Libraries

Audio collections

Ross Allen Vocal Collection

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 continues to draw on it today for the weekly broadcasts.

The discs are cataloged as a restricted-access archival collection for research use, and are accessible in the online catalog by the local subject heading Ross Allen Collection.

The Allen donation included also many vocal scores of operas and musicals.The scores are incorporated in the general circulating collection of the Music Library.

Leon Aufdemberge Vocal Collection

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

Thomas Binkley Early Music Archive

The Thomas Binkley Early Music Recordings Archive is a research collection 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. Seed money from the Mellon Foundation and donations from several recording companies contributed to early growth of the archive. After Binkley's death in 1995, the collection was renamed "The Thomas Binkley Early Music Recordings Archive" as a memorial.

The archive presently includes some 5,300 recordings, principally vinyl. Access to the vinyl collection is restricted; compact discs may be played by users in the Music Library if the same performance is not available in the general collection.

Recordings in the archive are accessed in the online catalog by the local subject heading TBA (abbreviation for "Thomas Binkley Archive").

Jussi Bjoerling Memorial Collection

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).

The initial gift of recordings in the Bjoerling collection are cataloged, and can be accessed in the online catalog by the local subject heading Jussi Bjoerling Memorial Collection. Access to the collection is restricted. Hundred of additional recordings (mostly compact discs) have been received since the initial gift, and accession of most of these is pending. In addition, an archive of photographs, autographs, letters, recital and opera programs, reviews and other clippings, obituaries, and other documents related to Bjoerling are held in the Cook Music Library vault, and can be retrieved for research purposes.

For more information about Bjoerling, visit the site of the Jussi Bjoerling Museum in Borlange, Sweden.

Alvin M. Ehret Vocal Collection

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, whose long business career was spent as an executive with a family-owned manufacturing firm in the Philadelphia area, developed his collection over a period of many years, and his 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. Consequently, the majority of these recordings were never available through normal U.S. record shops, and many could not be obtained in the U.S. at all. Most items in the collection are in mint or near-mint condition.

Ehret, who graduated from Yale, donated his collection to Indiana University because of the strength and reputation of its music program.

Jack Mayer Collection

Mr. Jack Mayer, an art consultant of Cold Spring, New York, donated his collection of 3,700 sound recordings to Indiana University in 1986. The emphasis of the collection is opera and Lieder, but includes also many recordings of symphonic and chamber music.

In a letter of 9 January 1987 to Dean of the School of Music Charles Webb, Mayer recounts how his collection came to Indiana University.

"This was a collection which was acquired over a period of 25 years and maintained with love and care. It seem to me as if it was destined to go the the faculty and students of Indiana University. Thinking back to my years in Geneva, Switzerland when my neighbor, Professor Gloria Davy, asked me to tape seven versions of Musetta's Waltz Song for one of her students who was undertaking the role, I realized for the first time what a wealth of possibilities there was in the Collection. So when I decided to make a gift of it, I turned once again to Prefessor Davy for advice. Her part in making the donation possible has been capital. It is my hope that these records may contribute a knowledge of the past to your students at the School of Music and point the way to a brilliant future for them."

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.

Print/manuscript collections

Ross Allen Ballet Collection

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 being added to the general circulating collection. Bookplates recognizing the donor are being added to each volume.

Apel Collection of Early String Music

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.

Leonard Bernstein 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. The collection of books is awaiting processing.

For more information about Bernstein, visit the Official Leonard Bernstein Site.

Tibor Kozma Library

Tibor Kozma (1909-1976) was a conductor of the Indiana University Philharmonic and the Opera Theatre from 1957 to 1976. Kozma graduated from the Liszt Academy in his native city of Budapest in 1931, and from the orchestra school of the Saxon State Orchestra in Dresden in 1933. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1941 where he was associated with Broadway productions in New York City, and was much sought after as an operatic coach. From 1948 to 1957 he was an Associate Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera.

After his appointment as Professor of Music at Indiana University in 1957, he dedicated himself almost exclusively to the challenge of furthering the cause of what he sometimes called "the greatest music school in the solar system."

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 the online catalog by the local subject heading Kozma Collection.

Paul Nettl Papers

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.

The materials are housed in closed stacks in the following subject categories:

Izler Solomon Library

American conductor Izler Solomon (1910-1987) was a champion of 20th-century American music. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, much of Solomon's career was spent with orchestras in the Midwest. He made his conducting debut with the Lansing Civic Orchestra in 1931, and during the 1930s worked for the WPA as music director for the State of Michigan. As conductor of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra (1936-1941) he introduced more than 150 American works. Subsequently he was music director of the Columbus Philharmonic Orchestra (1941-1949), and of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (1956-1976). As a guest conductor Solomon appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, and Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra.

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 can be accessed in the online catalog by the local subject heading Izler Solomon Collection

Tischler Collection of Israeli and Jewish Composers

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.

Find cataloged items in IUCAT using search terms "hans and alice tischler".  For access to uncataloged items, contact music library staff to use the Hans and Alice Tischler Collection inventory list.

Mixed collections

Black Music Collection

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. A major activity of the Committee was to gather bibliographic data with the goal of developing an extensive collection of books, journals, recordings, and other materials for the documentation of all major aspects of Black musical expression: jazz, concert music, gospel music, rhythm and blues, folk, ethnic, and popular music. In 1970 a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities enabled the establishment of the Black Music Collection at Indiana University.

3,250 books, scores, and recordings are cataloged in the Black Music Collection, and are shelved with the general circulating collections. These materials can be accessed in the online catalog by the local subject heading Black Music Collection. The subject heading is added to newly acquired items as they are cataloged and added to the library's collection.

Christopher Keene Library

The Christopher Keene Library was the working library of American conductor Christopher Keene (1946-1995).

Keene is remembered as a champion of 20th-century music. He began conducting opera as a student at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1960s, and in 1966 he was appointed assistant conductor of the San Francisco Opera by Kurt Herbert Adler. In 1967 he held the same position at the San Diego Opera.

Other positions held by Keene during his career were music director of the American Spoleto Festival, the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, founder and director of the Long Island Philharmonic, and music director of Eliot Feld's American Ballet Company.

Christopher Keene had guest engagements with many of the world's leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper of Berlin, and the Vienna Volksoper. Guest engagements as a symphony conductor included the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and orchestras of Basel, Bonn, Dusseldorf, and Nurnberg.

Keene was a frequent conductor at the New York City Opera during the regimes of Julius Rudel and Beverly Sills, and he joined the permanent staff as music director in 1982. In 1989 he assumed the post of general director of the company, a position which he held at the time of his death in October 1995.

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.

Latin American Music Collection

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.

The collection was founded in 1961 with the establishment by the Indiana University School of Music and the Rockefeller Foundation of The Latin American Music Center. The Center, which is located in offices in the Music Library, fosters the research and performance of Latin American music, and facilitates contact with Latin American composers, performers, ensembles, and researchers.

Scores in the collection are shelved in the open stacks, and are available for general circulation, including interlibrary loan. Recordings are shelved in closed stacks, and are restricted to listening in the Music Library. Scores and recordings in the collection are accessible in the online catalog by the local subject heading Latin American music. 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.

A recent important addition to the Latin American Music Collection is the library of Guillermo Espinosa. This library is presently awaiting processing.

Guillermo Espinosa Library

Guillermo Espinosa was the leading figure in the organization of the Inter-American Music Festival that took place in Washington, D.C., from the late 1950s up to 1982. Espinosa's library was donated to the Latin American Music Center by his widow, Lucille Espinosa, in 1993. A biographical sketch of Mr. Espinosa is found in LA MusiCa: The Latin American Music Center Newsletter, Vol.1, no.4.

The Espinosa Library contains scores, books, periodicals, recordings, news clips, programs, photos, and correspondence related to the activities that Espinosa carried out as a noted conductor and supporter of Latin American composers.

This collection presently is awaiting processing. Published materials from the collection will be placed in the general circulating collection, with bookplates identifying them as from Espinosa's library.

Schlossberg Manuscript Collection

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.  In addition to the 90 pages of hand-written exercises are 37 photo prints of hand-written notation.  These photo prints are consistent with the notational style of the other manuscript examples.  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.

IUCAT call number: VAULT MT445 .S34 D4

In worldcat.org: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/341769729

David Blum Collection

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. 

The collection is unprocessed and is housed in closed stacks. A list of items included in the collection is available on request.