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Creator
Becker, John J.
Call number
JPB 04-27
Physical description
24.25 linear feet (61 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation

John J. Becker Papers, JPB 04-27. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

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

John J. Becker was the only Midwestern member of a group of ultramodernist American composers known as the “American Five”. He was known for his use of difficult techniques of counterpoint and harmony. Becker’s most important works include Symphonia Brevis (1930-1931), A Marriage with Space (1935), and Privilege and Privation (1939). The bulk of the collection consists of scores, correspondence, and papers relating to his professional life as a composer, conductor, and educator.

Biographical/historical information

John Joseph Becker was an ultramodernist composer, conductor, and educator. He was born in Henderson, Kentucky on January 22, 1886 and he spent most of his life in the Midwest. Indeed, he has been called the “Midwestern Musical Crusader”. His early teachers included Alexander von Fielitzand Wilhelm Middelschulte. Becker became an educator himself, working at the University of Notre Dame (1918-1928), St. Mary of the Spring (1928-1929), St. Thomas University (1929-1933), and Barat College of the Sacred Heart (1943-1957). He also spent six years working for the W.P.A., as the Director of the Federal Music Project for the state of Minnesota (1935-1941), before returning to academic life. Throughout his career he wrote about music and culture, as well as serving as an editor and advisor of New Music magazine alongside founder and friend, Henry Cowell. Meanwhile, he and his wife Evelyn raised four children: Mary Cecilia, John A., Eugene (Gene), and Bruce.

Becker is known as leader of an ultramodern, arguably dissonant, distinctly American style of music that broke away from European styles of composition. Along with the other four of the “American Five” (Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, Carl Ruggles, and Wallingford Riegger) he shattered preconceived notions of composition, employing difficult techniques of counterpoint and harmony. Becker wrote seven symphonies, as well as concertos, orchestral suites, songs, and choral works (especially religious works). In Musicalia (ca.1931), Henry Cowell explains that Becker “bases his style on the art of the great early vocal polyphonists of the Catholic Church - Palestrina, Vittoria, etc.”. He named many works “soundpieces”, a literal English translation of the word “sonatas” - which gives an indication of the principles on which he based his work. Among his notable works, A Marriage with Space (1935) is often cited as most representative of his ideas of new forms for the stage by incorporating sound, light, dance, and poetry. He was honored late in his career (1958) when his Symphonia Brevis (written in 1930-1931) was performed at Carnegie Hall as part of Bernstein’s series on important American composers. John J. Becker died on January 21, 1961, one day before his 75th birthday.

Scope and arrangement

The John J. Becker Papers cover the breadth of his professional career, especially his most active period, from roughly 1920 to 1950. The music series, specifically the Scores sub-series, makes up the largest section of the collection. The scores range from original pencil sketches to final published works and spans Becker’s career. Programs and clippings can help orient the researcher by putting performances in context. Series III: Professional Papers gives a fuller picture of John J. Becker’s career outside of pure composition. The final series, Oversized Materials, simply records Becker’s academic degrees and the posters document some of the many W.P.A. concerts Becker organized. Correspondence may provide a bit of insight into Becker’s personal as well as professional life. There is very little of a personal nature in the collection outside of some of the correspondence. Evelyn Becker, John J. Becker’s widow, retained control over the collection for many years after his death, organizing and annotating many of the papers. For example, Series IV: Interviews and Speeches is almost entirely composed of Evelyn’s thoughts and comments about her late husband’s works.

The John J. Becker papers are arranged in eight series:

  • Series I: Correspondence, ;
    undated
    16 boxes

    This series includes correspondence to and from both John J. Becker and Evelyn Becker. After John’s death in 1961, Evelyn was unrelenting in her quest to keep his memory and music alive and wrote many letters on his behalf.

    • Sub-series 1 - General, 1905-1991; undated
    • Sub-series 2 - Thematic, 1938-1982; undated

  • Series II: Music
    1897 - 1969; undated

    Music includes lists of Becker’s compositions, notes on his and others’ music, librettos, and scores. Scores is by far the largest sub-series and includes sketches, handwritten manuscripts, and published scores.

    • Sub-series 1 - Lists of works and dates, 1956-1969; undated
    • Sub-series 2 - Notes, undated
    • Sub-series 3 - Librettos, 1927-1939; undated
    • Sub-series 4 - Scores, 1897-1960; undated

  • Series III: Professional Papers
    1908 - 1979; undated

    This series includes papers relating to all of Becker’s professional roles including that of teacher, composer, committee member, musical director and writer. The Activities sub-series details his various accomplishments.

    • Sub-series 1 - Academic Papers, 1908-1952; undated
    • Sub-series 2 - Activities, 1909-1961; undated
    • Sub-series 3 - American Composers Alliance, 1939-1960; undated
    • Sub-series 4 - Catalogs, 1933-1978; undated
    • Sub-series 5 - Conferences, 1928-1979; undated
    • Sub-series 6 - Photographs, 1933-1958; undated
    • Sub-series 7 - W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration), 1935-1942; undated
    • Sub-series 8 - Writings, ca. 1927-1976; undated

  • Series IV: Interviews and Speeches, 1941 - 1980;
    undated

    This series is concerned with public speaking - both the notes prepared before and the transcripts produced later. The notes are entirely Evelyn Becker’s, and the transcripts predominately so.

    • Sub-series 1 - Notes, 1973-1980; undated
    • Sub-series 2 - Transcripts, 1941-1980

  • Series V: Legal and Financial Papers
    1916 - 1978; undated

    This series includes papers related specifically to Becker’s music such as appraisals, contracts and invoices, and copyrights, as well as those related to general household finances like stocks, tax returns, and other miscellaneous documents.

  • Series VI: Programs
    1911 - 1991; undated

    This series includes programs of performances of Becker’s works, as well as those of his contemporaries. The better portion are from the 1930s, which Becker began by teaching at St. Thomas University and later became the State Director of Music for the Federal Music Project (of the W.P.A.). Of special note is a 1958 Carnegie Hall performance that included Becker’s Symphonia Brevis, in which Van Cliburn played piano and Leonard Bernstein conducted.

  • Series VII: Clippings
    1920 - 1986; undated

    This series includes short published articles that are either about, or sometimes by, John J. Becker. The articles by Becker date circa 1926-1929, when he wrote a regular column for the South Bend News-Times. 1936-1941 sees a large increase in the sheer quantity of clippings, as in these years Becker was organizing performances throughout Minnesota for the Federal Music Project (of the W.P.A.).

  • Series VIII: Oversized Materials
    1922 - ca. 1941

    This series contains Becker’s diplomas (1922, 1923, and 1928) and posters advertising performances for the Federal Music Project of the W.P.A.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

TheJohn J. Becker Papers were donated to the Music Division in 1984 by the Evelyn Becker.

Processing information

Processed by Jennifer L. Winters; Machine-readable finding aid created by Jennifer L. Winters.

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.

Alternative form available

Selections from vocal and instrumental music (Boxes: 18, f. 2, 6; 25, f. 5; 27, f. 1; 31, f. 4; 32, f. 2; 39, f. 3; 48, f. 5; 49 f. 5; 50, f. 3) Available also in microfilm as part of the John J. Becker papers; service copy classmark: *ZB-4365