Found 1 collection related to American Music Center (New York, N.Y.)

The American Music Center was a non-profit organization which aimed to promote the creating, performing, and enjoying of new American music. The American Music Center was founded in 1939 by composers Aaron Copland, Otto Luening, Marion Bauer, Harrison Kerr, and Quincy Porter. The center's mandate was to make the music of its composer members available to potential performers and conductors, and to act as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of information vital to its membership. Until that time, American composers had not been able to firmly establish themselves or their music as a unique American commodity that was of both high quality and in great demand. As their music came of age, these composers began to organize themselves into a substantial power base that would not only get their music heard but also make assurances for appropriate representation, promotion and compensation. The American Music Center was one of the leading organizations in this campaign. A partnership with the New York Public Library, initiated in 1978 led to cooperative cataloging initiatives and eventually to an agreement that the center's entire collection of scores would over time be transferred to the library. The American Music Center's score library, now housed at the Music Division, numbered close to 60,000 items. While the center's physical collection of printed and recorded music was the backbone of this remarkable institution, the mandate and activities of the center were relevant not only to music scholars, but to those in other areas of research. The center's activities have been responsible for creating a vast worldwide cultural resource for the dissemination of American music. Approximately 60,000 orchestral, chamber, solo instrumental, vocal and choral scores, solo parts and libretti placed in the AMC library by their composer members. Virtually all genres of notated music are represented in the collection, including many forms of orchestral concert music (overtures, symphonies, suites, etc.), chamber music for winds, strings, keyboard, percussion, electronics, alone and in combination, vocal music, solo and choral, and staged works (opera, ballet, musicals). The collection includes many published scores. A large portion of these are self-published reproductions of composer's manuscripts. Conventionally notated scores predominate, but there are also many representatives of various forms of graphic notation. less