Comprehensive List of Special Collections at Cook Music Library

Ross Allen for many years taught operatic stage directing at Indiana University, and directed numerous productions at the University and elsewhere. The 10,000 long-playing vocal recordings that form the Ross Allen Collection served as a resource for Allen's long-running Sunday Opera radio broadcast on Indiana University's station WFIU. Allen donated the collection to the library in 1984, and drew on it for weekly broadcasts until his retirement in 1997. Search IUCAT using Ross Allen local subject heading.

Leon Aufdemberge was a Professor of Fine Arts at Kendall College in Evanston, Illinois, and an opera aficionado. The 12,000 long-playing opera recordings that were in his library were donated to Indiana University in 1993 by his estate. The collection at present is in storage, and awaits processing.

An archive of virtually all of the recorded performances by the Swedish tenor Jussi Bjoerling (1911-1960). The recordings were collected by Jack W. Porter of Indianapolis, and donated to Indiana University in the 1980s. Porter is the co-author of a Bjoerling discography: A Jussi Bjoerling Phonography: A Comprehensive List of All Types of Recordings by Harold Henrysson and Jack W. Porter (Stockholm : Svensk Musikhistorisktarkiv, 1984). Search in IUCAT using the Jussi Bjoerling Memorial Collection local subject heading. 

The Thomas Binkley Early Music Recordings Archive is a research collection of 5,300 recordings consisting of vinyl, compact disc, and cassette recordings of repertoire composed before the end of the Baroque period. The archive was established in the late 1980s as "The Early Music Archive" by Thomas Binkley, then Head of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. After Binkley's death in 1995, the collection was renamed "The Thomas Binkley Early Music Recordings Archive" as a memorial. Search IUCAT using the Thomas Binkley Early Music Recordings Archive local subject heading.

Over the period of 1985-1989, the late Mr. Alvin M. Ehret of Gladwynne, Pennsylvania, donated his collection of some 28,000 LP recordings, plus 180 linear feet of vocal scores and books about music to Indiana University. The collection consists primarily of operas and vocal recitals. Mr. Ehret's zeal as a collector often took him abroad in search of rarely recorded works on obscure labels. Many of the items in the collection have never been available except on a limited basis: private issues by music publishers, fans, or the performers themselves; recordings from countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, the former Czechoslovakia, and other Eastern European nations whose recordings were exported in small quantities; limited-edition reissues from 78 rpm discs; and discs of contemporary music, many of which were on the market for only a brief time. 

Mr. Jack Mayer, an art consultant of Cold Spring, New York, donated his collection of 3,700 sound recordings to IU in 1986. The emphasis is opera and Lieder, but also includes symphonic and chamber music. The Mayer Collection is fully cataloged and integrated into the general recordings collection. No special subject heading is assigned, but items are identified by a bookplate noting the name of the donor.

Ross Allen for many years taught operatic stage directing at Indiana University, and directed numerous productions at the University and elsewhere. In 1998 Allen donated to the Cook Music Library his collection of some 450 monographs and volumes of annuals on the subject of ballet, and numerous souvenir ballet programs.

The volumes are in the the general circulating collection. Bookplates recognizing the donor are added to each volume.

Photographic reproductions of early printed string music, most in editions never reprinted or published in modern edition. Collected by Willi Apel during research for his Italian Violin Music of the Seventeenth Century, edited by Thomas Binkley (Indiana University Press, 1990). These scores and parts are not maintained as a separate collection, but are treated as part of the general circulating collection.

In November 1999 the Cook Music Library received a gift from the Leonard Bernstein estate of approximately 1,000 volumes of books from the library of the late conductor and composer. The collection is a mixture of music and non-music books that Bernstein used in the course of his work. These volumes join the approximately 30 scores of Bernstein works that were presented to the School of Music in 1993 as part of a program to place the composer's scores in university music libraries throughout the US. The scores are cataloged with memorial bookplates, and are shelved in the vault.

For information about our main Leonard Bernstein collection including the 2100 items donated from his Fairfield, CT composition studio, visit the Bernstein Finding Aid.

Tibor Kozma (1909-1976) was a conductor of the Indiana University Philharmonic and the Opera Theatre from 1957 to 1976. Kozma's library of books and scores was donated to the Music Library by his estate in 1976. Many of the scores include his annotations. These are cataloged in the circulating collection, and include a bookplate identifying the original owner. These are accessible in IUCAT by using the local subject heading Kozma Collection.

The papers of the eminent Bohemian-born musicologist Paul Nettl (1889-1972) consist of manuscripts, typed scripts, galley proofs, and some publications of Dr. Nettl's research, supplemented by letters, miscellaneous notes, and clippings. Nettl taught at Indiana University during the years 1946-1959. The collection is a 1973 gift from the American musicologist Bruno Nettl, son of Paul Nettl, and a graduate of Indiana University. The collection may be used for research by any patron of the Music Library.

American conductor Izler Solomon (1910-1987) was a champion of 20th-century American music. After his retirement from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1976, Solomon donated his music collection to Indiana University. The collection is important for the large number of scores by contemporary composers, many reproduced from manuscript, and never published. In addition there are many taped performances and rehearsals of Solomon with the Indianapolis orchestra. Much of Solomon's collection remains unprocessed. Most of the unpublished scores, however, have been extracted from the general collection and cataloged. These are accessible in IUCAT by using the local subject heading Izler Solomon Collection.

A collection of scores and sound recordings produced primarily in Israel and donated to the Cook Music Library by Hans and Alice Tischler.  Many items in this comprehensive collection are unique to the library.

These materials were collected by the Tischlers and led to the publication of A Descriptive Bibliography of Art Music by Israeli Composers by Alice Tischler. Items were donated by a number of Israeli and Jewish composers. Israeli Music Publications gave a copy of each of its printed scores, and other publishers gave a generous selection of their printed materials: The Ministry of Education and Culture, General Federation of Labor, Music Division; The Israel Music Institute; Israel Brass and Woodwind Publications; and Or-Tav Music. Access the Tischler finding aid.

Immediately after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968, the IU School of Music formed a Black Music Committee to undertake research on more than 800 contemporary and pre-contemporary Black composers of Europe, Africa, and the Southern Americas. In 1970 a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities enabled the establishment of the Black Music Collection at Indiana University. More than 6,000 books, scores, and recordings are cataloged in the Black Music Collection, and are shelved with the general circulating collections. These materials can be found in IUCAT using the local subject heading Black Music Collection.

American conductor Christopher Keene (1946-1995) is remembered as a champion of 20th-century music. Keene's library was donated to Indiana University by his widow Sara Keene in early 1996. At present the collection remains in storage. As materials are processed, they will be placed in the general circulating collection, with memorial bookplates identifying the original owner.

The Latin American Music Collection is the largest collection of Latin American art music in the world. The collection includes rare manuscripts and published scores, recordings and books, anthologies of colonial music, photographs of musicians, periodicals, microfilms, and miscellaneous documents.

Scores and recordings in the collection can be located by using the local subject heading Latin American Music Collection. A published catalog of the collection is shelved in the reference collection: Scores and recordings at the Indiana University Latin American Music Center, compiled and edited by Ricardo Lorenz with Luis R. Hernandez and Gerardo Dirie (Indiana University Press, 1995). REF ML136 .I5 I557.

Donated by Naomi Freistadt, the granddaughter of well-known trumpeter and pedagogue Max Schlossberg, the collection consists of manuscripts and various editions of Max Schlossberg's Daily Drills and Technical Studies: For Trumpet, still one of the primary trumpet methods in use throughout the world today.  In the collection are 90 pages of hand-written exercises, mostly in pencil, 60 of which are signed by Schlossberg.  There are also 37 photo prints of hand-written notation.   The collection also includes 5 editions of printed music, ranging from the 1930s to the 1970s.  Included among the materials is the manuscript of the "Balay" etude that appears in the pre-1941 editions, but was removed from later editions.

A collection of books, periodicals, lecture notes and scores from conductor and author David Blum. Blum founded the Young Artists Chamber Orchestra in Los Angeles and the Esterhazy Orchestra of New York. He was music director and conductor of the Lausanne and Geneva Symphony Orchestras, and guest conductor for many others. A list of items included in the collection is available on request. 

This collection consists of materials smuggled out of the Soviet Union and donated by Fedor (Feddy) Lavrov--all materials relating to his Punk rock music production studio, Begemotion Records. This collection includes physical and digitized recordings, photographs, promotional materials, lyric sheets, and album art relating to the music he produced, performed, and composed with various Soviet punk rock musicians and punk rock bands in 1980s Soviet Union, Leningrad. View the Lavorov Finding Aid.