- unitid
-
{"value"=>"20262", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"JPB 00-4", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b15596170", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1919-1996", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1919/1996"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Eric Siday papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"20 boxes, 1 oversize folder", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"6.13 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"678 audio recordings", "unit"=>"audio recordings"}]}
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"49 moving image recordings", "unit"=>"moving image recordings"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Music Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Eric Siday (1905-1976) was a British-American composer, arranger, producer, and violinist who pioneered the creative use of new technology and recording techniques in advertising and brand identification. One of the first composers to routinely employ the Moog synthesizer, his advertising jingles and broadcast identification sounds became widely known in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Eric Siday papers, dating from 1919 to 1996, reveal his career through audio and moving image recordings, scores, correspondence, contracts, technical notes, financial records, photographs, manuscripts, publicity files, and autobiographical essays."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Siday, Eric", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Eric Siday (1905-1976) was a British-American composer, arranger, producer, and violinist who pioneered the creative use of new technology and recording techniques in advertising and brand identification. One of the first composers to routinely employ the Moog synthesizer, his advertising jingles and broadcast identification sounds became widely known in the 1960s and early 1970s.</p> <p>Born and raised in South London, the United Kingdom, Siday graduated from the Royal Academy of Music and began his career as a jazz violinist, playing with the bands of Jack Hilton and Ray Starita, among others. He was also proficient on piano, trumpet, clarinet, and saxophone. Siday was also interested in composition and arranging, but it wasn't until he emigrated to the United States, in 1939, that this part of his career fully emerged. He began arranging for bands led by Fred Waring, Al Goodman, and Allan Roth, among others, and, during the Second World War, worked as an arranger for the Office of War Information.</p> <p>Siday composed some music of his own, including such ensemble works as <span class=\"title\">Concerto Ritmico</span>, <span class=\"title\">Lament in G Minor</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Lullaby</span>, but in the 1950s he began working in the commercial world, composing jingles and musical accompaniment for radio and television advertisements, and producing recording sessions as well. He sometimes worked with Austen Crooms-Johnson, another British composer and producer known for the creation and use of the advertising jingle.</p> <p>In the early 1960s, Siday met Robert Moog, the inventor of the Moog synthesizer, and Siday was Moog's first customer to purchase a complete, work-ready system. Siday also commissioned Moog to create the first percussion synthesizer. He assembled a home studio with 3-track and, later, 8-track recording capability. Siday also created and patented his own audio processing equipment.</p> <p>Siday began producing audio for commercials with hybrids of traditional instruments and sounds produced by the Moog, or natural sounds processed through various electronic means, including some of Siday's own invention. Siday also created sounds purely from the Moog and began marketing these sounds to companies and radio and television stations, pioneering the practice of audio brand marketing and identification.</p> <p>Siday formed a company, Identitones, to produce, market, and sell these recordings. Among his many advertising clients and brands were AAMCO, Birds Eye, Bufferin, Contac, Excedrin, Ford, Helena Rubinstein, Listerine, Maxwell House, Old Spice, Sprite, Texaco, Vicks, and Westinghouse. His radio and television clients included the ABC, CBS, and American Radio networks, as well as local stations across the United States. Among Siday's most well-known advertisements and logos were those for Maxwell House, Columbia/Screen Gems, Westinghouse, National Educational Television (the precursor to PBS), WCBS in New York, WCAU in Philadelphia, and many other news radio and television stations.</p> <p>Siday created radio broadcasts such as <span class=\"title\">The World of Sound</span> explaining the work he did and discussing the uses and possibilities of electronic music in commercial advertising and brand identification, as well as in creative music, sound composition, and aural environments. He also explored the use of these methods in stories for children, and produced demos narrated by the actress Hermione Gingold with synthesizer-produced music and sound effects.</p> <p>Siday remained active in production into the early 1970s. He died in 1976 in New York City at the age of 70. He was survived by his wife, Edith Siday (1908-1997), a former dancer.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Eric Siday papers, dating from 1919 to 1996, reveal the career of the musician and producer, mainly from the start of his commercial advertising productions in the 1950s, through audio and moving image recordings, scores, correspondence, contracts, technical notes, financial records, photographs, manuscripts, publicity files, and autobiographical essays. Posthumous content is from Siday's estate, overseen by his wife Edith Siday until her death.</p> <p>Series I: Business Files covers Siday's dealings with advertising agencies, broadcasters, music publishers, and equipment manufacturers through correspondence, contracts, notes, financial records, publicity files, and manuscripts.</p> <p>Series II: Personal Papers includes autobiographical essays and travel documents.</p> <p>Series III: Scores document mainly Siday's work for advertising and radio and television stations from the 1950s to the early 1960s, some co-written or arranged with Austen Croom-Johnson. Siday's non-commercial compositions are here as well.</p> <p>Series IV: Photographs holds images of Edith and Eric Siday, as well as Siday's studio and equipment.</p> <p>Series V: Audio and Moving Image Recordings represents the bulk of Siday's commercial and non-commercial work as a composer and producer, and his performances as a violinist.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Eric Siday papers are arranged in five series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20262#c1911457'>Series I: Business Files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1919-1996</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>3.17 linear feet (8 boxes)</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series documents the breadth of Siday's production and business activity. Major files sets cover advertising and broadcasting identifications; Siday's inventions; writings; legal papers; recording sessions; publicity; studio equipment; and correspondence with Robert Moog. The files include correspondence, contracts, notes, financial records, publicity files, and manuscripts.</p> <p>The advertising and broadcasting identification files comprise the largest portions of the series. They hold correspondence with advertising agencies and broadcasters regarding the work Siday was commissioned to produce. These include major agencies such as Benton and Bowles, McCann-Erickson, Ogilvy and Mather, and others; and radio and television stations across the country. The legal papers (all from the offices of Siday's attorneys, Linden and Deutsch), hold contracts and related correspondence regarding advertising and broadcasting work.</p> <p>The files regarding Siday's inventions include papers filed with United States Patent Office that contain descriptions of and schematics for audio processing equipment. The studio equipment files also hold information on these inventions, as well as descriptions and diagrams of Siday's home studio and the instruments and recording gear he used. A file of correspondence with Robert Moog documents their business relationship, including Siday's purchase of Moog's synthesizer in 1964 and his further consultations with Moog in the following years.</p> <p>Siday's writings represent his efforts at marketing his work to clients and explaining it to a wider audience. A combination of articles and speech texts, they discuss electronic music and how it can be used in communication and advertising, and include a script for a proposed radio series, <span class=\"title\">The World of Sound</span>. Also present is a manuscript for a pedagogical book on jazz violin.</p> <p>The recording sessions files detail clients, publishing, royalties, copyrights, contracts, financial records and other papers regarding the production of music for advertising.</p> <p>The publicity files contain mainly clippings and magazine issues regarding Siday and his work.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20262#c1911648'>Series II: Personal Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1920-1992</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>0.43 linear feet (1 box, 1 oversize folder)</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Series II contains autobiographical essays; travel documents, including passports; education and citizenship certificates; letters to Edith Siday, including condolences after her husband's death; and papers regarding Siday's funeral, including the eulogy and obituaries.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20262#c1911672'>Series III: Scores</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1934-1974</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>3.17 linear feet (12 boxes)</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The scores document primarily Siday's work in writing and producing music for advertising and radio/television identifications and branding, though they also contain some creative work of his own, and music he wrote for Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians. The series is in five divisions: Compositions and Arrangements; work with the advertising composer Austin Croom-Johnson; Station Identifications; Television Spots; and Titles and Cues. In general, instrumental and vocal scores written for advertising and broadcast identifications pre-date Siday's acquisition and application of the Moog synthesizer, after which he did not employ notated music as often.</p> <p>Compositions and Arrangements contain work done for popular music recordings and publication, as well as some for advertising. Some scores here are published. They also include work by other composers. Many of the popular-based music scores are in the form of sheet music or lead sheets, while scores for instrumental works include full or conductor scores and parts. The scores for Siday's own compositions include <span class=\"title\">Concerto Ritmico</span>, <span class=\"title\">Lament in G Minor</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Lullaby</span>.</p> <p>Siday's commercial work co-written or arranged with Austin Croom-Johnson includes advertising music for Coca Cola, Old Spice, Schaefer Beer, TWA, and Wrigley; and radio identifications and news broadcasts. All of these are full scores for various studio ensembles.</p> <p>Station Identifications contains full scores for identifications, programming schedules, and backgrounds for news broadcasts. Some of these compositions were custom made for individual stations, while others were re-recorded multiple times with different lyrics for different stations. Two of the subdivisions are presumably work that was distributed by the companies named: Modern Radio Plans and Radio Music Services. The music for Modern Radio Plans includes work for advertising as well as station identifications.</p> <p>Television Spots contains scores for material similar to that for the radio station identifications. Titles and Cues contains music for similar purposes, but the client(s) are unidentified.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20262#c1911935'>Series IV: Photographs</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1940s-1970s</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>0.71 linear feet (3 boxes)</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series holds formal and informal photographs of Eric and Edith Siday; some of the keyboards and recording equipment Siday used in his studio; and Siday conducting and running a recording session.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20262#c1911947'>Series V: Audio and Moving Image Recordings</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1949-1981</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>0.83 linear feet (2 boxes). 678 audio recordings. 49 moving image recordings</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains Siday's recorded output, including commercial, non-commercial, and informal work. It includes music and sounds for advertising; logos and identification for radio and television stations and networks; demonstrations and explanations of Siday's production techniques; interviews and speeches; Siday's compositions; experimental synthesizer and electronic recordings; Siday's violin performances; home recordings; stories for children, including readings by the actress Hermione Gingold; Siday productions unrelated to advertising or broadcast identifications; recordings not connected to Siday; and unidentified recordings. Each grouping is arranged alphabetically by title or subject.</p> <p>The series holds notes on original tape contents, some compiled by Siday, others by his estate; these can be found at the top of the container list. Many items in this series bear more than one identification number. The six-digit number is assigned by the library. The other numbers appeared on the original tape boxes and were used for identification in the content listing and inventories prepared by Siday or his estate. A few of the recordings were also cataloged separately by the library and have call numbers.</p> <p>The advertising recordings comprise the bulk of the series. They consist of multi-track recording sessions, mixes, and various versions of finished advertisements, either for radio or television. In some cases, the audio recordings are the sound portion only of television commercials, but video of commercials is present as well. The recordings incorporate traditional musical instruments and voices in advertisements of the 1950s and early 1960s, with the Moog synthesizer incorporated in 1964 and later. Represented companies and brands include AAMCO, Birds Eye, Brazil Coffee, Bufferin, Contac, Dexol, Downy, Eveready, Excedrin, Ford, Foster Grant, Helena Rubinstein, Listerine, Maxwell House, Old Spice, RCA, Sprite, Texaco, and Westinghouse, among others.</p> <p>Radio and television identifications and promotional recordings, like the advertising music, incorporate traditional instruments and vocals before 1964, and become almost wholly synthesizer sounds afterward. Networks and station identifications heard here include the American Radio Network, CBS, and many local stations across the country, including in Puerto Rico, such as WCAU, WCBS, WDSU, WNBC, and WMCA. There are also recordings made for stations in Mexico. Some recordings here are grouped under Siday's Identitones company, and a few recordings are of news radio station broadcasts that incorporate Siday's work. This section also includes Siday's work on a radio program titled <span class=\"title\">Celebrity Horoscopes</span>; generic weather logos for use by any broadcaster; and compilations of work for multiple radio or television stations.</p> <p>Demonstration recordings consist of Siday narratives and sound examples explaining the use of new sounds in advertising and brand identification (these may have been promotional and marketing items produced for radio and television executives). Also present are demonstrations of Siday's methods in recordings for children; demonstrations of the Moog synthesizer and sound processing methods; and a recording of a proposed radio program by Siday, <span class=\"title\">The World of Sound</span>, meant for a general audience. There is also a recording titled \"Electronic Modification of Trumpet Sounds Using the Moog Synthesizer\" which is narrated by Robert Moog.</p> <p>The interviews and speeches include two radio interviews and three speeches to advertising executives. There is also a radio interview with the organist Carl Weinrich, unrelated to Siday or advertising.</p> <p>Recorded compositions by Siday include <span class=\"title\">Concerto Ritmico</span>; <span class=\"title\">Islands</span> (assembled as multi-track recording); <span class=\"title\">Moog Man</span> (for synthesizer and vocalist); and other pieces.</p> <p>The experimental recordings are mostly multi-tracks which are combinations of Moog sounds, electronically processed natural sounds, and acoustic instruments and natural sounds.</p> <p>The recordings of Siday in performance on violin date from 1939.</p> <p>The home recordings consist of audio letters, telephone conversations, room conversations, field recordings of natural sounds, and one home movie. The room conversations are between Siday, his wife Edith, and unidentified other people. There are also home recordings of a man named Irving Gerber. The audio letters are to or from Siday. One is from an unidentified United States soldier in Vietnam during the war. The telephone conversations, recorded by Siday, concern business or legal issues.</p> <p>The stories for children are meant to be demonstrations of another use of the Moog synthesizer. Those featuring Hermione Gingold are a recitation of <span class=\"title\">The Story of Ferdinand</span> by Munro Leaf, and an unidentified story about two animals, Paula and Harriet.</p> <p>Other Siday productions include an album of music from Andrew Lloyd Weber's <span class=\"title\">Jesus Christ Superstar</span> arranged for synthesizer; a project called \"Primative\" (other details unknown); and synthesizer recordings grouped under the title Hare Krishna.</p> <p>The recordings unrelated to Siday (but likely collected by him) include a Friars Club Roast of Harry Brown; recording sessions for the cast album of the musical <span class=\"title\">Stop the World I Want to Get Off</span>; a recording of the comedian Betsy Walker; and a 1955 radio program called <span class=\"title\">The World of Jazz</span> featuring discussion of that year's jazz record releases.</p> <p>The unidentified audio or moving image items are a combination of recording sessions, films, sound effects, and a radio call-in show, among others.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by the Eric and Edith Siday Foundation in <span class=\"date\">1996</span>.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Pauline Fox</span> in <span class=\"date\">August 2000</span>.</p>"}
- accessrestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Audio and moving image materials can be used onsite at the Library for the Performing Arts. To request materials, please contact the Music Division. Some audio items are currently unavailable pending preservation transfer. These are marked as such in the container list.</p>"}
- otherfindaid
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Music and Recorded Sound Division holds two tape content listings compiled in the early 2000s that may have more information than this finding aid in some cases. These are available upon request.</p>"}
- sponsor
-
{"value"=>"Description of audio and moving image materials was made possible by a grant from\n the Leon Levy Foundation, \"The Shelby White and Leon Levy Initiative to Press Play on the\n Audio and Motion Picture Archives at the New York Public Library for the Performing\n Arts.\""}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Enhanced audio and video description added and finding aid revised by Matthew\n Snyder in", "date"=>"2024."}
{"value"=>"Additional sound recording inventory provided by Sean Smalley in", "date"=>"2024."}
- date_start
-
1919
- keydate
-
1919
- date_end
-
1996
- date_inclusive_start
-
1919
- date_inclusive_end
-
1996
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Eric Siday papers, JPB 00-4. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts"}