- unitid
-
{"value"=>"JPB 94-3", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"20196", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"ca. 1901-1977", "type"=>"inclusive", "certainty"=>"approximate", "normal"=>"1901/1977"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1901
- date_inclusive_end
-
1977
- keydate
-
1901
- date_start
-
1901
- date_end
-
1977
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Gena Branscombe scores"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"700 folders in 21 boxes"}, {"name"=>"dimensions", "value"=>"6.72 cubic ft."}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library. Music Division.</span> <div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center</span> <span class=\"addressline\">40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498</span></div>"}
- physloc
-
{"value"=>"*L (Special) 90-20"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"This collection contains published and unpublished compositions, including sketches and drafts, of Gena Branscombe."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"Materials in English"}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>Gena Branscombe scores, Music Division, The New York Public Library</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Branscombe, Gena", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Gena Branscombe was born in Picton, Ontario, Canada, on November 4, 1881. By the age of 15 she had won a scholarship to the Chicago Musical College, where she studied piano with Florenz Ziegfeld Sr. and Ignaz Friedheim, and composition with Felix Borowski. She also studied the piano with Hans von Schiller and songwriting with Alexander von Fielitz. She obtained her B. Mus. winning the gold medal for composition in 1900 and 1901. She then studied the piano under Rudolph Ganz in Chicago and taught at the Musical College from 1904 to 1907. From 1907 to 1909 she was head of the piano department at Whitman College, Walla Walla; then she went to Berlin and studied composition and orchestration under Humperdinck and the piano, again under Ganz, until 1910. Later she attended conducting classes at New York University under Dr. Chalmers Clifton. From 1921-1931 she studied conducting intermittently with Frank Damrosch (at the Institute of Musical Art), with Albert Stoessel and John Warren Erb (both of New York University), and with Walter Rothwell. During this decade she also conducted her own music in various locations.</p> <p>She married John Ferguson Tenney on October 5, 1910. They had four daughters: Gena (later Mrs. Philip H. Phenix), Vivian Allison Tenney, a physician, Betty who died when young, and Beatrice Branscombe Brokaw, who died in early womanhood. John Tenney died in 1949.</p> <p>Branscombe is known chiefly for her choral works, and she composed over 150 songs. In 1934 she founded the Branscombe Chorale, which made a name for itself in New York until it was dissolved in 1954. In 1928 she was awarded the annual prize of the League of American Pen Women for the finest work produced by a woman, Pilgrims of Destiny. She was president of the American Society of Women Composers from 1929 to 1932 and chairlady of the New York State Federation of Music Clubs, 1930 to 1935. In 1932 she received an honorary M. A. from Whitman College. In the 1930s she was vice-president of the National Association of American Composers and Conductors and was a guest conductor of, among many others, the McDowell Chorus of New Jersey. She was conductor of the MacDowell Club Choral, 1931 to 1934, New Jersey State Choral and Contemporary Club Choral, from 1940 to 1946. She was chairlady of American Music and Folksong and received the D. A. R. Award for service to patriotic education. Her works were broadcast over all major American and Canadian radio stations and often conducted by the composer herself. She arranged many works of American composers.</p> <p>Gena Branscombe died in New York City on July 26, 1977, age 95. The most comprehensive information concerning her life and work is: Gena Branscombe (1881-1977) : American composer and conductor by Laurine Annette Elkins Marlow (Ph. D., University of Texas at Austin), 1980. This dissertation is available in the Music Division on microfilm (classmark: *ZB-908).</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>This collections reflects music composed or arranged by Gena Branscombe during various periods of her creative life. The greater number of her compositional output was vocal music, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, the texts were of her own creation. At the outset of her career, songs for a single voice and piano were the favored medium. During her years as a choral conductor Branscombe arranged many of these songs for various types of choirs. Sometimes the piano accompaniment would be augmented by a few instruments, or arranged for string quartet or chamber ensemble.</p> <p>Her most ambitious attempt at writing vocal music was to be the opera The Bells of Circumstance (circa 1928). Though never completed, there are ample sketches and drafts in the collection. The same year saw the successful completion of her large-scale choral work Pilgrims of Destiny (1928). Other major vocal works include a cantata Youth of the World (1931) and the choral work Coventry's Choir (1944, composed on the occasion of the bombing of Coventry Cathedral in London during World War II).</p> <p>Gena Branscombe's instrumental music comprises a significant amount of solo works for piano, and several for chamber and orchestra. The Quebec Suite was derived from music originally composed for The Bells of Circumstance. Two of its three movements, \"Baladine\" and \"Procession\" were occasionally programmed separately. Many pages of the American Suite, a work for french horn and piano, have indications that it was retitled \"Pacific Sketches\" (all drafts and sketches pertaining to this work are listed under the former title).</p> <p>The collection has been divided into two series. The first, \"Original compositions by Gena Branscombe\", contains works originally composed by Branscombe. Arrangement is alphabetical by uniform title.</p> <p>The second series, \"Music Arranged by Gena Branscombe\" contains settings and arrangements of folk-songs and works by other composers. In addition to choral arrangement of folk or art songs, many of her arrangements for chorus are of instrumental works such as Beethoven's Minuet in G, or a section of Brahms's Symphony no. 1. This series is arranged by composer. Anonymous works (such as folk songs) are interfiled under the title.</p> <p>According to Donald Krummel's Resources of American Music History, a collection of two music holographs, correspondence, biographical materials and published music of Branscombe is located at the Music Division, National Library of Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0N4.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Gena Branscombe scores are arranged in two series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20196#c1112269'>Series 1: Original Compositions by Gena Branscome</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20196#c1112802'>Series 2: Arrangements by Gena Branscombe</a></div>\n</li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>Series: 1. Original compositions; 2. Music arranged by Branscombe</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- processinfo
-
{"type"=>"processing", "value"=>"<p>Processed by David Gresham, Robert Kosovsky, and Julia Pilant, March 1995</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>An accompanying collection of non-commercial sound recordings is located in the Rodgers Hammerstein Archive of Recorded Sound; its classmark is *L (Special) 90-20.</p>"}
- note
-
{"value"=>"Chiefly holograph scores and parts with printed scores"}
{"value"=>"Gena Branscombe (1881-1977) was a Canadian-American composer and conductor. She founded the Branscombe Chorale in 1934 and was its conductor until it disbanded in 1959"}
{"value"=>"Includes numerous works for solo voice and piano, and choral works, mostly for various combinations of womens chorus. Also includes instrumental works, among them the Concertstücke for piano and orchestra, American suite for French horn and piano, several works for chamber orchestra, and works for solo piano"}
{"value"=>"Finding list available"}
{"value"=>"Sound recordings are located in the Rodgers Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. [Finding aid in: *L(Special) 90-20]"}
{"value"=>"Papers of Branscombe are located in the Music Division of the National Library of Canada"}
- extent_statement
-
700 folders in 21 boxes