- unitid
-
{"value"=>"JPB 00-43"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1922-1997", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1922/1997"}
{"value"=>"1934 - 1997", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1934/1997"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Hugo Weisgall Papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"ca. 13.75 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"36 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "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>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Papers documenting the career of the Czech-born American composer between the 1930s and the 1990s. Includes scores, libretti, posters, correspondence, clippings, programs, writings on music, financial documents and photographs."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>Hugo Weisgall Papers, JPB 00-43, Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Weisgall, Hugo", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Hugo Weisgall was born at Eibenschütz (Ivanice), Moravia on October 13, 1912 and emigrated to the United States as a child. Growing up in Baltimore, his first musical influence was his father, Adolph J. Weisgal (1885 - 1981), a cantor for the Chizuk Amuno Congregation in that city. Becoming an American citizen in 1926, his formal musical education began at the Peabody Conservatory (1927 - 1932). In the years that followed (1932 - 1941) he worked periodically with Roger Sessions, studying composition. During this time, Weisgall also attended the Curtis Institute, where his major instructors were Fritz Reiner and Rosario Scalero, acquiring diplomas in conducting (1938) and composition (1939). Concurrent with laying the foundations for his later musical pursuits, Weisgall also earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1940, with a dissertation on primitivism in 17th century German poetry.</p> <p> Weisgall’s military service in the diplomatic sector during World War II drew on his central European background in addition to his non-musical academic studies and led to his post-war service as an attaché, first in London and then in Prague. It was during this period, prior to his return to the U.S. in 1947, that he began to attract international attention as a conductor and composer. Returning to the Baltimore area, Weisgall soon became associated with several organizations. He was music director at his father’s synagogue, founded the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore in 1948 and the Hilltop Opera in 1952 and directed the Baltimore Institute of Musical Arts, a pioneering conservatory for African-Americans. Though he remained associated with the Chamber Music Society well into the 1960s and served on faculty at Johns Hopkins University (1951 - 1957), his institutional affiliations became increasingly centered in New York. By the end of 1960 he had relocated to Great Neck, Long Island, where he was to live the rest of his life, aside from summers in Lincolnville, Maine and a number of teaching or composing residencies, including Penn State University (1959 - 1960) the American Academy in Rome (1966).</p> <p>During the four and a half decades that Weisgall was faculty chair of the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York (1952 - 1996), he also taught at the Juilliard School (1957 - 1970) and Queens College of the City University of N.Y. (1961 - 1983) and was involved with instructional outreach programs at Lincoln Center in a number of capacities, being formally named Associate for Education in 1965. Aside from teaching, conducting and composing, he was president of the American Music Center (1963 - 1973), directed Lyric Opera of Chicago’s composer-in-residence program (1988 - 1997) and served as an evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1980s and was elected president of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1990.</p> <p>Weisgall died in Great Neck on March 11, 1997.</p> <p>Weisgall’s reputation is largely built on his operatic output. Roughly half of his dozen works in the genre have found a place in the repertoire and commercial recordings of The stronger, Six characters in search of an author and The tenor have been issued. His most frequently performed works are probably his choral compositions and arrangements meant for incorporation into liturgical services, though they are relatively rarely encountered in the concert hall. A number of his solo songs have been recorded and appear on occasionally on recitals.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Hugo Weisgall Papers document his professional life from his student days at the Curtis Institute in the 1930s to 1997. It contains scores, libretti, correspondence, subject files, biographical material, writings, financial records, concert posters and photographs. Though devoted almost exclusively to Weisgall’s professional activities, a self-contained group of personal letters between family members is located within the papers’ correspondence series and individual personal letters occasionally appear in the chronological correspondence and subject files. Nearly half of the papers consists of scores and libretti. Correspondence and subject files, in roughly equal amounts, comprise the bulk of the remainder.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Hugo Weisgall Papers are arranged in ten series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20266#c1442605'>Series I: Scores</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1939 - 1996, n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>4.5 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Scores series is subdivided into three sub-series. In addition to the works composed by Weisgall, there are sub-series for works arranged or edited by Weisgall and works by other composers. The works by other composers are three published scores inscribed to him by their composers, Dominick Argento and George Rochberg, and two scores by Roger Sessions used by Weisgall to conduct from. Since Weisgall’s manuscripts have been given to the Library of Congress (see folder 774 for a complete list), nearly all of the scores are reproductions, copies or published material but many of these have been corrected and annotated by the composer. Reflecting Weisgall’s reputation as a composer of opera, nine of his twelve completed works in the genre are represented by full or vocal scores. Two musical projects contained in this series give insight into his compositional process and have substantial holograph material. The first of these, composed for a television documentary, <span class=\"title\">Of heaven and earth</span>, which later served as source material for his series of vocal and chamber works called Graven images. The other, with a working title of <span class=\"title\">Synagogue service</span>, occupied Weisgall during the last decade of his life, some sections of which were incorporated into his Evening liturgies. Dates appearing in brackets are drawn from the list of Weisgall’s works appearing in Bruce Saylor and James Cassaro: '<span class=\"title\">Weisgall, Hugo</span>', <span class=\"title\">The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online</span> ed. L. Macy (Accessed 13 June 2003), [http://grovemusic.com] when available and from information provided in published editions of works not specifically listed in <span class=\"title\">Grove</span>. These are included to give composition dates of the work and not the actual dates of the materials in the folder.</p> <div class=\"arrangement\"> <p>The scores are arranged alphabetically by title.</p></div></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20266#c1442840'>Series II: Libretti</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1981 - 1996, n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>.5 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Libretti series consists primarily of drafts of libretti, but also includes scripts by various playwrights considered for use by Weisgall and his librettists. Some correspondence and other materials are also included.</p> <div class=\"arrangement\"> <p>The files are arranged alphabetically by librettist.</p></div></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20266#c1442890'>Series III: Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1922 - 1995, n.d. [bulk 1929 - 1995]</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>4.75 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Correspondence series is divided into two sub-series, Family and Chronological. The first of these largely consists of letters to Weisgall’s mother Aranka Weisgal from her relatives in Europe and letters to Weisgall from his parents and brother. These letters are grouped by recipient and then arranged alphabetically by sender and finally chronologically. The second sub-series comes from Weisgall’s chronological files and is included in this series since the bulk of the material in these files is correspondence, mostly professional, though a few personal letters are included. Weisgall’s criteria for what he put in his chronological files appears to have varied over the years with some time periods heavily represented and some (1972 through 1984 in particular) missing entirely. In addition to a sizeable amount of formal business documents, the chronological correspondence files contain letters exchanged between Weisgall and a broad spectrum of colleagues and students. Notably, the composers Dominick Argento, Henry Cowell, Richard Franko Goldman, Leo Kraft, George Rochberg, Bruce Saylor and Yehudi Wyner as well as the writers and critics Harold Blumenfeld, Joseph Machlis, John Olon Scrymgeour, Karl Shapiro, and Meyer Weisgal are represented in this series. A large amount of Weisgall’s correspondence can also be found in Series IV: Subject files.</p> <div class=\"arrangement\"> <p>Letters are arranged chronologically. In cases where Weisgall grouped his reply with the original letter, both are generally filed under the date of the response. Material in these files that is not correspondence has been left in place, with the exception of photographs that have been separated to the iconography series</p></div></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20266#c1443244'>Series IV: Subject files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1936 - 1997, n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>2 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Subject files series documents Weisgall’s professional activities as a composer, educator and administrator. Some files are devoted to a particular associate of Weisgall’s, such as his agent Hank Kaufman or the writer Samuel Lipman or institutions and organizations that he was associated with. Particularly well documented are the American Composers Alliance, the Baltimore Institute of Musical Arts, the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore (containing extensive correspondence with its president, Randolph S. Rothschild), the Jewish Theological Seminary, his work with the educational division of Lincoln Center and the educational television series he presented on WNDT in New York. There are also a number of individual files devoted to less easily classified activities, such as the Collector of the Year Award presented to Weisgall and his wife Nathalie by the Virginia Museum in 1978. Aside from the subjects named at the folder level in the container list there is significant correspondence and other documents present. The Jewish Theological Seminary files which contain material on the composer Gershon Ephros and the writer Hilda Pinson and the Lincoln Center Student Program that have correspondence with Joseph Fennimore, Jose Limón, Mark Schubart and William Schuman are examples of this.</p> <div class=\"arrangement\"> <p>The series is arranged alphabetically and individual files within a subject are arranged chronologically.</p></div></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20266#c1443412'>Series V: Biographical</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1928 - 1997 [bulk 1932 - 1995]</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>.5 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Biographical series is divided into several sub-groupings and includes programs, clippings, bulletins, announcements, proceedings, publisher’s brochures, press releases and miscellaneous materials that contain information about Weisgall’s life and works. Also included is a file of items associated with Weisgall’s father, Adolph J. Weisgal.</p> <div class=\"arrangement\"> <p>These files are arranged chronologically within genre groupings (programs, clippings, etc.).</p></div></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20266#c1443441'>Series VI: Writings, public addresses and teaching material</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>ca. 1955 - 1995, n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>.5 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Writings, public addresses and teaching material series represents Weisgall’s output aside from his musical compositions. It contains published material along with holograph and typescript drafts and notes.</p> <div class=\"arrangement\"> <p>Articles and public addresses have been arranged chronologically and the remaining undated material alphabetically.</p></div></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20266#c1443483'>Series VII: Financial</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1939 - 1993</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>.5 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Financial series is grouped into employment and publisher’s contracts, bank records and miscellaneous receipts, with the bulk devoted to contracts for individual musical works.</p> <div class=\"arrangement\"> <p>The contract files are arranged alphabetically by work title and the bank records and receipts are in chronological order.</p></div></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20266#c1443550'>Series VIII: Posters</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1952 - 1983, n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>.25 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Posters series consist of ten posters for concerts that Weisgall was associated with either as composer, conductor or in both capacities.</p> <div class=\"arrangement\"> <p>The posters are arranged chronologically.</p></div></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20266#c1443556'>Series IX: Iconography</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1937 - 1991, n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>.25 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Iconography series contains 24 individual photographs plus duplicate copies of some of them. These photos are all black and white, except for a pair of snapshots of Weisgall with his student Bright Sheng. Most are professional publicity shots of Weisgall.</p> <div class=\"arrangement\"> <p>The photos are grouped by genre (portraits, publicity stills, etc.)</p></div></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/20266#c1443573'>Series X: Ephemera and miscellaneous material</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1927 - 1929, n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>.25 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Ephemera series consists of three small published volumes apparently dating from Weisgall’s student days, an etching, a leaf of music, two pamphlets and an invitation that have no clear connection to any file in another series.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Hugo Weisgall Papers were given to the Music Division by his son, Jonathan M. Weisgall, in 1998.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Peter Hirsch; Machine-readable finding aid created by Peter Hirsch and Daniel Santamaria.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Music Division, The New York Library for the Performing Arts.</p>"}
- sponsor
-
{"value"=>"Processed and encoded through a gift from Robert W. Wilson."}
- dsc_type
-
combined
- date_start
-
1922
- keydate
-
1922
- date_end
-
1997
- date_inclusive_start
-
1922
- date_inclusive_end
-
1997
- date_bulk_start
-
1934
- date_bulk_end
-
1997
- extent_statement
-
ca. 13.75 linear feet (36 boxes)