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Creator
Rikko, Fritz
Call number
JPB 06-54
Physical description
12 boxes
Language
The Fritz Rikko professional papers contain some correspondence and other materials in French, German, or Italian; the text of Salamone Rossi's Shirim asher li-Shelomoh is in Hebrew
Preferred Citation

Fritz Rikko Professional Papers, JPB 06-54. Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Perfoming Arts.

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

Fritz Rikko (1903-1980) was a musicologist and conductor who was an authority on music of the Baroque era. The collection documents Rikko's scholarly work on the composers, Salamone Rossi and Alessandro Scarlatti, and consists mainly of correspondence generated by Rikko, research materials he gathered, and scores for musical compositions written by these two composers.

Biographical/historical information

Fritz Rikko (1903-1980) was a musicologist and conductor who was an authority on music of the Baroque era. Born in Werden, Germany, he immigrated to the United States in 1941 and founded the Collegium Musicum of New York in 1951. The early music ensemble played many engagements and made recordings, but perhaps is best remembered for the free summer concerts it gave in Washington Square Park from 1956 through 1974 with Rikko as conductor. Rikko had been a violist with the Busch Chamber Players and taught at the Juilliard School of Music, Greenwich House Music School, State University of New York at Purchase, and Rutgers University. As an editor, Rikko published scores for individual pieces by numerous Baroque composers, including Dietrich Buxtehude, Orlando Gibbons, Heinrich Schütz, and Georg Philipp Telemann; however, the figure with whom he was most closely associated was Salamone Rossi. Rossi was a Jewish composer and instrumentalist who was active in Mantua in the early seventeenth century, serving under the patronage of the Gonzaga family; his music often has been characterized as being "proto-Baroque" in style. Among other projects, Rikko produced a scholarly edition of Rossi's Shirim asher li-Shelomoh (Song of Solomon), a setting of Hebrew sacred songs and texts, and he also completed the thematic index to the composer's works, in collaboration with Joel Newman.

Scope and arrangement

The Fritz Rikko Professional Papers primarily document Rikko's scholarly work on the Renaissance and Baroque composers, Salamone Rossi and Alessandro Scarlatti, and consist mainly of correspondence generated by Rikko, research materials he gathered, and scores for musical compositions written by these two composers edited by Rikko for performance, publication, or study. Rikko produced versions of several Rossi scores, as well as publications about the composer, but the best documented of these efforts within the collection are his critical edition, Hashirim asher liSh'lomo (1967-1973), and A thematic index to the works of Salamon Rossi (1972). Also well-represented in the collection are materials relating to Scarlatti’s 1690 opera, La Statira, including the complete manuscript orchestral and vocal scores, which had been prepared originally by Rikko as a commission from the Juilliard School of Music.

The Fritz Rikko professional papers are arranged in three series:

  • Series I: Editorial and research files, and
    undated
    2 boxes

    The majority of the material in the Editorial and Research Files relates to Rikko's various projects on Salamone Rossi, as well as his efforts to fulfill a commission by Tito Capobianco to produce a performance score of Alessandro Scarlatti's opera, La Statira (1690), which was to have been staged for the opening of the new Juilliard Theater.

    In addition to correspondence and research materials, this series also contains a few production materials, such as page proofs, and some publicity materials, including announcements, order forms, and reviews. Also present are some reproductions (photocopies, negatives, and photographic prints) of manuscript and printed scores, as well as other items; similar material in a larger format also can be found in the Oversized Material series.

  • Series II: Scores
    1933 - 1965
    9 boxes

    The Scores series consists of manuscript and printed scores of works by the composers Salamone Rossi and Alessandro Scarlatti. The manuscript scores are most likely transcriptions made by Rikko working from original manuscripts (when extant) or early editions. Some of the manuscript scores appear to be in Rikko's own hand, while others may be the work of a copyist. The printed material is comprised of Rossi scores edited by Rikko or other scholars.

  • Series III: Oversized Material
    3 boxes

    The Oversized Material series consists of large format photocopies of original manuscript or printed music scores acquired by Rikko for research purposes. Along with works by Salamone Rossi and Alessandro Rossi, the composers Carlo Grossi and Pietro Nardini also are represented.

Administrative information

Processing information

Processed by Helice Koffler; Machine-readable finding aid created by Helice Koffler.

Separated material

Fritz Rikko's own copy of a single partbook from the 1607 edition of Il primo libro delle sinfonie et gagliarde has been separated from the collection and cataloged as a rare book for the 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

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Music Division