Scope and arrangement
The Marga Richter papers, dating from 1924 to 2020, strongly document the creation and evolution of Richter's music and the course of her career. Most of the collection dates from the early-1940s until Richter's death in 2020. The papers consist of scores; subject files; business and personal correspondence; programs; clippings; information on compositions and performances; journals and notes; photographs; and sound and video recordings, which hold primarily performances of Richter's work.
The Marga Richter papers are arranged in three series:
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1924-2020
The Business Files, dating from 1924 to 2020, evidence the business and promotional aspects of Richter's career, as well as her work's performance history and critical reactions to it. It also reveals the history of the Long Island Composers Alliance. Most of the content is subject files for organizations, performing ensembles, publishers, management, record labels, funding agencies, and particular concerts or events. The series also holds biographies of Richter, a clippings file, and three other subdivisions, the Composition File, the Performance File, letters, journals and notes.
The Composition File, arranged alphabetically, contains programs, performance histories, clippings, correspondence, and notes regarding Richter's works. This content is somewhat paralleled by the Performance File. Arranged chronologically, it holds programs, press releases, presenter brochures, and correspondence with presenters.
The letters are mostly professional but contain some correspondence with friends or family members. Other correspondents include musicians, presenters, music industry professionals, and composers. Some letter files are larger than others, but there is no substantial ongoing correspondence with anyone in the collection.
Further content in the series includes journals and notes, which date from 1976 onward; lecture notes; earning reports from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and publishers including Carl Fischer, G. Schirmer, and Broude Brothers; an interview transcript; and photographs, which hold headshots of Richter and a print of Richter with her son, pianist Michael Skelly.
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1941-2020
This series, dating from 1941 to 2020, holds scores for most of Richter's compositions, starting with her work as a teenager to her last revisions of earlier pieces. The scores include major compositions such as Sonata for Piano, Variations and Interludes on Themes from Monteverdi and Bach, the Landscapes of the Mind series of works, ballets such as The Abyss and Bird of Yearning, string quartets, songs for voice and piano, choral works, and chamber music. There are also arrangements by Richter for four pianos of well-known classical works, dating from the 1950s. The scores consist of sketches, manuscripts, copyist masters, revisions, edits, and scores used in performance or recording. Richter often orchestrated the same material for different performing forces, and would revise her work years or decades after its original composition. Starting around 2000, she used Sibelius score software for both new compositions and revisions to older ones. Researchers should also consult the Composition File in Series I for more information on the compositions.
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1948-2017
Series III holds primarily sound recordings of Richter's work, including Landscapes of the Mind (I-III), Dew-drops on a Lotus Leaf, Fragments, Qhanri (Snow Mountain) - Tibetan Variations for Cello and Piano, Quantum Quirks of a Quick Quaint Quark, Variations and Interludes on Themes from Monteverdi and Bach, Seacliff Variations, Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, and Riders to the Sea, among others. A few of the recordings are Sibelius digital realizations, not performances. Also present in this series are interviews with Richter, the Fortieth Anniversary concert of the Long Island Composers Alliance, and a few unidentified recordings. A few of the original media items had paper inserts with content listings and other contextual information. These were separated and are contained in the Insert File at the top of this series' container list.