The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Major figures in American music

Repository: Yale University. Library. Oral History of American Music (OHAM)

Collection Description (CRHP): Although most interviews in this collection do not relate to the civil rights movement, those that do include the ones of Ollie Black, Eubie Blake, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Davis, John Hammond, George Lewis, Charles Mingus, Mel Powell, Max Roach, Willy Ruff, and Billy Taylor. Each figure is also represented in the Connor/Neff Blues Collection. This collection is mostly transcribed, not yet digitized. This project originates with the archive and is ongoing, though there are some individual interviews that have been acquired from outside sources and have not been transcribed.

Collection Description (Extant): Major Figures in American Music is the core unit of Oral History of American Music. It consists of approximately [1,000] interviews with composers, performers, and other significant musicians. The first subjects were those most fragile in terms of age and health, such as Eubie Blake, Nadia Boulanger, Aaron Copland, Harry Partch, Charles Seeger, Claire Reis, and Virgil Thomson. Among other senior composers interviewed during the OHAM's first decade were John Cage, Lou Harrison, Ernst Krenek, Leo Ornstein, and William Schuman. As OHAM proceeded, composers actively involved in their careers were included and have been updated periodically. To name a few: John Adams, David Del Tredici, Lukas Foss, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, Ned Rorem, Billy Taylor, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. OHAM's program also includes oral histories with emerging young talents, with the plan to track their careers as they unfold in the future. In addition to interviews with primary subjects, the core unit includes testimonies from secondary sources about George Gershwin, Henry Cowell, Harry Lawrence Freeman, Percy Grainger, and Arnold Schoenberg.

Access Copy Note: This collection is mostly transcribed, not yet digitized. There are various recording media within the collection, and video recordings may be included.

Collection URL: http://www.yale.edu/oham/framecollections.html

Digital Status: No

Extent: approximately 1,000 interviews

Language: English

Interviewees: Ollie Black, Eubie Blake, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Davis, John Hammond, George Lewis, Charles Mingus, Mel Powell, Max Roach, Willy Ruff, Billy Taylor

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

African American musicians
African Americans--Civil rights
Blues (Music)
Jazz
Music

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings
Transcripts