Scope and arrangement
The Herbert Haufrecht collection holds correspondence, concert programs, and clippings; scores for Haufrecht's compositions and arrangements, from sketches to finished versions; and papers documenting his research on the music and culture of the Catskills, as well as of folk and indigenous music from around the world. Correspondents include Pete Seeger, George Rochberg, Earl Robinson, and Jascha Heifetz. Scores comprise the bulk of the collection and include much of Haufrecht's music, as well as arrangements of folk music he transcribed. Most of the research papers concern work that produced the book Folk Songs of the Catskills, but the collection also contains Haufrecht's research of, notes on, and transcriptions of music from various nations, particularly Haiti, Italy, the former Czechoslovakia, and France.
The collection holds 42 open reel tapes. Nine of them contain recordings of the Catskill Folk Festivals from 1977 to 1979; one holds a 1981 lecture Haufrecht delivered to the Woodstock Artists Association on Folklife in the Catskills; and ten contain interviews with and recordings of Catskill folk song performers. Eighteen reels contain Haufrecht compositions, including the opera Boney Quillen, Prelude to a Tragedy, Symphony for Brass and Timpani, Woodland Serenade, Walkin' the Road, A Pot of Broth, and Sicilian Suite. Two reels contain Norman Cazden compositions, and two reels have unidentified content.
Inquiries regarding audio material in the collection may be directed to the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound (rha@nypl.org). Audio materials will be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access.
The Herbert Haufrecht collection is arranged in three series:
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1930-20001.3 boxes
This series, arranged alphabetically, holds a folder of concert programs and clippings of articles about Haufrecht, and Haufrecht's correspondence with composers, organizations, friends, and other composers and folklorists. Correspondents include George Rochberg and Quincy Porter (representing Theodore Presser Company and Yaddo, respectively); the American Composers Alliance; the Resettlement Administration of the Federal Department of Agriculture; the Pan American Union; and the musicians Pete Seeger, Earl Robinson, Jascha Heifetz, and Benjamin Verdery. Correspondence dating from after Haufrecht's death is to his widow, Betty.
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1932-199414.3 boxes
This series primarily contains scores for Haufrecht's music and arrangements, as well as programs and clippings for particular pieces by Haufrecht. The scores hold sketches, manuscripts, final scores and parts. Some works have published versions as well. Much of Haufrecht's output is present, such as his operas Boney Quillen and A Pot of Broth; Symphony for Brass and Timpani; The Story of Ferdinand the Bull; We've Come From The City; and his final work, War Prayer. Haufrecht compiled an inventory of his compositions which is also in the collection.
The arrangements include Haufrecht's transcriptions of folk songs for vocal or instrumental settings; and arrangements of music by J. J. Rousseau and Ludwig van Beethoven.
All components of the series are arranged alphabetically by title.
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1941-19974.3 boxes
This series, arranged alphabetically, mainly holds papers documenting Haufrecht's research on the music and songs of the Catskills. This research was carried out from the 1940s to the late 1970s, and assembled in the multi-volume Folk Songs of the Catskills (1982). Many of the papers in the series document that book's creation. They include correspondence with co-author Norman Cazden and the State University of New York at New Paltz (the book's publisher); images used in the book, including a photograph of Haufrecht and Cazden in the 1940s; and photographs from the Folk Festival of the Catskills, mainly from the 1970s. The correspondence with Cazden also contains a folder of "addenda to the Collection of Catskill Folksongs" by Cazden, Haufrecht and Norman Studer. The SUNY-New Paltz files hold papers documenting a course on music of the Catskills that Haufrecht taught at the college.
Other Catskill-related papers in the series hold information on Camp Woodland, the annual summer camp for children in Phoenicia, New York, at which Haufrecht first gathered songs and folklore from the region; programs and other documention of various New York state folk festivals, mainly the annual Folk Festival of the Catskills; and interview transcripts of Haufrecht speaking with Grant Rogers and Grant Decker, two Catskill folk singers and storytellers. The folder on Miriam Berg, another researcher of Catskills culture, contains a report by her entitled "Ballads Research Project," for which she interviewed Haufrecht.
The remainder of the series holds Haufrecht's research notes on and transcriptions of music from various nations and cultures around the world. The regions with the most material are Haiti, Italy, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany-Austria, Great Britain and Ireland, and regions of the United States other than the Catskills.