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Music Library Special Collections: Archival Collections L-M

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

Archival Collections L-M

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Laderman, Ezra

MSS 133 - The Ezra Laderman Papers; 71'

Ezra Laderman ranks among the leading American composers of his time. Born in Brooklyn in 1924, he was educated at the High School of Music and Art, Brooklyn College, and Columbia University; his teachers included Stefan Wolpe, Miriam Gideon, Otto Luening, and Douglas Moore. Service in the U.S. Army during World War II interrupted his formal education, but not his compositional career; after participating in the liberation of Leipzig, he wrote a symphony inspired by the experience.

Laderman was a prolific composer in a range of genres; he produced numerous symphonies, concertos, and chamber works, and he created operas based on characters as varied as Galileo Galilei and Marilyn Monroe. His music has been performed by many leading ensembles and soloists, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Elmar Oliveira, and Jean-Pierre Rampal. His musical career spanned several eras; he began composing as a boy in the 1930s, and he continued nearly until his death in 2015.

Laderman was an educator and administrator as well as a composer. He taught at several institutions, most notably the Yale School of Music, where he served as Dean and as Professor of Composition. He was Chairman of Music Programs at the National Endowment for the Arts, and President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Music Center, and the National Music Council.

Musical scores make up the largest part of Laderman's papers. Sound recordings, correspondence, programs, clippings, films, awards, and other materials are also included.

Langenus, Gustave

MSS 89 - The Gustave Langenus Papers; 12'

Gustave Langenus (1883-1957) was an influential Belgian-American clarinetist and pedagogue. (Partially processed)

Lees, Benjamin

MSS 134 - The Benjamin Lees Papers;  7.5'

The composer Benjamin Lees (1924-2010) was born in China to Russian parents, but he spent most of his life in the United States. His papers consist chiefly of musical scores. They also include programs, clippings, sound recordings, and a small amount of correspondence. (Partially processed)

Lenya, Lotte

See The Papers of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya

Lewis, Ted

MSS 60 - The Ted Lewis Collection; ca.6' 

The career of Ted Lewis (1891-1971) spanned six decades with performances in vaudeville, musical comedy, and films and on records, radio, and television. The bulk of text and pictorial material is in seven large scrapbooks. There are seventeen manuscript arrangements, numerous commercial recordings, and 27 half-hour radio programs that were never aired. (Partially processed) 

Libretto Collection

Misc. Ms. 302 - The Libretto Collection; 1.5'

The collection consists of published librettos for operas, many of them associated with performances in New York or other cities.

Lieberson, Goddard

MSS 69 - The Goddard Lieberson Papers; ca. 48' 

As President of Columbia Records, the composer Goddard Lieberson (1911-1977) was among the nation's most influential musical personalities from the 1940s to his death. His Papers, the gift of his widow, Vera Zorina, include essentially every Columbia LP recording issued during his tenure, twenty-five file drawers and nineteen additional boxes of correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, and the holograph manuscripts of his compositions. Lieberson engaged authors, poets, and public figures to do spoken recordings; their correspondence combined with that of musicians comprise one of the most remarkable correspondence files in the Yale Music Archives. Among the major correspondences are those with Samuel Beckett, Sir Thomas Beecham, Irving Berlin, Fanny Brice, Noel Coward, Henry Cowell, Nelson Eddy, Edna Ferber, Jose Ferrer, Ira Gershwin, John Gielgud, Sir Alec Guiness, Paul Hindemith, Jerome Kern, Andre Kostelanetz, Lotte Lehman, Lotte Lenya, Groucho Marx, W. Somerset Maugham, Darius Milhaud, Eugene Ormandy, Egon Petri, Gregor Piatigorsky, Cole Porter, Basil Rathbone, Fritz Reiner, Richard Rogers, Artur Rodzinski, William Saroyan, Arnold Schoenberg, Dame Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, Rudolph Serkin, Rise Stevens, Leopold Stokowsky, Igor Stravinsky, George Szell, Joseph Szigeti, Virgil Thomson, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Bruno Walter. Most of these persons are also represented in the photographic archives of Fred Plaut (MSS 52).

Lind, Jenny

Misc. Ms. 242 - The Jenny Lind Collection; 0.5'

Jenny Lind (1820-1887) was the most renowned soprano of her era. After triumphs in her native Sweden, France, Germany, and England, in 1850-1852 she toured the United States, performing in 93 cities. Her trip was organized by P.T. Barnum, and it became a milestone in the history of music in America, not only for the purity and agility of her voice, but also for the audacity (and success) of Barnum's marketing. This collection includes programs, clippings, and a collection of printed sheet music relating to Lind, particularly regarding her American tour. The sheet music includes works she performed as well as works inspired by her.

Loeffler, Charles Martin

Misc. Ms. 270 - The Charles Martin Loeffler Collection; 3'

Charles Martin Loeffler was born on January 30, 1861. His place of birth is disputed; he claimed to be Alsatian, but according to his biographer Ellen Knight, documents indicate that he was actually born near Berlin. He studied violin and composition in Germany (where Joseph Joachim was one of his teachers) and France, and in 1881 he went to the United States, which eventually became his permanent home. From 1882 to 1903 Loeffler was Second Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and he achieved considerable renown as a solo violinist. He composed extensively, and his works were widely performed during his lifetime. He received many awards, including an honorary doctorate from Yale University in 1926. Charles Martin Loeffler died on May 19, 1935. The collection contains sketches, manuscript scores, and printed editions of 23 of Loeffler's musical compositions, including operas, choral works, songs, and chamber music. It also holds arrangements by Loeffler of other composers' music as well as one photograph and one letter.

Loomis Temple of Music

Misc. Ms. 55 - Music Published by the Loomis Temple of Music; 0.5'

Clark Merrick Loomis (1829-1890) founded the Loomis Temple of Music in New Haven in 1865. Under Clark Loomis's leadership and that of his descendants, the Loomis Temple was a leading retailer of music and musical instruments, and a publisher as well, putting out sheet music and also a magazine, Loomis' Musical Journal (founded in 1867), which later expanded its scope to cover a surprising variety of subjects; for some years it was known as Loomis' Musical, Masonic, and Ladies' Fashion Journal. The Loomis Temple eventually withdrew from publishing, but continued to sell music and instruments. This collection consists of 51 pieces of sheet music published in New Haven by the Loomis Temple of Music between 1877 and 1919. Many of the works are of the popular "March and Two Step" variety. A number of Yale songs are also included.

Loos, Armin

MSS 20 - The Armin Loos Papers; 6' 

Loos (1904-1971) immigrated to the United States from Dresden in 1928. He was an evening and weekend composer, living much of his life in New Britain, Connecticut. Few of his works were performed during his lifetime. His widow has been successful in promoting them after his death. The bulk of the Papers consist of his musical works, including five string quartets and four symphonies. The Library has tapes of performances of thirteen of Loos's works. An early encouragement to Loos was the award of second prize in a WPA-sponsored choral competition in 1938, in which William Schuman received first prize, David Diamond third, and Elliott Carter fifth. 

Love Family

MSS 1 - The Love Family Papers; 3' 

Approximately 1,400 letters and cards spanning the years 1888-1960 and addressed to Lucy Cleveland Prindle Love and to her daughter, Helen Douglas (Love) Scranton. The latter was the secretary to Franz Kneisel, the founder of the Kneisel Quartet. Among the strongly-represented musicians are Harold Bauer, David Bisphan, Teresa Carreño, Frank and Walter Damrosch, Rubin Goldmark, and Henry Holden Huss. A gift of William Gaines (Helen Scranton's cousin) in 1969.

McBrien, William

MSS 131 - The William McBrien Papers; 5'

William McBrien (1930-2009) was a professor of English at Hofstra University. He wrote biographies of Cole Porter and Stevie Smith. His papers pertain chiefly to Cole Porter, and arise mainly from the research for his book Cole Porter: A Biography (New York: Knopf, 1998). They include research materials, sound recordings, and other items.

McPartland, Marian

MSS 63 - The Marian McPartland Papers. 

In 2017, the Marian McPartland Papers were transferred from Yale to the Sibley Music Library at the Eastman School of Music, which also has a collection of McPartland's Papers. 

Mason, Lowell

MSS 33 - The Lowell Mason Papers; 9' 

The core of the Music Library's Rare Book Department is the Lowell Mason Library, which was a gift to Yale by Mason's family in 1873, a year after Mason's death. The Papers contain holograph and manuscript music by Mason (1792-1872) and others, correspondence, programs, clippings, writings, biographical information, and memorabilia. Included are some papers of Mason's son, William (1829-1908).

Mehegan, John

Misc. Ms. 354 - John Mehegan Collection; 1'

John Mehegan was born in Hartford, Connecticut on June 6, 1916. (Later he would list his birth date as 1920 or 1922.) After beginning as a violinist, he switched to the piano. He studied at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, but he was largely self-taught. By the early 1940s, he was active as a jazz pianist in New York; he played in clubs, and composed and performed the incidental music for A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway. Mehegan was a prolific author; he wrote several instructional works (including the four-volume Jazz Improvisation ), and he worked as a critic for the New York Herald Tribune and other publications. He had a long pedagogical career, teaching at Metropolitan Music School, the Juilliard School, Columbia University, the University of Bridgeport, and Yale University (from 1974 to 1983). John Mehegan died in New Canaan, Connecticut on April 3, 1984.

The collection consists mainly of transcriptions (probably by Mehegan) of popular standards. Most contain just the melody and chord symbols, but some also include a left-hand part. The collection also includes Mehegan's résumé and one of his pedagogical works, How to Play Jazz Piano.

Miscellaneous Letters and Documents

Misc. Ms. 372 - Miscellaneous Letters and Documents File; 4'

This collection contains more than 900 individual letters from notable musicians, acquired from a variety of sources. Many of the most eminent composers and performers are represented, including C.P.E. Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Bernstein, Boulanger, Boulez, Brahms, von Bülow, Carter, Chopin, Clementi, Copland, Debussy, Dukas, Dvořák, Fauré, Ferrabosco, Franck, Haydn, Hindemith, Ives, Kreisler, Lenya, Lind, Liszt, Lutoslawski, Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Milhaud, Parker, Prokofiev, Reger, Rossini, Ruggles, Arthur Rubinstein, Saint-Saëns, Schoenberg, Schreker, Robert and Clara Schumann, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Thomson, Vaughan Williams, Verdi, Wagner, Weingartner, and Xenakis. 59 of the letters are available online. (Partially processed.)

Music Vale Seminary

Misc. Ms. 218 - The Music Vale Seminary Papers; 1'

The Music Vale Seminary in Salem, Connecticut, a boarding school for young women, was the first school of music in the United States. It was established in the 1830s, and it closed in 1876. The curriculum included instrumental music, vocal music, and music theory. The collection contains correspondence, historical information, music by founder Orramel Whittlesey and others, and miscellaneous materials.

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