Scope and arrangement
The David Amram papers, dating from 1937 to 2011, most strongly represent the musician's career path from the 1950s through the early 2000s, documenting his compositions, performances, conducting, writings, and business matters. They also evidence Amram's relationships with other musicians and writers, including Jack Kerouac and other "Beat generation" figures, who are documented by a small amount of correspondence, and by Amram's own writings.
The collection holds personal and professional correspondence; subject files; scores; writings; chronological files of clippings, contracts, financial papers, press releases, and programs; photographs; scrapbooks; datebooks and schedules; posters; awards and honorary degrees; school papers; art; and ephemera. Correspondence, scrapbooks, subject files, scores, writings, and programs comprise the bulk of the collection.
Correspondence, dating from 1943 to 2008, is in two sections: a set of mostly personal letters from notable individuals; and personal and professional correspondence with friends, musicians, presenters, conductors, orchestras, publishers, schools, and Amram's managers (Barna Ostertag and Ed Keane). The notable individuals file includes significant content from Arthur Miller, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Pete Seeger, Gunther Schuller, Ron Whitehead, Leo Block, Carolyn Cassady, Herbert Gold, and Elia Kazan. Other writers with fewer letters present include Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and Hunter S. Thompson.
Of the rest of the correspondence, the earliest (dated 1943-1954) consists of letters between Amram and his family, friends, and schools. Most correspondence from the mid-1950s onward relates to professional matters such as commissions and engagements, but some is personal, including letters from Rudolf Serkin, Willie Nelson, Theodore Bikel, Richie Havens, Jutta Hipp, Joachim Berendt, and Rufus Harley. See the scrapbooks and subject files for additional correspondence, both personal and professional.
The subject files document projects and events of all kinds through correspondence, contracts, flyers, programs, clippings, and photographs. Subjects include the New York Shakespeare Festival; Amram's trips to Brazil (1969), Cuba (1977), Latin America (1977), and the Middle East (1978); plays such as J.B., After the Fall, The Changeling, and Herakles; films such as Pull My Daisy, Seven Days In May, and The Manchurian Candidate; the commissioning and performances of Amram's compositions; publishing and copyright information; and conferences, festivals, and other public events. Also present are short promotional biographies of Amram. Documentation of many of these topics can also be found in the chronological files.
The scores are for forty-two works, dating from 1958 to 2009. They contain sketches, drafts, finished and annotated holographs, and copyist scores and parts. Most of the scores are for concert music. They range from Amram's first-performed works, such as the Trio for Tenor Saxophone, Bassoon, and French Horn (1958), Autobiography for Strings (1960) and the Sonata Allegro for String Orchestra (1959); to later compositions such as the opera Twelfth Night (1968), the Triple Concerto for Woodwind Quartet, Brass Quintet, Jazz Quintet, and Orchestra (1970), and Three Songs: A Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2009). Other works present include the Bassoon Concerto, Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, the opera The Final Ingredient, and the chamber orchestra pieces The American Bell and Shakespearean Concerto. Program notes or essays regarding some compositions can be found in the subject files.
The scores also include music written for theater, film, and dance. Theater music includes material written for the New York Shakespeare Festival's productions of The Merchant of Venice (1964), Twelfth Night (1958, later incorporated into Amram's operatic version), As You Like It (1961), and Hamlet (1964). Also present are scores for the ballet Amerimusica (1992), written for the National Dance Institute; music Amram composed for the film Seven Days In May (1964); and lead sheets used by Amram in jazz performance. These consist of jazz standards and music by Amram, Paquito D'Rivera, and Pepper Adams.
Amram's writings are well-documented by annotated manuscripts, typescripts, drafts, and galleys of books, articles, essays, speeches, program notes, liner notes, plays, and poetry, some unpublished. Books documented include Vibrations, Offbeat, Upbeat, and two early unpublished novels. The essays and articles include memoirs of and tributes to friends such as Lord Buckley, Jack Kerouac, Lucien Carr, Philip Lamantia, Hunter S. Thompson, Gregory Corso, Clifford Brown, and Arthur Miller. Other essay and speech topics include jazz and poetry, Judaic studies, the creative process, and farming.
Additionally, the writings hold interview transcripts. The most significant of these are oral histories of Amram carried out by Yale University and the American Jewish Committee (with Amram's annotations). Also present are shorter interviews dating from the 1960s to 2004.
The chronological files, dating from 1939 to 2006, contain clippings; contracts and financial papers; press releases; and programs and flyers. The clippings, programs, and flyers offer comprehensive coverage of Amram's performances and other public appearances from 1957 forward. Additional programs, dating from the 1950s and earlier, can be found in the scrapbooks. Contracts and financial papers can also be found in the correspondence (and business correspondence also appears among the contracts).
Photographs, dating from the 1950s to the 2000s, include formal and informal portraits of Amram; images of him performing or conducting; with other musicians; and with family or friends. Those pictured with Amram include Joseph Papp, Bob Dylan, George Plimpton, Dizzy Gillespie, the Marlboro Trio, Pepper Adams, and George Barrow. Photographs can also be found in the scrapbooks and subject files. Most are black and white prints, but color prints and a few slides are also present. See the container list for more details.
Scrapbooks date from the 1930s to 2010. They contain correspondence, programs, clippings, and photographs, in varying proportions. Some consist primarily of photographs, while others are mostly personal and professional correspondence. Photographs in the scrapbooks include Amram with Jack Kerouac, Percy Heath, Elvin Jones, and Ray Bryant, as well as a signed photograph of Pablo Casals. The scrapbooks also hold letters to or from Virgil Thomson, Gian Carlo Menotti, the Rockefeller Foundation, Al Aranowitz, Carlos Moseley, and Lucas Foss, as well as correspondence with friends or fans.
Calendars, datebooks, and schedules date from 1972 to 1998. Two undated address books can also be found with them.
Posters, dating from 1962 to 2011, advertise appearances and performances by Amram, as well as plays or films for which he wrote music. They include a caricature of Shakespeare characters signed by Joseph Papp.
The school papers cover Amram's childhood and his time at the Putney School in Vermont (1945-1948), Oberlin Conservatory (1948-1949), and George Washington University (1949-1952). They consist mostly of notes, reports, and papers.
Art, dating from the 1940s to 2004, is by Amram, his friends, and children taught by Amram in workshops. Amram's work consists of pencil and ink sketches of himself and his colleagues, some of them caricatures. Work by others are portraits of Amram (including an oil painting) and other musicians, as well as abstract works. They include watercolors, ink drawings, and photographs.
Ephemera consists of ID cards and souvenir buttons from concerts, festivals, and other public events at which Amram appeared.
Arrangement
The papers are arranged by format. Most categories are arranged chronologically, with the exception of some of the correspondence, the subject files, and scores, which are arranged alphabetically.