Music

For reference queries contact Grenander Department Reference staff or (518)–437–3935

BODKY, ERWIN
Papers, 1897–1958, 6 ft. (GER–023)
Biographical materials; letters of recommendation from Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and others, 1922–1938; letters to his wife, 1915–1938, primarily as a German soldier in World War I; musical programs and reviews relating to his career as a keyboard performer and musicologist, 1908–1955; manuscripts relating to posthumously published book The Interpretation of Bach's Keyboard Works (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960); extensive manuscripts of his own compositions and arrangements (instrumental, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music), 1906–1926; and printed material. Bodky studied piano with Ferrucio Busoni and composition with
Richard Strauss and performed widely on harpsichord and piano. He left Germany and lived in the Netherlands, 1933–1938, and the United States from 1938 until his death. He was a professor of music at Brandeis University.

EIGHTH STEP
Records, 1975-2003, 13 cubic ft. (APAP–195)
Founded in 1967, the Eighth Step is an independent, non-profit organization that was originally started in the basement of the First Presbyterian Church of Albany. Originally started as a First Presbyterian youth project, the Eighth Step held concerts of folk, traditional, ethnic, blues, and jazz music. Begun amidst the backdrop of the Civil Rights/Vietnam War era, the Eighth Step was strongly influenced by the political music of that era. Artists such as Arlo Guthrie, Greg Brown, Patty Larkin, Ani DiFranco, and John Gorka played there early in their careers. The old back entrance to the original space contained eight steps, hence the name. In 2000, the Eighth Step moved to the Cohoes Music Hall and held their last concert there in 2003. The collection contains artist files, newsletters, programs and schedules, press releases, photographs, posters, live concert recordings, radio programs, and interviews.

KASTLE, LEONARD
Papers, 1954–1991, 8.0 ft. (UA–902.021)
Instrumental scores, vocal scores, piano scores, screenplays, and librettos of many of Kastle's works, including From a Whitman Reader, Piano Concerto, Acquainted with the Night, Deseret, The Pariahs, The Passion of Mother Ann, The Honeymoon Killers, Wedding at Cana, Change of Heart, and Shakespeare's Dog.

LIEPMANN, KLAUS (1907-1990), violinist, conductor
Papers, 1933-1990, 1 cubic ft.(GER–122)
Photographs; clippings; recordings of Klaus Liepmann (violin) and as conductor of M.I.T. orchestra and choral groups; copies of unpublished short writings on musical topics, as well as longer typescripts including "Music at M.I.T.," Liepmann's autobiography "Fifty Years in America," as well as a biography of his father, Moritz Liepmann. Liepmann was considered the "Father of Music" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was the first to bring music to the humanities department there and became the first full-time director of music and conductor of the M.I.T. choral society and orchestra.

LITURGICAL MUSIC
Manuscript, undated, 1 vol. (MSS–020)
Anonymous manuscript masses and other liturgical music dating from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. A manuscript note in the volume records that Cardinal Philip Thomas Howard (1629–94) "took formal possession of Bornhem, & the Province was re-founded from Holland in 1685. This book is a relic of Bornhem days." In the late seventeenth century, Cardinal Howard was prior of the nunnery at Tempsche, located near Bornem (formerly Bornhem), a town twelve miles southwest of Antwerp, Belgium.

MANSCHINGER, GRETA HARTWIG (1899–1971), writer and MANSCHINGER, KURT (ASHLEY VERNON, 1902-1968), composer
Papers, 1912–1970, 20 cubic ft. (GER–025)
Correspondence, 1945-1968; manuscript of Greta's unfinished autobiographical novel "Brno-New York" and hand-corrected typescripts and manuscripts of novel sketches, opera librettos (English translations from German), songs, short stories, children's literature, advertising and media sketches, and critical reviews, 1935-1970; personal family papers of Kurt and Greta Manschinger; scores and sheet music by Kurt and Greta; audio tapes of performances; index card files of Manschinger music contacts; Manschinger Music Trust files.

MONDAY MUSICAL CLUB
Papers, 1924–1988, 2.44 cubic ft. (APAP–089)
The Monday Musical Club was organized for women in Albany, New York in 1904 with twenty members to study, discuss and perform music in an informal manner. The Club's purpose was to encourage a broader culture in music and art among its members and in the community at large. The records of the Monday Musical Club most strongly document the group's performances and activities. The Club's programs and yearbooks provide a comprehensive list of performances from the 1950s through the 1980s. The annual yearbooks are a rich source of information including club membership, performances, and financial status. The Club's history before 1950 is documented through only scattered items. The Club's administrative functions are documented through meeting minutes and reports submitted to committees as well as the Club. The minutes cover the years from 1939 through the 1960s, while reports are available for the 1960s and 1970s. The scrapbooks are a rich source of Club history using programs, yearbooks, and news clippings with occasional photographs, club newsletters, or related materials.

NORTH AMERICAN FIDDLERS HALL OF FAME
Records, 160 audio tapes (APAP-194)
The collection is composed of 160 open reel tapes containing interviews with significant fiddlers. Tapes are preservation copies created in 1999 from the orginal cassette tapes. Digital copies and the original recordings are housed at the North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame in Osceola, NY.

PESSL-SOBOTKA, YELLA
Papers, 1918–1979, 13 ft. (GER–073)
Correspondence, 1930–1979; musical manuscripts, arrangements, and fingered sheet music, primarily of the keyboard works of J. S. Bach, undated; scrapbooks pertaining to her concert career, 1924–1956; 78 commercial and private recordings of her performances on harpsichord and piano, primarily from the 1940s and 1950s; and printed materials.

POSTER COLLECTION – CULTURAL EVENTS FILE
Flat File, 24.8 ft. (UA–XXX.029)
Contains posters for campus events organized by subject. Includes informational and educational posters, lectures, films, music, theatre, dance, art, women's liberation, gay alliance, black awareness, student and university activities, protests, rallies, and demonstrations.

SCHEIN, DONALD
Papers, 1954–1987, 40 cubic ft. (APAP–209)
Born in Leavenworth, Kansas, Schein was a pioneer in the development of educational television and radio in New York State. During graduate study at Boston University, he became active in fundraising to help establish Boston's educational television station, WGBH and served on the Massachusetts Citizens Committee on Educational Television. In 1955, Schein came to Schenectady and served as associate producer and first president of the Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television, where he produced instructional programs for in-school use broadcast over WRGB-TV. Schein led the effort to launch the second public television station in New York State, Schenectady's WMHT in 1962, and was executive director and later general manager. He was instrumental in the addition of the all classical music radio station WMHT-FM in 1972 and the Radio Information Service (RISE), a radio reading service for the blind and print handicapped in 1978. He retired in 1986 as general manager, after concluding negotiations for the acquisition of Channel 45, WMHQ. The collection contains newsletters, programs and schedules, meeting minutes, photographs, and Schein's files as president of Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television, and files as executive director and general manager of WMHT.

SEMMLER, ALEXANDER
Papers, 1914-1968 (MSS–131)
Alexander Semmler was born and educated in Germany before emigrating to the United States in 1923. He was a composer, conductor, and pianist. He was active in radio and film, serving as staff conductor and pianist fo rthe CBS Orchestra and as composer and conductor for films released by RKO Pathe. He later worked with Norman Corwin and was active in television. He was music consultant to Radio in the American Sector in Berlin in the early 1950s, organized the Centro Compositores Mexicanos in Mexico City in 1953-1954, and served as music director of the Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, New York from 1955-1969. Semmler's compositions include opus numbers as well as numberous songs and other short works. These include works for orchestra, string and chamber orchestra, chamber groups of all sorts, piano, organ, and voice. There are also a number of works Semmler wrote under the name of "Ralph Sandor" the most notable of which are two volumes of "Incidental Music for Piano" published by Alpha Music.

STUDER, NORMAN
Papers, 1817–1988 (APAP–116)
Papers of Norman Studer, educator, folklorist, and writer. The papers primarily document Studer's activities as an educator at the Little Red School House/Elisabeth Irwin High School, an educator and administrator at the Downtown Community School, founder and Director of Camp Woodland, and his various writing projects. The papers reflect Studer's two principal life–long interests: progressive education and folklore. The collection is particularly strong in its representation of Catskill folklore and folk music, including manuscript material, photographs, reel–to–reel audio recordings, and 16mm movies documenting interviews with indigenous Catskill informants, folk festivals, and life at Camp Woodland.

TISCHLER, HANS (1915– ), musicologist
Papers, 1935–1982, 3.5 ft. (GER–009)
Papers include publication and essays, 1941–82; musical scores, 1935, 1972 and undated; correspondence, 1949–81; and research notes, (undated). Hans Tischler is an Austrian-born musicologist who holds Ph D's in Musicology: Vienna University (1937) and Yale University (1942). After serving in the US Army in WWII, Tischler became Head and Professor of the Music Department at Wesleyan University in West Virginia until 1947; Associate Professor of Music History, Roosevelt University, Chicago, 1947–65; University of Chicago, 1956–57; briefly at Tel Aviv University, Jerusalem, 1972; and the position he is most noted for, Professor of Musicology, University of Indiana, Bloomington, 1965–85, from which he retired to emeritus status. Tischler is known primarily as a scholar of the medieval motet, publishing several books and numerous journal articles on the subject, between 1947 and 1997. Tischler's musical compositions are represented in the collection, as is his correspondence with colleagues at other college and university music departments throughout  the USA, Europe,and Israel. Notable correspondents are linguist Samuel Rosenberg; musicologists Jurg Stenz and Israel Katz; and Bach scholar Gerhard Herz. A series of letters between Tischler and Gwynn McPeek of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, written throughout 1973, details a debate regarding the distinction between modes and scales in medieval music.

UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES CLIPPING FILE
Vertical Files, 1929– , 3 ft. (UA–950.001)
Newspaper clippings about University related subjects collected by the University Archives and organized by subject into over 250 categories. Mostly consists of clippings from the 1960–80 period.  Larger categories include: dorms, graduations, Samuel B. Gould, William Kennedy, lectures & speeches, Milne School, music dept, New York Writer's Institute, protest & demonstration, student life, off campus student housing, tuition, tulip queens, library, Vietnam, Art Gallery, basketball, football, tennis, trace & field, atmospheric science research center, biology department, Ernest L. Boyer, buildings, and budget.

WAMC/NORTHEAST PUBLIC RADIO
Records, 1981-2000, 6,795 audio recordings (APAP–138)
WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states and is a member of National Public Radio and an affiliate of Public Radio International. The station's programs cover a number of issues including education, politics and government, the environment, health and medical issues, women's issues, and others. Some of the programs in the collection include: 51 Percent, The Best of Our Knowledge, Capitol Connection, Dancing on the Air, The Environment Show, The Health Show, The Law Show, Legislative Gazette, Media Project, Vox Pop, and other regular and special broadcasts.