Ella Fitzgerald (date unknown).
The world's largest collection of music scores and other music-related materials -- nearly 10 million items -- is found at the Library of Congress.
In fiscal 1996 alone, the Music Division acquired more than 51,000 music manuscripts, 87,000 letters and photographs, 17,000 pieces of printed music, as well as almost 6,000 other music-related items. However, not all the items in its collections take the same route to the Library. There are five main roads that most collections travel to reach the division:
Items are acquired by the Library as gifts when an artist, his heir or a collector makes an outright donation.
In 1996 the Music Division received Morton Gould's collection as a gift from his daughter. Gould (1913-1996), a composer and conductor who did much to erase the distinction between concert and popular music, composed for every medium -- the movies, ballet, television and Broadway. His work reflected elements of jazz, popular song, folk and marching bands in concert form. Altogether, the Library received some 22,000 music items, and an additional 22,000 letters and other papers relating to Gould.
Items can arrive "on deposit."
A potential donor enters into a contractual agreement with the Library to place material at the Library (for a minimum of 10 years), with the intention of converting it into a future gift. This method of giving arose because under the tax reform act of 1969 an artist cannot receive a tax exemption for market value of his own work. However, the heirs of the artist can often gain tax advantages when the deposit is converted into a gift.
In 1996 about 10,000 music scores and orchestra parts from the collection of singer Ella Fitzgerald (1918-1996) were deposited at the Library. This exciting acquisition included full scores and parts for hundreds of songs sung by Fitzgerald in recordings and concerts, with orchestrations by such well-known arrangers as Nelson Riddle and Billy May. In addition, in 1996 the Library received the Pearl Bailey (1918-1990) Collection on deposit from her husband, bandleader Louie Bellson. The late singer's collection includes 5,500 manuscripts and parts, 500 printed scores about 20 letters and other papers. At the same time, Mr. Bellson, a noted jazz drummer and composer himself, deposited at the Library his own collection of about 1,300 original compositions and arrangements. When combined with the Library's collections of Gerry Mulligan, Gerald Wilson and Charles Mingus, the latest deposits add to an unsurpassed collection of American jazz composers and musicians.
Items come into the collection through purchases from dealers, auction houses or directly from the artist.
Decisions to purchase are arrived at through consensus of an acquisitions group including Jon Newsom, division chief; Vicky J. Wulff, head of Acquisitions and Processing; Elizabeth Auman, donor relations officer; and Raymond A. White, music specialist, plus other recommending officers. Items are paid for either directly out of the Library's appropriated funds or from funds set up specifically for Library acquisitions by foundations, individual benefactors or special bequests.
George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, ca. 1930, in a photo taken by Gershwin with a self-timer.
In 1996 the James Madison Council, a private sector support group of the Library, enabled the Music Division to buy items belonging to the composer George Gershwin from Katharine Weber, granddaughter of composer Kay Swift. These included Gershwin sketches for Porgy and Bess, a page from the "Second Rhapsody," in addition to Gershwin letters and more.
The Library also receives works when another federal agency transfers its material.
Each year, copies of scores commissioned with funds of the National Endowment for the Arts are received at the Library.
When the Music Division uses specially stipulated bequests to commission and perform new works, the Library receives a holograph score from the composer.
The Library's commissioning program goes back to the mid-1920s, when philanthropist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge established a foundation designated for the creation and performance of new music. In 1996 the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation commission led to the composition of nine new works for orchestra or chamber groups. Other commissions made last year were funded by the Carolyn Royall Just Fund and the McKim Fund.
However, not all acquisitions come through these channels. A few years ago, the desk in the Performing Arts Reading Room of the Library received a call from a man cleaning out the basement of his uncle's house. The uncle had recently died, and the man just happened to come across a bunch of music sheets along with lots of other "old music stuff." He said the Library was welcome to the material if someone with a van would come over right away and collect it before it ended up in a dumpster.
The uncle turned out to be Joe Lombardy, a well-known orchestra conductor who had spent his life working on the vaudeville circuit and who had accumulated scores and parts of vaudeville acts. Music Specialist Walter Zvonchenko was delighted; he and the rest of the Music Division knew a bargain when they heard it and, with the cooperation of other divisions, a van was quickly dispatched to the house, and the Library gained another valuable collection.
This sort of expertise, a caring attitude and the ability to act decisively has given the in the Music Division staff a certain cachet among musicians and music lovers. As Elizabeth Auman put it: "We let potential givers know how much we care for the material, and we have the resources to take the best care of a collection."
Ms. Wulff noted that every acquisition is different; every artist has different concerns and requires individual treatment. She also stressed the importance of "connections" among artists; how they act as magnets in acquiring other collections.
Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, ca. 1940. - Photo by Victor Kraft
For example, after the collection of Serge Koussevitzky (the late conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) came to the Library, Koussevitzky's proteges and colleagues, including Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein and William Schuman, also became interested in leaving their music and personal material to the Library. This produces its own synergism; for example, letters that Aaron Copland wrote to Bernstein are found in the Bernstein Collection and vice versa.
Sometimes, a collection can come to the Library over the course of 20 years or more. Relations between the Library and the Gershwin family date back to the 1930s, when few composers or their heirs thought about sending their papers to public institutions. After George Gershwin died in 1937, his brother, Ira, wrote to Harold Spivacke (1896-1983), then chief of the Music Division, to ask if "the manuscripts of George were worthy of the National Library and would the Library of Congress be interested?"
Spivacke jumped at the chance, and a relationship was begun with Ira Gershwin. Although he died in 1983, the Gershwin connection is still going strong today with the establishment in 1992 by Lenore S. Gershwin of the Gershwin Fund to perpetuate the name and works of George and Ira as well as to provide support for "worthy music and literary projects."
Music specialists at the Library tell the story of Ira's first letter with glee; the punch line always is: "Can you imagine, Ira wanted to know if we would be interested?'" In 1996 the Gershwin Fund purchased three letters written by Ira; three letters from George, as well as other material, including a holograph of a previously unknown song by Leonard Bernstein.
When these thousands of different items arrive, the Music Division can process and classify the material in one of two ways. Single books, manuscripts and other individual items usually receive individual cataloging. However, most of the special collections of archival material receive what is known as archival processing, whereby the material is handled in batches. Archival processing is necessary because of the sheer size of some collections. For instance, the Leonard Bernstein Collection contained 500,000 items; the Irving Berlin Collection, 750,000 pieces. To catalog each of these items separately would be a daunting task, as would be the task of a researcher in wading through each item separately.
Using archival processing, the Music Division goes through acquisitions, which can vary from unsorted material dumped carelessly into boxes to well-organized, annotated files. If the material is unorganized, the music specialist assigned to the task (there are 10 in the division) will review the collection, prepare a survey and make a proposal for handling the collection. Once all the material is processed, a "finding aid" is produced (to assist researchers and scholars), and physical arrangements are made to store and preserve the material according to the latest standards for archival preservation.
Although there are standard guidelines for treating collections, each is unique, with few rules. Whenever possible, the Library tries to follow the "original order," keeping material the way the artist originally intended. It can take nearly a year to go through and sort a collection of about 80,000 items.
In the future, the Music Division expects to keep adding to all its collections and building upon its musical strengths -- jazz and the American musical theater -- but its greatest asset is the people who work there. They must possess the diplomacy, tact and patience necessary to pursue a collection. Their most powerful attribute, however, is their passion for music and devotion to the Library's collections. The standard for such devotion was set by former chief (1937-1972) Harold Spivacke, who was so dedicated to the Music Division and so concerned with the difficulty of raising money for acquisitions that in 1982, in his memory, his wife created the Rose Marie and Harold Spivacke Fund to further the music collections of the Library.
