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Creator
Chase, Gilbert, 1906-1992
Call number
JPB 04-32
Physical description
11.89 linear feet (28.5 boxes)
Language
The Clippings series contains some articles in Spanish; English
Preferred Citation

Gilbert Chase Papers, JPB 04-32, Music Division, The New York Public Library.

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

Gilbert Chase (1906-1992) was an author, critic, teacher, and musicologist. The collection includes drafts, notes, and research materials for several books, as well as correspondence relating to them. The collection also documents his numerous articles, essays, lectures, speeches, class syllabi, radio programs, and reviews by him or about his work, as well as an unidentified manuscript on Ives, Billings, and Cage. Some of Chase's lesser-known work, including poetry and an opera outline are also included in the collection. Significant correspondents or subjects include Manual de Falla, Charles Ives, Alberto Ginastera, and Oscar Sonneck.

Biographical/historical information

Gilbert Chase was born in Havana, Cuba on September 4,1906. His father was an American naval officer who had taken part in the Spanish American War. His mother was a daughter of the Danish Consul in Havana. Raised and educated in the United States at public and private schools, he also studied piano with Max Drittler in New York and music theory with Max Waldon Paris. In 1928, after giving up his undergraduate studies at Columbia University in New York, Chase moved to Paris, with the help of his cousin Anaïs Nin and her husband, Ian Hugo.

Through them he obtained a position as music critic for the Continental Daily Mail, an English newspaper published in Paris with a wide circulation. He also became the Paris correspondent for Musical America of New York and The Musical Times of London. At the same time he also formed a close connection with many important Spanish composers, especially Manual de Falla.

In the fall of 1935 he returned with his family to the United States and settled in the New York City area, working as Associate Editor of the International Cyclopedia of Music and Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. From 1940 to 1943 he was Latin American music specialist at the Library of Congress and music editor of Handbook of Latin American Studies.

From 1943 to 1947 he was Educational Supervisor at NBC, presenting the series, Music of the New World, and lecturing at Columbia University, and editing Music in Radio Broadcasting. From 1947 to 1949 he was the Head of the Education Department, for the RCA-Victor company located in Camden, N.J.

In 1951 he was selected to be a Cultural Affairs Officer for the United States and sent to the American Embassy in Lima, Peru (1951-1953). He was then sent to Buenos Aires, Argentina (1953-1955). His next assignment was Brussels (1958-1960). During these assignments, he became well acquainted with musicians of these nations and presented many of them in the United States.

Chase held various academic positions during his career, including Professor of Music History at the University of Oklahoma (1955-1957), where he was also Acting Dean in College of Fine Arts. He then became Professor of American Musical History and of Latin American Studies at Tulane University (1960-1966). He also founded and directed the Inter-American Institute for Musical Research, and edited the Institute's Yearbook, which first came out in 1965 and was later published by the University of Texas at Austin from 1970 to 1976.

From 1975 to 1979 Chase was Visiting Professor in General and Comparative Studies at the University of Texas, teaching a course on "Music in American Life," sponsored by the Departments of Music and History and American Studies Program. Chase also directed a Graduate Seminar and Dissertations on American Music there.

As a freelance writer, editor, and lecturer, he was Visiting Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, during the summer session of 1968. In 1969 he participated in the inaugural lectures for the Doctoral Program in Music of The City University of New York, and then was a Visiting Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Studies in American Music, at Brooklyn College CUNY (1972-1973). He spent the better part of the late 70s and early 80s revising his work, America's Music: From Pilgrims to Present.

Chase married Kathleen Barentzen on December 27, 1929, and they had three sons. Gilbert Chase died of pneumonia on February 22, 1992.

Scope and arrangement

The Gilbert Chase papers consists of materials that span the years 1920 - 1992, the bulk of which was produced between 1945 and 1989. The papers document the broad spectrum of Chase's career from articles of musical criticism or history, to essays, teaching materials, radio scripts and lectures and speeches. The materials include: incoming and outgoing correspondence, typescripts (or photocopies) of books, articles, essays, poetry, research materials, subject files, published articles, newspaper clippings, lectures or lecture notes or announcements, class syllabi, book reviews, scripts for radio broadcasts, speeches, interviews, yearbooks, newsletters, bibliography, flyers, programs, invitations, personal reflections, parts of musical scores, and photographs.

The earliest of the materials are correspondence with Latin Americans, particularly Manual de Falla, book reviews written for the Book of the Month Club monthly selections booklets, and articles written about Chase in American and Latin American newspapers, where he was held in high esteem as a musicologist and author. (Most of these are in Spanish, without translations.)

The subject files are the largest portion of this collection and reflect many of Chase's interests and projects, particularly chapters materials for his opus, American Music: from Pilgrims to Present. These files document a strong interest in 20th century music as well as Latin American composers.

The Gilbert Chase papers are arranged in six series:

  • Series I: Correspondence
    1920-1992
    1.77 linear feet (4.2 boxes

    The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by last name of correspondent, name of business, or under a subject headings such as America's Music: from the Pilgrims to Present or the National Music Council. The majority of the correspondence is of a professional nature, discussing issues relating to conferences, publications, teaching positions, or speaking engagements, though many letters are to people in the field who were friends as well as colleagues and thus offer some personal references within them. Correspondence of interest includes Latin American musicians such as Manual de Falla, Frederico Mompou and Miguel de Unanmuno, correspondence relating to the Yearbook of Inter-American Musical Research and the Society of Ethnomusicology. Please note that small amounts correspondence is also found in individual files in the Subject Files or with particular published works.

  • Series II: Writings
    3.32 linear feet (8 boxes

    The "Writings" series is divided into seven sub-series: books, articles, essays, lectures, speeches, reviews, teaching materials or other (written materials produced by Chase or about him). Please note that several items of his writing are not included in this series, in order to preserve Chase's original order. A folder of his published newspaper articles is in the "Clippings" sub-series, and an introductory essay written for the Grove's Dictionary of Music is in the Subject Files (b.19, f.3).

    For the purposes of this collection, articles and essays were separated to reflect work written with a scholarly or more informative presentation in mind, such as the article, "A Dialectical approach to Music History," and pieces written with more of a personal opinion or reflection on a particular subject or person, for example, "Remembering Alberto Ginastera," or the liner notes to an album of Spanish music.

    Some of Chase's earliest published writings are the reviews he wrote for the Book of the Month Club and in short articles he wrote for Musical America, which were written in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Unfortunately, none of his articles from the Continental Daily Mail are included in this collection, though one or two letters from this time period are found in the Correspondence series.

  • Series III: NBC University of the Air (Radio program)
    0.42 linear feet (1 box

    The materials in this series document the weekly radio broadcasts Chase presented on musical subjects. Music of the New World includes program lists for the first two years of the broadcast, which consisted, at first, of random subjects of interest. Items labeled "Programs" are play lists of recordings with timings for each piece. Theme-driven programs, documented by scripts of the text read to introduce musical selections, include the subjects like "Fokways in Music," and "Music in American Cities."

  • Series IV: Subject Files
    6.25 linear feet (15 boxes

    The subject files contains materials relating to subjects or persons of interest to Chase, mostly within the disciplines of music. Also included are folders on conferences Chase may have spoken at or attended. Chase's original titles have been preserved, except for a few titles that were elaborated upon for clarity.

    Folders may contain information about the subject title or, in the case of a name, articles about that persons or written by that person, or, in a small number of cases, a musical composition by the named person. Subjects of note in this series are: William Brooks (in relation to Ives, box 14, folders 16-19); Charles Ives' centenary celebration (b.20, fs.4-10); The Sonneck Society (b.25, fs.15-20); Chase was instrumental in founding this organization in honor of Oscar George Theodore Sonneck, bibliographer of American music, head of the Music Division of the Library of Congress (1902-17), and founding editor of Musical Quarterly); and information on Structuralism (b.26, fs.6-17).

  • Series V: Personal Papers
    0.41 linear feet (3/4 box)

    These records document Chase's private life and include a bibliography and biographic materials, an appointment calendar, flyers, brochures, and programs relating to seminars or lectures he presented or attended, invitations to special events here and abroad, and photographs, often of others with him. It includes also no information about his home and family life, except for a folder containing materials on the 50th class reunion of Boonton High School (NJ) is included. It also includes a set of pages by him that appear to be a journal of sorts, c.1970s.

  • Series VI: Clippings
    3.5 inches (7 folders

    The clippings are grouped as follows: articles authored by Chase, articles about Chase, articles about musical subjects in general, and Spanish language articles from South American papers.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Gilbert Chase, circa 1971, and Mrs. Kathleen Chase, April 1994

Processing information

Compiled by Michala Biondi; machine readable finding aid created by Michala Biondi.

Separated material

Audiovisual materials separated from archival collections are cataloged individually and can be found in the Library catalog. Search the New York Public Library catalog.

Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound:

  • Leonardo Balada. Carnegie-Mellon University, College of Fine Arts, 1982; pamphlet including biography, bibliography, and sound recording (6 tracks; disc in a pocket).

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.

Access restrictions

Advanced noticed required.