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Creator
Fitelberg, Jerzy, 1903-1951
Call number
JOB 95-14
Physical description
5.84 linear feet (22 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Jerzy Fitelberg papers, JOB 95-14. Music Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Music Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The Jerzy Fitelberg papers primarily hold the composer's score manuscripts. They also contain correspondence, concert programs and clipping files.

Biographical/historical information

The composer Jerzy Fitelberg (1903-1951) was born in Warsaw, Poland. His father, Grzegorz Fitelberg, was a composer and the conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic until the Second World War. Jerzy began music training at the Conservatory of Warsaw, then studied with Franz Schreker and Walter Gmeindl from 1922 to 1926 at the Academy of Music in Berlin, where he remained until 1932. In 1928 his String Quartet No. 2 won first prize in a competition sponsored by the Polish government in Paris, and in 1936 he won the Library of Congress's Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge chamber music medal for his String Quartet No. 4; The piece was premiered at a chamber music festival at the Library in 1937. The success he gained as a young composer was marked by numerous performances at festivals, including those of the International Society for Contemporary Music in 1932 and 1937. From 1933 to 1940 Fitelberg lived in Paris, after which he moved to New York. The American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him a grant in 1945, and in 1950 his Suite for Organ won a composition prize from the Pennsylvania College for Women. That same year the Koussevitsky Foundation commissioned his last work, Concertino Da Camera for Violin and Piano, which he completed two days before his death.

Fitelberg's work includes music for chamber groups, chamber orchestra, full orchestra, an opera and a choral work, as well as scores for two films. He also wrote articles for the journal Modern Music.

Sources:

Boguslaw Schaeffer. "Fitelberg, Jerzy." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2093058 (accessed March 27, 2012).

"Jerzy Fitelberg, 48, A Polish Composer," The New York Times, April 27, 1951, p. 23.

Scope and arrangement

The Jerzy Fitelberg papers hold the composer's score manuscripts and personal files containing clippings, correspondence and concert programs. Scores make up the bulk of the collection and contain works composed from 1921 to 1951. Among them are solo instrumental pieces; string quartets and other chamber works; songs for voice and piano; a choral work; orchestral concerti for piano, violin, and string quartet; works for full orchestra including Les Adventures de Mickey (1934) and The Golden Harp: Variations on a Polish Folk Song for String Orchestra (1943); the children's opera Henny Penny (1949); and Fitelberg's film scores. The papers also hold a small set of score manuscripts by other composers, including Grzegorz Fitelberg, Alexander Spitzmüller, Eduard Steuermann, and Karol Szymanowski.

The clipping files and concert programs document Fitelberg's career in Europe and America from the late 1920s until his death. The correspondence is sparse but includes letters from Artur Rodzinski, Margaret Carson, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters concerning the grant it awarded to Fitelberg.

The Jerzy Fitelberg papers are arranged in two series:

  • Series I: Scores
    1921-1951
    20 boxes

    This series holds the bulk of the collection. Nearly all the scores are manuscripts (or copies of manuscripts). Many have sketches and draft versions in addition to final scores and parts produced by copyists or by Fitelberg himself.

    The scores range from works composed in Fitelberg's late teens to his last completed composition, Concertino Da Camera (1951). Among them are solo pieces for piano, violin, cello, organ and harp; six string quartets, as well as other chamber music for wind quintets and unique combinations; orchestral concerti for piano, violin and string quartet, and a Concertino for Trombone, Piano and String Orchestra (1947); songs for voice and piano; the choral piece Pan Tralalinski (1942); several pieces for full orchestra, including Eine Kammer Sinfonie, Op. 11 (1922), Suite for Orchestra (1924), Etude for Orchestra (1932), Les Adventures de Mickey (1934), and The Golden Harp: Variations on a Polish Folk Song for String Orchestra (1943); and an opera for children entitled Henny Penny (1949). Scores for three pieces, Die Indische Harfe, Kleine Musik für Rundfunk and Symphony for Winds were microfilmed and cataloged under *ZZ-32378.

    The scores also hold Fitelberg's scores for the films Poland Fights On and Polish Pictures; an arrangement of J.S. Bach's Passacaglia (BWV 582); and Fitelberg's performance notes for The Tale of Tsar Saltan by Rimsky-Korsakov. Three of Fitelberg's works, Lost Phantasies, Silverblue and A Timely Tale, were composed under the pseudonym of Steve Terry. In addition, the scores contain several finished but untitled works, unfinished pieces, and untitled/unfinished sketches.

    Fitelberg's scores also contain the manuscripts for works by several other composers, including his father, Grzegorz, Alexander Spitzmüller, Eduard Steuermann, and Karol Szymanowski.

  • Series II: Personal Files
    1927-1952
    2 boxes

    This series holds clipping files, correspondence and concert programs. The clippings, which cover Fitelberg's career from 1927 until shortly after his death, are from European and American newspapers advertising and reviewing performances of Fitelberg's music, and publicizing his honors and prizes. Clippings dating from after Fitelberg's death were collected by his widow, Tamara.

    The small quantity of correspondence includes letters from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Pennsylvania College for Women announcing Fitelberg's honors; a grant application to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation filled out by Fitelberg but never submitted; letters from Artur Rodzinski and Margaret Carson; and publicity material including biographies and composition lists. The correspondence also holds letters to and from Tamara Fitelberg after her husband's death.

    The concert programs are from European and American events and venues, including several ISCM and German music festivals, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the award ceremony for Fitelberg's grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Emil Kahn, 1978.

Processing information

Compiled by Matthew Snyder.

Processing consisted of foldering and ordering scores, clippings, correspondence and programs.

Using the collection

Location

Music Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Chief, Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.