Scope and arrangement
The Russell Oberlin papers, dating from 1930 to 2016, document Oberlin's childhood and education, his performance career, his teaching, and his research, through annotated scores and scripts; photographs; scrapbooks; letters; teaching and research files; business files containing professional correspondence, clippings, interviews, and concert programs; and sound and video recordings.
The scores and scripts, which are arranged by composer or author, hold songs, song collections, pieces for duo or chorus, and scripts for readings or narrations. All are annotated, or contain composer inscriptions or autographs. The annotations denote phrasing suggestions, note corrections, and edits. Songs and song collections mainly date from Oberlin's performance years, while choral pieces and scripts date from his teaching years at Hunter College forward (the middle 1960s to the 2000s). Most of the scores are published, but there are a few manuscripts present, most notably a full score for Leonard Bernstein's The Lark. Most other manuscripts are probably in Oberlin's hand, not that of the original composer, and may have been used for teaching purposes. Composers who inscribed scores to Oberlin include Marc Blitzstein, Richard Hundley, and Ben Weber.
The photographs contain performance and rehearsal images, portraits of Oberlin, and informal images from throughout Oberlin's life. The portraits date mainly from Oberlin's performance career (1950s to the mid-1960s) and include work by Carl Van Vechten, Ken Heyman, and Atelier Von Behr. Performance photographs date from the same time frame, and include images from A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with John Gielgud. Also present is a bound book of photographs of the New York Pro Musica in rehearsals and performance in the early 1950s (box 5, folder 4).
Other photographs show Oberlin teaching classes at Hunter College, and with friends and colleagues such as Ned Rorem and Geoffrey Holder. Childhood photographs of Oberlin date from his school days to his young adulthood.
The four scrapbooks provide a detailed chronology of Oberlin's career. Oberlin assembled Volume 1 contemporaneously (from the 1930s to 1945), while he prepared the other three volumes (dating from 1961 to 1994) retrospectively, in support of his academic promotion. The scrapbooks contain business and personal letters, programs, clippings, and contracts, as well as a few photographs.
The letters, which are divided into chronological and alphabetical sections, contain letters from friends, colleagues, and students; business letters and contracts; and fan mail. Most of the letters are incoming, but a few drafts of responses are also present. Notable people who wrote to Oberlin include Leonard Bernstein, Marilyn Horne, Ned Rorem, Carl Van Vechten, and Ursula Vaughn Williams (widow of Ralph). The letters from Oberlin in the alphabetical section are to his mother. The largest set of letters to Oberlin were written by Stella Besse, a disturbed fan.
Oberlin's teaching and research files center on his work at Hunter College from the 1960s to the 1990s, and on the research projects he undertook in the United States and abroad. The largest of these is his historical survey of music created for the countertenor and castrato voice, a topic Oberlin continued to research up to the early 2000s. This file holds Oberlin's papers and articles, some published; notes; correspondence with other singers and researchers; and published articles by others. Also present is a lecture by Oberlin called "The Art of the Troubadour and Trouvère," most likely delivered at Hunter. The teaching files also contain notes, letters, and programs regarding his classes and his direction of the Hunter College choir, as well as the American Academy of Teachers of Singing, in which Oberlin was active for many years.
The business files document engagements, tours, recordings, and festivals through letters, contracts, publicity material, and financial records. They also hold datebooks and an address book; Oberlin's passport; and his school diplomas. The publicity material contains flyers, brochures, biographies, programs, clippings, and interview transcripts. The programs offer detailed coverage of Oberlin's performances from throughout his life. The interview transcripts are the complete versions of interviews published in the 1980s. Other significant topics in the business files include the New York Pro Musica, a tour of The Lark, and recordings released on Deutsche Grammophon and Lyrichord Discs.
The sound and video recordings include several interviews of Oberlin dating from the 2000s; the 1965 television production of The Play of Daniel; a 1961 CBC radio recital; 1962 CBC television performances with Glenn Gould; The Lark with Leonard Bernstein conducting; a circa 1957 radio broadcast of the New York Pro Musica; a 1977 production of Façade (poems by Edith Sitwell, music by William Walton); a 1979 production of L'Histoire du Soldat; and several examples of Oberlin performing in theatrical pieces or literary readings, including Samson Agonistes by John Milton, and The Great Debate In Hell (a reading of Books I and II of Milton's Paradise Lost). Also present are two lectures by Oberlin, and performances of the Hunter College choir under Oberlin's direction. Sound and video recordings are unavailable pending digitization.