- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"simple", "value"=>"4.33 linear ft. (12 boxes)"}
- unitid
-
{"value"=>"JPB 85-32", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"19995", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Tibor Serly papers"}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"The New York Public Library, Music Division"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"The Tibor Serly Papers represents the work of Tibor Serly, who was a composer, theoretician and teacher. The material covered extends from his early studies in composition, throughout his compositional and theoretical career."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Tibor Serly Papers, JPB 85-32, Music Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.</p>"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Tibor Serly was born in Losonc, Hungary on Nov. 25, 1901. His first musical studies were with his father, Lajos Serly, a pupil of Liszt. Spending most of his childhood in New York City, Tibor Serly played in various pit orchestras led by his father until 1922, when he returned to Hungary to attend the Budapest Royal Academy. There he studied composition with Zoltán Kodály, violin with Jenö Hubay, and orchestration with Leó Weiner, graduating in 1925 with highest honors.</p> <p>Serly then returned to the USA and held several positions as violist in various orchestras. In 1929 he began a friendship with Ezra Pound, frequently visiting his home in Rapallo, Italy and arranging concerts there. In 1934, while a violinist and assistant conductor with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, Serly went to Europe to study conducting with Herman Scherchen. After the 1937-38 season as violist with the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini, Serly devoted his life to composing and teaching.</p> <p>In 1940 Bela Bartók and his wife arrived in New York as refugees. From their arrival unto his death Serly devoted most of his efforts for their support. He made arrangements of Mikrokosmos, and after Bartók's death, completed his viola concerto. Married once and divorced, Serly's second marriage was to the pianist Miriam Molin.</p> <p>Beginning in the 1930s Serly was engaged in studying the \"modus lascivus.\" After Bartók's death he resumed his studies of this scale which \"permanently divides the chromatic scale into two separate segments, thus creating a multimodal chromatic scale system.\" Serly also explored performance techniques on various instruments, such as for the voice as in Consovowels and for strings in his Rondo fantasy in stringometrics. Towards the end of his life he relocated from New York City to Longview, Washington, where he continued to teach and compose. His last major theoretical work was the culmination of his studies with modus lascivus, codified in Modus Lascivus: The Road to Enharmonicism (1976).</p> <p>Tibor Serly died in London on Oct. 8, 1978.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The contents of this collection were received in two parts. The first, consisting of four boxes of materials, was cataloged in 1985. Another six boxes arrived after the initial material was cataloged but was not processed until 1994.</p> <p>Most of the contents of this collection cover Serly's career as a composer, though not every one of his works is represented. His well-known arrangements of five selections from Bartók's Mikrokosmos in versions for string quartet and for orchestra are not included, nor are many others of those listed in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (v. 4, 191-92). Of Serly's theoretical writings, those that concern the modus lascivus are represented here. In addition there are a few articles and lectures of general musical interest.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Tibor Serly papers are arranged in six series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/19995#c531558'>Series 1: Music composed by Tibor Serly</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/19995#c531673'>Series 2: Music Arranged by Tibor Serly</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/19995#c531698'>Series 3: Music by Other Composers</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/19995#c531709'>Series 4: Miscellaneous Biographical and Personal Materials</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/19995#c531719'>Series 5: Writings by Tibor Serly: A: Miscellaneous Writings</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mus/19995#c531738'>Series 5: Writings by Tibor Serly: B: Writings Concerning Modus Lascivus</a></div>\n</li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection is organized in the following series:</p> <p>Series 1: \"Original compositions by Tibor Serly\" contains holographs (often in photocopies) of compositions by Serly. Works are arranged alphabetically by title.</p> <p>Series 2: \"Music arranged by Tibor Serly\" contains arrangements for various forces, and is ordered by composer.</p> <p>Series 3: \"Music by other composers\" contains mostly published music, ordered by composer.</p> <p>Series 4: \"Miscellaneous biographical and personal materials\" contains a relatively small amount of reviews of Serly's works, press releases, and two photographs.</p> <p>Series 5: \"Writings\" are divided into two sub-series, \"Miscellaneous Writings\" and \"Writings on the modus lascivus.\" The miscellaneous writings concern a variety of subjects including essays on Bartók and arranging. Writings on modus lascivus includes a few early thoughts as well as a draft for Serly's book Modus Lascivus: The Road to Enhamonicism.</p> <p>Since works are arranged alphabetically by title (within listings for a single composer) discrepancies will occur in the sequence of folder numbering. This is because both regular and oversized materials have been integrated for this finding list. The MAI numbers represent the Music Division's \"Music Archival Index,\" an inhouse database.</p> <p>Before full processing of the Tibor Serly Papers took place, several items were cataloged separately and appear as individual entries in CATNYP, The New York Public Library's online catalog. For purposes of archival integrity, these items have been included in this online finding aid.</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Tibor Serly Papers were acquired from Miriam Serly, the composer's widow, in 1985 and 1986.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>For permission to copy or publish please contact the Music Division.</p>"}
- note
-
{"value"=>"List of Names Bach, Johann Sebastian Barnard, Mary Bartók, Béla Boghetti, Kathryn Brumner, Imre Ceriog Couperin, François Doherty, Jack Drake, Ervin Eckley, Dan Euripides Foster, Stephen Collins Gesualdo, Carlo, principe di Venosa Glazer, David Goodman, Benny Jeffers, Robinson Joyce, James Kazaliczky, Antal Kincaid, William Klenner, John Kodály, Zoltán Lavanne, Antonia Littlefield, Catherine Marenzio, Luca Mathewson, Anna Menuhin, Yehudi Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Palmer, Bissell Peerce, Jan Pound, Ezra Ravel, Maurice Rosen, Myor Samuel, Arnold Schubert, Franz Serly, Lajos Shelley, Gladys Stephens, Peter John Toscanini, Arturo Weede, Robert Wylie, Elinor"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1924-1978", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1924/1978"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1924
- date_inclusive_end
-
1978
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Serly, Tibor", "type"=>"persname"}
- altformavail
-
{"value"=>"<p>Box 1, f. 9-12, is also available on microform; service copy classmark: *ZB-4329</p>"}
- langmaterial_code
-
eng
hun
- keydate
-
1924
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Robert Kosovsky and Airi Yoshioka; machine-readable finding aid created by Robert Kosovsky.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1924
- date_end
-
1978