

Sidney Rose Collection of Gilbert and Sullivan

MSS 12 - The Sidney Rose Collection of Gilbert and Sullivan; 12' 

The Sidney Rose Collection of Gilbert and Sullivan was collected by Rose for a history of Gilbert and Sullivan production in the United States. Rose never completed this work, though he did write an article entitled "Half a Century of Pinafore," (Musical Digest, June 1928). The Collection contains a wide range of materials which include: scores and libretti for the operettas; individual songs with words or music by Gilbert or Sullivan; programs and posters; parodies, satires, and cartoons directed at the operettas and their creators; a model theater of the original production of The Mikado; and a large number of newspaper and periodical articles pertaining to specific productions, revivals, and performers.

Sierra, Roberto

MSS 144 - The Roberto Sierra Papers; 12'

Roberto Sierra is an American composer. He studied at the University of Puerto Rico, the Conservatory of Puerto Rico, the Institute for Sonology in Utrecht, and the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik. In his music, Sierra combines European moderism with Latin American popular music and folk song. The Papers consist mainly of music and programs. Clippings, correspondence and other documents are also included. The collection should be considered partial, as Sierra is currently an active composer.

Silent Film Music

Misc. Ms. 176 - Silent Film Music; 7'

This collection contains arrangements for theater orchestra of music suitable for silent films. In addition to single pieces, the collection holds many of the standard series of published silent film music, including the Preis-Kino-Bibliothek, the Robbins Photoplay series, and series published by G. Schirmer and Witmark.

Simon, Eric

MSS 84 - The Eric Simon Papers; 1' 

The papers of the Austrian-American clarinetist and composer Eric Simon (1907-1984) consist of scores and parts of manuscript and photocopied music, the majority of which are Simon's own musical compositions and arrangements. A short pedagogical work co-written by Simon is also included.

Simonds, Bruce

Misc. Ms. 308 - The Bruce Simonds Papers; 3'

The pianist and composer Bruce Simonds was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on July 5, 1895. Simonds spent nearly his entire adult life at Yale University, although he performed widely. He received his bachelor's degree from Yale in 1917. After further studies in London and Paris, Simonds joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 1921, where he taught for the next 52 years. From 1941 to 1954 he was Dean of the School of Music. Bruce Simonds died in Hamden, Connecticut on June 2, 1989. The collection documents his career as well as that of his wife, Rosalind Brown Simonds. Included are manuscript compositions by both composers, including songs, choral music, piano works, cadenzas for Mozart piano concertos, and early compositions with corrections, probably in the hand of Vincent d'Indy. In addition, the Papers hold photocopies of musical compositions by Edwin Gerschefski, programs, scrapbooks, and notes regarding performances given by Simonds' students.

Smith, David Stanley

MSS 31 - The David Stanley Smith Papers; 21' 

The composer David Stanley Smith (1877-1949) was a member of the Class of 1900 at Yale College, where he was a student of Horatio Parker and a contemporary of Charles Ives. Smith began teaching at the Yale School of Music in 1903. He succeeded Parker as Dean in 1920. The bulk of the Papers comprise his musical works, covering a broad range of genres. Small amounts of correspondence, clippings, programs, photographs, and writings by and about Smith complete the collection.

Smith, Frank H.

Misc. Ms. 56 - Selected Compositions of Frank H. Smith; 0.5'

Frank Hugh Smith, Jr. was born in San Diego, California on July 24, 1923. He served in the Air Force from 1942 to 1946. Smith was a versatile musician; his primary instrument was flute, but he also played the piano, conducted, and composed. After his discharge from the military, he went to France, where he studied at the Fontainebleau School and the Paris Conservatoire; his teachers included Nadia Boulanger and Marcel Moyse. In 1950, he married Wencke Frimmin-Dahl; they went on to have two children. In 1953, Smith received a bachelor's degree from the Yale School of Music. After further study in Europe, he returned to New Haven, earning a master's from Yale in 1956. At the time of his death on September 5, 1958, he was working on a doctorate at Boston University, and was about to become assistant director of the Yale Band. This collection consists primarily of photocopies of the holograph scores for 19 musical compositions by Smith.

Smith, Max

MSS 8 - The Max Smith Papers; 12' 

T. Max Smith (1874-1935) was a music critic for the New York Press (1903-1916) and the New York American (1916-1919, 1923) and a foreign music correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune. The Papers consist of about 250 letters, telegrams, and cards addressed to Smith by prominent musical personalities and about 30 communiques to Arturo Toscanini, with whom Smith had a friendship and business relationship for many years. Also included are copies of 14 letters by Josef Giehr to his parents during his studies in Rome with Franz Liszt (1879-80).

Smyth, Ethel

Misc. Ms. 418 - Ethel Smyth: Letters and Scrapbook; 0.5'

Ethel Smyth was born in London on April 22, 1858. After receiving her early musical training in England, she entered the Leipzig Conservatory in 1877. She left the Conservatory in 1878, but continued her studies with Heinrich von Herzogenberg. During her years in Germany, she came to know many important musicians, including Brahms, Clara Schumann, and Grieg. Smyth came to prominence in England in the early 1890s, with performances of her Serenade and Antony and Cleopatra in 1890 and the Mass in D in 1893. (These performances are the focus of the scrapbook in this collection.) She then turned her efforts to the stage. Over the next thirty years, she composed six operas: Fantasio, Der Wald, The Wreckers, The Boatswain's Mate, Fête galante, and Entente cordiale. Beginning in 1910, Smyth was an important figure in the drive to gain women the right to vote in England, a movement led by her friend Emmeline Pankhurst. Smyth composed a suffragist anthem, and went to prison for throwing a rock through a window of the Colonial Secretary's home. In the final three decades of her life, Smyth increasingly suffered from hearing loss. She continued to compose, but she devoted much of her time to a series of autobiographical books that vividly display her colorful and energetic personality. By the time of her death in Woking, England on May 8, 1944, she had long been recognized as the leading British female composer of her era.

This collection contains letters from Smyth, chiefly to her sister Alice Davidson. Their dates range from 1877 to 1939, but the largest number are from 1916 to 1919. The letters discuss Smyth's education in Germany, her career as a composer, her work as an activist for women's suffrage, and other matters. The collection also includes a scrapbook of clippings and programs concerning Smyth's compositions from 1890 to 1893, as well as a handwritten biographical notice.

Society for the Publication of American Music (SPAM)

Misc. Ms. 172 - Papers of the Society for the Publication of American Music; 2'

This collection documents the activities of the Society for the Publication of American Music (SPAM) from its inception in 1919 to its dissolution in May, 1969. The bulk of materials dates from the last 10 years of the Society's existence and consists of: correspondence; subscription records; royalty, bank, and other financial records; officers' notes; and a small number of programs and reviews. Yale University figured prominently in the history of SPAM. At the time of SPAM's dissolution in 1969, Luther Noss, Dean of the School of Music, was the president, and Music Librarian Brooks Shepard was the treasurer. Many Yale composers were honored by SPAM, including Howard Boatwright, Jacob Druckman, Daniel Gregory Mason, Mel Powell, Quincy Porter, and David Stanley Smith.

Sokoloff, Noel

MSS 115 - Noel Sokoloff Music Manuscripts; 4'

Noel Nikolai Sokoloff (1923-1998) was the son of Nikolai Sokoloff, the first conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. Noel Sokoloff was active as a composer, clergyman, and educator. (Not yet processed)

Somer, Hilde

MSS 44 - The Hilde Somer Papers; ca.9' 

The pianist Hilde Somer (1922-1979) came to the United States from Austria as a child prodigy and studied with Rudolf Serkin, Moritz Rosenthal, Wanda Landowska, and Claudio Arrau. She had an active career as recitalist and as a soloist with orchestras in Europe and America and gave première performances of piano concertos of John Corigliano, Alberto Ginastera (his Second Piano Concerto is dedicated to her), and Henry Brant. She often performed Scriabin's music with the accompaniment of colored laser lights projected onto a screen, as prescribed by Scriabin. The Papers include photocopies of composers' manuscripts with extensive performance instructions, correspondence, video tapes, scrapbooks, and clippings. (Not yet processed)

South Before the War Company

MSS 87 - The South Before the War Company Papers; 3' 

The South Before the War was a minstrel show owned and managed by Herman Wallum (alias Harry Martell) that toured the United States in the late 1890s (and possibly before and after that time as well).  The papers include scripts, orchestral parts, published and unpublished sheet music, publicity and other ephemera.

Spohr, Louis

MSS 23 - The Camp Collection of the Music of Louis Spohr; 4.5' 

Charles Lewis Nichols Camp, a New Haven bibliophile, amassed an extensive collection of the works of Louis Spohr (1784-1859), in early printed editions and in copyists' hands. The collection came to Yale as a bequest after Camp's death in 1922.

Spoken Arts

MSS 105 - Arthur and Luce Klein Spoken Arts Collection

Stern, Blake

Misc. Ms. 307 - The Blake Stern Papers; 3.5'

The tenor Blake Stern was born in Iowa in 1917. In 1940 he earned a bachelor's degree from Grinnell College. He served in the Navy during World War II, and then continued his education at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Julius Herford and Mack Harrell, receiving the M.S. in 1950. After teaching at the University of Minnesota, he joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 1955; he remained there for 32 years. Stern was best known as an oratorio singer. He performed with many leading orchestras and conductors in America and around the world. He died Logan, Iowa on December 22, 1987, just six months after his retirement from Yale. The collection holds a large number of programs and clippings related to Stern's performances, as well as photographs, awards, posters, and a small number of letters.

Stewart, Slam

MSS 59 - The Slam Stewart Papers; 9' 

Leroy Elliott "Slam" Stewart (1914-1987) was one of America's pre-eminent performers on double bass, appearing with Art Tatum, Billy Taylor, Erroll Garner, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, et al. The Papers include his well-known composition "Flat Foot Floogie," a few arrangements, programs, photographs, clippings, correspondence, awards, contracts, and financial materials.

Stoeckel family

Misc. Ms. 247 - The Stoeckel Family Papers; 0.25'

The Stoeckel and Battell families both played crucial roles in the development of music at Yale University. Gustave Jacob Stoeckel (1819-1907) was the first professor of music at Yale. Robbins Battell (1819-1895) was a generous Yale philanthropist as well as an amateur composer. Stoeckel's papers and some of Battell's compositions are preserved in the Yale Music Library as MSS 27 and Misc. Ms. 157, respectively. In 1895, Stoeckel's son Carl (1858-1925) married Battell's daughter Ellen (1851-1939). Carl had previously been Robbins Battell's secretary. In 1899, Ellen and Carl Stoeckel established the Litchfield County Choral Union, and this group's concerts proved to be the beginning of an important summer music festival in Norfolk, Connecticut, where the Stoeckels lived. In 1906 they built the Norfolk Music Shed to house the Festival's concerts. Renowned performers such as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Fritz Kreisler, and Lillian Nordica appeared at the Festival, and the Stoeckels commissioned new works from many composers, including Jean Sibelius, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Horatio Parker, Henry Gilbert, and Victor Herbert; the Stoeckel Family Papers are largely devoted to Carl's recollections of Sibelius and Coleridge-Taylor. The festival went into abeyance after Carl's death in 1925, but when Ellen died in 1939, her will established the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Trust to revive the festival, in collaboration with Yale. The Norfolk Music Festival still takes place every summer at the family estate.

The Stoeckel Family Papers consist primarily of Carl Stoeckel's typed reminiscences of visits made by Jean Sibelius and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Stoeckel Family Estate in Norfolk, CT. Additional writings about Sibelius, by Olin Downes and Karl Ekman, are also included. The Papers also hold a small number of letters between members of the Stoeckel Family and Horatio Parker, David Stanley Smith, and Eva J. O'Meara, as well as a biographical sketch of Robbins Battell Stoeckel and a copy of Ellen Battell Stoeckel's will.

Stoeckel, Gustav Jakob

MSS 27 - The Gustav Jakob Stoeckel Papers; 3' 

The composer and first Professor of Music at Yale, Gustav Jakob Stoeckel (1819-1907), was born in Bavaria. His association with Yale began in 1855 as "Organist and Chapel Master." His appointment as Professor of Music did not occur until 1890, a few years before his retirement and near the time when Yale began offering a degree in music. The Papers include Stoeckel's six operas and other musical and non-musical works.

Stone, Kurt

MSS 71 - The Kurt Stone Papers; ca.6' 

The music editor Kurt Stone (1911-1989) worked closely with Elliott Carter and Paul Hindemith while employed at Associated Music Publishers. The bulk of the Papers are the letters of Elliott and Helen Carter to and from Stone, covering the years 1955-1980, and of Hindemith to and from Stone, covering the years 1953-1962. Some letters include musical notation of Carter and Hindemith. Stone's papers formerly included the autograph manuscript score of Heitor Villa-Lobos's String Quartet No. 7; this has now been removed from the collection and cataloged separately as Misc. Ms. 616.

Swensen, Richard D. and Grace H.

MSS 121 - The Richard D. and Grace H. Swensen Autograph and Photograph Collection; 0.5'

The collection consists chiefly of autographed photographs of notable musicians and other prominent persons who took part in the Wartburg College Artist Series. It also includes additional photographs, autographed programs, an autographed business card, and a publication about the Wartburg College Artist Series. Robert Shaw, Rise Stevens, Eleanor Steber, Arthur Fiedler, Artur Rubinstein, Jascha Heifetz, Rudolf Serkin, Percy Grainger, Norman Vincent Peale, Carl Sandberg, and Charles Laughton are among those included. Much of the material was collected by Alf Swensen, a chemistry professor who chaired the Wartburg College Artist Series from 1921 to 1968. His son and daughter-in-law, Richard D. and Grace H. Swensen, continued the collection and donated it to Yale University. Their son, David F. Swensen, manages the Yale endowment and also serves on the faculty of Yale College and the Yale School of Management. (Not yet processed)

Swift, Kay

MSS 65 - The Kay Swift Papers; 15' 

Kay Swift (1897-1993) is perhaps best remembered for her musical Fine and Dandy, which ran on Broadway in 1930 for 236 performances, and for her close relationship with George Gershwin. The Papers consist of everything in her possession at the time of her death: manuscripts of her music, private tapes and commercial recordings, correspondence, financial records, programs, reviews, and photographs. 

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