Scope and arrangement
The Carol Baron research files on Stefan Wolpe document Baron's research toward a never-completed biography of the composer. The files hold correspondence from Wolpe, interview transcripts, notes, photographs, score and lecture manuscripts, clippings, and concert programs. The correspondence and other original documentation dates from the 1933 to the early 1970s. Baron's interviews and research notes were produced in the mid-1970s, and printed transcriptions of the interviews were produced in 2009.
The files are in four divisions: correspondence; interview transcriptions; notes, manuscripts, clippings, and programs; and photographs.
Among the correspondence are original letters from Wolpe to his second wife, Irma Wolpe Rademacher, dating from the late 1940s to the early 1960s; and copies of correspondence from Wolpe to students, friends, and colleagues, including Ralph Shapey, Isaac Nemiroff, Paul Fromm, Samuel Baron, and Raoul Pleskow, dating from the 1950s and 1960s. Some files include Carol Baron's written transcriptions of the letters, with her notes. Correspondence to Isaac Nemiroff and Raoul Pleskow was photographed by Baron; prints, negatives, or microfilm of the letters are present in the collection.
The interview transcripts consist of Baron's conversations with Ralph Shapey, John Cage, Jack Tworkov, and Joseph Marx, some in both manuscript and printed form. The interview with Ralph Shapey is the longest and most significant in the collection.
The notes, manuscripts, clippings, and programs include original and copies of music scores and sketches by Wolpe, as well as his lecture notes (in German). Baron's hand-written research notes can be found throughout the collection, but most are in this division. The Milton Kraus file contains a copy of Kraus's notebook of composition studies with Wolpe. Also present is a folder of poetry by Wolpe's first wife, Hilda Morely. Other files in this division hold concert programs, clippings, and catalogs of Wolpe's published works.
The small set of photographs and negatives holds images of Wolpe with friends and colleagues, as well as with Baron.
Arrangement
The files are in four divisions: correspondence; interview transcriptions; notes, manuscripts, clippings, and programs; and photographs. Files are arranged alphabetically within those divisions.