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Creator
Luening, Otto, 1900-1996
Call number
JPB 94-07
Physical description
98.33 linear feet (270 boxes). 612 audio recordings. 1 moving image recording
Language
Multiple languages; English and German
Preferred Citation
Otto Luening papers, JPB 94-07. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Repository
Music Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

Otto Luening (1900-1996) was a noted American composer, teacher, conductor, and flutist. A pioneer in the use of recorded and electronic sound in composition, he also co-founded the American Music Center and the recording label Composers Recordings Inc. The Otto Luening papers, dating from 1800 to 2019, document Luening's life; his career as composer, pedagogue, performer, and conductor; and his family history through professional and personal files, scores, audio and video recordings, and family papers.

Biographical/historical information

Otto Luening (1900-1996) was an American composer, teacher, conductor, and flutist. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he was the youngest of six children of Eugene Luening (1852-1944), a noted conductor, pianist, composer, and professor at the University of Wisconsin. Eugene Luening studied at the Leipzig Conservatory under Ignaz Moscheles and Carl Reinecke. He also met Richard Wagner and corresponded with music theorist Bernhard Ziehn. For many years, the elder Luening conducted the Milwaukee Musical Society, and he founded the Luening Conservatory of Music, a precursor of the Wisconsin Conservatory. Eugene Luening's father, Frederick August Luening, had emigrated from Germany and was one of the first settlers of the town of Cedarburg, north of Milwaukee. Otto Luening's mother, Emma Jacobs Luening (1861-1950), was an amateur singer. Her father, Colonel William Jacobs, was a prominent Milwaukee banker who had emigrated from Germany in 1850, and fought in the American Civil War.

Otto Luening began composing as a child in 1906. In 1912, his family moved to Munich, where Luening studied theory at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik with Anton Beer-Walbrunn (1915-1917) and made his debut as a flutist (1916). During World War I, he served as an orderly in the American Red Cross Hospital in Munich. After the United States entered the war in 1917, Luening moved to Zürich, where he studied at the Konservatorium für Musik and at the University of Zürich (1918-1920). He also studied privately with composers Philipp Jarnach and Ferrucio Busoni, both of whom deeply influenced Luening's conception of music and teaching methods. James Joyce, then living in Zürich, was also part of this social circle, and Luening worked with him as an actor and stage manager in Joyce's English Players Company. Luening made his debut as composer-conductor in 1917.

In 1920, Luening moved to Chicago, where he studied with Wilhelm Middelschulte, and was able to find work as a flutist with the Stratford Theatre, a vaudeville house. He was able to devote time to composition with the sponsorship of Edith Rockefeller McCormick, who presented concerts of Luening's music and helped him establish the Chicago Musical Arts Studio.

In 1925, he accepted his first academic post as vocal coach at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Luening later became executive director of the opera department and conductor of the Rochester Opera Company. Luening met his first wife, a Canadian vocalist named Ethel Codd, at Eastman, and they married in the early 1930s. Codd suffered from mental illness, and the couple divorced in the 1950s. Luening married again in 1959 to Catherine Brunson, a music teacher, and they remained together for the rest of his life.

In 1928, he moved to Cologne for a year before coming to New York in 1929. There, he worked as a freelance composer-conductor until he was awarded two Guggenheim fellowships (1930-1931 and 1931-1932; he was awarded a third in 1974). The fellowships enabled him to write the text and music of his opera Evangeline, based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Luening taught at the University of Arizona from 1932 to 1934, after which he was appointed head of the music department at Bennington College, where he remained until 1944. During his tenure at Bennington, Luening was associate conductor, under Hans Lange, of the New York Philharmonic Chamber Symphony (1935-1937) for a series of concert benefits for the college.

Luening served on the Music Committee of the Yaddo Festival (1936-1938, 1940, and 1947), and during the 1930s, he was involved in Works Progress Administration music projects in Vermont and New York City. From 1941, he was active with Alan Carter in the Vermont Chamber Music Composers' Conferences. Luening was also a co-founder of the American Composers Alliance (1937) and the American Music Center (1939), and, from 1936 to 1942, managed the New Music series of recordings founded by Henry Cowell.

In 1944, Luening joined the faculty of Barnard College; five years later he was appointed director of opera productions at Columbia University, where he developed a graduate seminar in composition. During his tenure at Columbia, he conducted the world premieres of Gian Carlo Menotti's opera The Medium (1946), Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All (1947), and his own opera Evangeline (1948). Luening created educational materials for children as well, producing textbooks and commercial recordings for the publisher Silver Burdett.

In 1954, Luening, with Oliver Daniel, Douglas Moore, and Avery Claflin, co-founded the record label Composers Recordings, Inc. with the aim of providing American composers with an opportunity to have their work recorded and circulated. Luening served the company as either President, Co-President, or Chair from 1968 to 1977.

Luening and the composer Vladimir Ussachevsky began collaborating to produce electronic music using tape recorders in 1952. Their first works (for flute and tape) were premiered that year at an event sponsored by the American Composers Alliance and Broadcast Music, Inc. Leopold Stokowski conducted the concert, which was held at the Museum of Modern Art. Ussachevsky and Luening continued to work together, and in 1959, assisted by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, they co-founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center at Columbia University (the first such facility in the United States). Milton Babbitt and Roger Sessions were named co-directors with Luening and Ussachevsky. Among other accomplishments in electronic music, Luening received a commission from Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic to compose Synthesis for Orchestra and Electronic Sound (1962).

Luening was a trustee of the American Academy in Rome (1953-1970), where he was also composer-in-residence (1958, 1961, and 1965). His other recognitions included honorary doctorates from Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin; membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1946); election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1952); and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (1974 and 1977), the National Music Council (1985), and the American Composers Alliance (1970 and 1985).

Luening retired from Barnard in 1964, but continued to teach at Columbia until 1968, when he was named professor emeritus and music chair of the School of the Arts, from which he retired in 1970. He then taught at the Juilliard School (1971-1973). Among his many students were Charles Wuorinen, Ann McMillan, Chou Wen-Chung, Daniel Goode, Charles Dodge, Wendy Carlos, Joel Feigin, and Ezra Laderman. In 1980, Luening published an autobiography, The Odyssey of an American Composer, documenting all aspects of his career. He continued to compose until nearly the day he died, in New York City, on September 2nd, 1996.

Scope and arrangement

The Otto Luening papers, dating from 1800 to 2019, document Luening's life; his career as composer, pedagogue, performer, and conductor; his work with various organizations, such as Composers Recordings Inc., the American Composers Alliance, and the American Music Center; and his family history through professional and personal files, family papers, music scores, and audio and video recordings. The contents include correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, programs, clippings, autobiographical manuscripts, posters, and genealogical files.

The Otto Luening papers are arranged in five series:

  • Series I: Professional and Personal Files
    1899-2019
    59.75 linear feet (143 boxes)

    This series thoroughly documents the many aspects of Otto Luening's life and career through subject files; correspondence; diaries; teaching files; interview transcripts; publicity materials; writings; datebooks; posters; a scrapbook; and school exercise books. It also holds files and correspondence of Catherine Brunson Luening dating from after her husband's death.

    Folder titles denote either a correspondent or a subject, with the exceptions of format-based titles such as Publicity or Promotional Correspondence. Subject files can contain correspondence with or papers regarding the subject, and, in some cases, photographs of the subject. Certain subjects, especially the Electronic Music and Teaching Files, are voluminous and sub-divided into their own subject/correspondent listings.

    Files with significant content in the series include Publicity, Electronic Music, Teaching, Foundations, Writings, the Alice M. Ditson Fund for New Music at Columbia University, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Composers Alliance, the American Music Center, Ernst Bacon, Ferrucio Busoni, Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), Columbia University, Composers' Forum, Composers' Recordings Inc. (CRI), Henry Cowell, Luening's opera Evangeline, Luening's teacher Philipp Jarnach, Meet The Composer, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Federation of Music Clubs, Severine Neff, the New York Philharmonic, the Social Science Research Council, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Edgard Varèse, Frank Wigglesworth, and the Works Progress Administration.

    The Publicity files contain clippings, concert programs and posters. They cover Luening's career from 1918 to 1996, and are filed chronologically.

    The Electronic Music files document the early work Luening did with Vladimir Ussachevsky, the establishment of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, and several other projects. They hold correspondence, article manuscripts, and grant correspondence with the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as discussion of the Bauer-Mengelberg Project, an early effort to develop a computerized method for printing notated music.

    The Teaching files cover Luening's time at the University of Arizona, Bennington College, Columbia University and Barnard College, with smaller files for the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. They mostly contain inter-faculty and administrative correspondence, as well as course syllabi and correspondence with former students. The teaching files do not contain student work or transcripts; all files denoting student publications or correspondence hold content shared with Luening by his former students.

    The Foundation files contain correspondence with and grant applications to the Rockefeller Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, among others.

    The Writings files hold unpublished notes, drafts, finished manuscripts, and typescripts for articles, lectures, and Luening's autobiography, The Odyssey of an American Composer. They also contain correspondence regarding the writings. Most of the lectures are unpublished. Some of the lecture files have only notes. Writings, lecture texts, and notes can also be found in the files for the Association of American Colleges, Electronic Music, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the National Federation of Music Clubs, Phi Beta Kappa, Silver Burdett Books, and in the Teaching files (under both Bennington College and Columbia University/Barnard College). Article and lecture topics include Harry Partch, Contemporary Music, Emily Dickinson, and Electronic Music. (See Series V for recorded lectures.) The files for Luening's autobiography contain correspondence, notes, photographs, drafts, proofs, galleys, finished manuscripts, and research, including original documentation of events.

    The CRI files document the history and operations of the record company to a greater extent than the records of CRI (a collection held by the Music Division).

    Luening's diary entries date only from his mid-late teens. He transcribed some of them for partial inclusion in his autobiography. His datebooks offer more consistent coverage, mainly from 1946 to 1975.

    The interviews date mainly from the 1980s, and were done for various publications, or for individuals, including Charles Wuorinen. The transcript for a 1990 oral history can be found in the files for BMI, and focused on that organization.

    Significant figures with correspondence include George Antheil, Henry Cowell, Fritz Reiner, Ned Rorem, Nicolas Roussakis, Carl Sandburg, Halsey Stevens, Leopold Stokowsky, Virgil Thomson, and Stefan Wolpe. The Students file contains correspondence with Luening's pupils, as well as a list of students Luening taught at various schools (files for students taught at Columbia University are in the Teaching files under Columbia). The single scrapbook in this series dates from 1917, and contains German newspaper clippings.

    Catherine Brunson Luening's files dating from after Otto Luening's death cover his memorial service and condolence letters, her continued promotion of his music and business matters regarding it, and a Centennial project she spearheaded and raised funds for that included a concert of Luening's music in 2000.

  • Series II: Photographs
    1900-1999
    3.08 linear feet (9 boxes)

    The photographs contain personal and professional images of Otto Luening from throughout his life, both formal and informal, and with friends, colleagues, and family. They also hold images of particular events and time periods. Most family photographs are in Series III.

    Early photos of Luening date from 1900 to the 1920s. Professional portraits of him date from the late-1920s to the 1990s. Major time periods of Luening's career with coverage here include his experiences in Zürich, where he studied with Ferruccio Busoni and Philipp Jarnach (1918-1920); his work in Chicago and at the Eastman School during the 1920s; the University of Arizona (early 1930s); Bennington College at various times; and his career at Columbia University and the Electronic Music Studio with Vladimir Ussachevsky, as well as with other colleagues (1950s to the 1970s).

    Colleagues and friends pictured with Luening include Ussachevsky, Chou Wen-Chung, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Virgil Thomson, Dmitri Shostakovich, John Downey, Leonard Bernstein, Francis Thorne, David Diamond, H. Wiley Hitchcock, Ernst Bacon, Elliott Carter, Leslie Bassett, Ernst Krenek, Danielle Woerner, and Alan Carter.

    The series also holds photographs of events such as lectures, meetings, symposia, concerts, work with students, award ceremonies, and New York Public Library exhibitions.

    There is a small set of formal and informal images of Luening with his first wife, Ethel Codd Luening, but there are far more with his second wife, Catherine Brunson Luening. These are voluminous and include family events, vacations, and professional portraits of her with Otto Luening.

  • Series III: Luening and Jacobs Family Papers
    1800-1996
    18.0 linear feet (46 boxes)

    This series documents the multi-generational history of the Luening and Jacobs families dating back to the early 19th century. It also reveals the history of German immigration to Wisconsin and the Milwaukee area in particular, and the development of that community. The papers include correspondence, photographs, clippings, genealogical research, official papers, and writings. The source and provenance of some of these papers are unknown. Portions of the series, particularly the clippings and older correspondence, are in German.

    All the family members named in the biography note are documented to some extent in this series. The figures with the most content are Eugene and Emma Luening, Helene Luening (Otto's sister, a music teacher), and Otto Luening. As a group, however, the Jacobs side of the family has more documentation than the Luening side.

    The General Papers at the top of the series hold family history and genealogical research carried out by Luening and others; Otto Luening's correspondence with various family members, some unidentified; and photographs.

    The Eugene and Emma Luening papers hold clippings, writings, photographs, and correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues, including Richard Wagner (although the recipient of the letter is unclear), and the music theorist Bernhard Ziehn. They also hold brief letters from Thomas Edison and Eleanor Roosevelt. The writings hold essays on music and literature by Eugene Luening (some in German), and diaries and notebooks by both Eugene and Emma Luening. Business and official papers include a ledger from the Luening Conservatory in Milwaukee (later the Wisconsin Conservatory); baptism certificates and real estate transactions; and travel documents.

    Helene Luening's papers include correspondence with her family and friends; arrangements and transcriptions of folk and classical songs for voice and piano; programs and clippings; teaching materials; and papers documenting her work for the Works Progress Administration and The New York Public Library.

    Otto Luening's family papers comprise family correspondence and photographs. They also include a sketch of Luening by the painter Carl Bohnen, whom Luening met when his family was living in Munich.

    The papers of Otto Luening's other siblings contain correspondence and photographs, and include some documentation of their children as well.

    A large section of correspondence in this series is with or regarding Otto Luening's first wife Ethel Codd Luening, a Canadian vocalist he met at the Eastman School of Music around 1930. She suffered from mental illness and spent portions of the 1940s and 1950s in various hospitals. The correspondence is between Ethel and Otto; between Ethel and Helene Luening; and between Otto, Helene, and Margaret Codd Goldovsky (Ethel's sister), regarding Ethel's care and how best to support her. Otto Luening financially supported Ethel and her medical needs throughout their marriage and continued to help support her after their divorce and his re-marriage, up until her death in 1989. The correspondence dates from 1931 to 1989, but the bulk dates from the 1940s and 1950s, when Ethel's illness seems to have been most acute.

    Among the other notable papers in this series are letters from Adolph Luening, the brother of Eugene Luening, which contains discussions of his experiences in the American Civil War; a letter from an unknown soldier to his mother at the end of the German campaign of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814 (found in the Franz and Xavier Neukirch correspondence, with an English translation by Emma Luening); and correspondence between Otto Luening and historians in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, regarding Luening's grandfather Frederick August Luening, one of the town's first settlers.

    Many of the clippings in this series are from German newspapers in Milwaukee, or from the Milwaukee Sentinel. Among Eugene Luening's papers is a log of mentions of the Jacobs and Luening families in the Sentinel in the late 19th century.

  • Series IV: Scores
    1870-2000
    23.17 linear feet (90 boxes)

    This series holds scores by Otto Luening, his father Eugene, and by Otto Luening's students and colleagues. The bulk of the series is comprised of scores for over 300 Luening compositions. They include published and unpublished sketches, completed manuscripts, full scores, and parts, both published and unpublished. They date from Luening's earliest compositional efforts in 1906 to his final compositional effort in 1996 (an unfinished work for guitar and flute). Eugene Luening's scores, written for various orchestrations, span much of his life and include many educational pieces. The scores of Luening's students and colleagues contain a mixture of manuscript and published scores, many with notes or dedications to Luening. Composers featured include Ernst Bacon, Henry Cowell, Chou Wen-Chung, David Diamond, Lou Harrison, Quincy Porter, Roger Reynolds, Joan Tower, Joelle Wallach, and Frank Wigglesworth.

  • Series V: Audio and Moving Image Recordings
    1947-2005
    0.67 linear feet (2 boxes). 612 audio_recordings. 1 moving_image_recording

    This series contains audio and video recordings of Luening's music (almost all audio), as well as music by his colleagues and students. It also holds interviews with Luening and others; lectures; and autobiographical recordings.

    Luening's music is documented through performances; studio recording sessions for Composers Recordings Inc.; and electronic and tape realizations created at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Most of his work is represented here, including his opera Evangeline; the cantata No Jerusalem But This; the song cycle Nine Songs to Poems of Emily Dickinson; other song settings of poetry for voice and piano, or chamber orchestra; chamber music; string quartets; sonatas for piano, cello, flute, trombone, violin, and viola; solo works for flute, clarinet, violin, contrabass, organ, accordion, cello, viola, and French horn; and many orchestral works, including his series of Symphonic Fantasias, and tone poems such as Wisconsin Suite of Childhood Tunes Remembered, A Wisconsin Symphony, and Kentucky Concerto for Orchestra. Many of Luening's compositions have multiple recordings by different performers over time. The Luening compositions are arranged into: individual works, and multiple works. Many recordings in this series include music by other composers.

    Luening's compositions employing tape and electronics heard here include Low Speed, Gargoyles, Fugue and Chorale Fantasy for Organ and Electronic Doubles, Dynamophonic Interlude, and Synthesis for Orchestra and Electronic Sound. Also present are Luening's collaborations with Vladimir Ussachevsky, such as Concerted Piece for Tape Recorder and Orchestra, Incantation, Rhapsodic Variations for Tape Recorder and Orchestra, and Suite from King Lear. Recordings of these pieces often include works-in-progress as various versions of tape or electronic components of works were produced. Unidentified compositions and the works-in-progress appears at the end of the composition list.

    Music by Luening's colleagues and students includes work by Bülent Arel, Milton Babbitt, Ernst Bacon, Richard Brooks, Charles Dodge, Halim El-Dabh, Elisanda Fabregas, Joel Feigin, Erik Nielsen, Elliott Schwartz, Daria Semegen, and Daniel Waitzman, among many others. Work by unidentified composers appears at the end of this list.

    The radio broadcasts include Luening's music and hosts' commentary on it; celebrations of Luening's birthdays; and documentary programs on Aaron Jay Kernis and Edgard Varèse.

    The interviews are composed of Luening's appearances on radio, including on WBAI, WQXR, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and National Public Radio; print media interviews; and private interviews. The interviews from 1981 promote the publication of Luening's autobiography. There is also a narrative by Luening on the history of the American Music Center. The other interviewees include Ernst Bacon.

    The lectures encompass both academic or conference lectures, and lecture-performances in which Luening introduces his work before it is performed. Topics include Paul Hindemith; electronic sound and composition; and the opera Evangeline. Some of the recordings of Luening's compositions earlier in this series also include Luening's remarks or lectures before performances.

    The autobiographical recordings include a lecture, and a recording of Luening recounting his upbringing (in German), produced in Germany in 1970.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Otto Luening in 1987and 1994, by Catherine B. Luening in 2001, and by Paul de Jong in 2023.

Revision History

Additions processed (boxes 204-270) and audio and video described by Matthew Snyder in (2025.)

Processing information

Processed by Matthew Snyder in 2012, 2013, and 2025.

Related Material

Correspondence to Ernst Bacon, 1925 June 9 to 1987 Feb.13, JPB 87-45, Music Division.

Composers Recordings, Inc. records, JPB 07-2, Music Division.

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

Access restrictions

Inquiries regarding audio and video materials in the collection may be directed to the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound (recordedsound@nypl.org). Audio and video materials will be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access.