New York University Music Department Collection
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Abstract
New York University's Department of Music was created in 1923 under the supervision of Acting Chairperson Albert Stoessel. Since then the department has been a vital force in the music community of New York City and beyond. Aside from offering academic/instructional programs in the music arts, the Department of Music regularly hosts a wide variety of performances, from the early music series Collegium Musicum (1980-) to the Electroacoustic concert series (2001-). The NYU Music Department Collection contains numerous scores accumulated since the department's inception in 1923 along with business, financial, and academic records from the 1970's through the 1980's.
Biographical / Historical
The Department of Music at Washington Square was established in 1923 with Albert Stoessel as Acting Chairman, under the deanship of James Buell Munn, then Dean of Washington Square College, to serve both the Washington Square College and the College of Arts and Science at the University Heights campus. Stoessel supervised the Heights music programs and Philip James was assigned to Washington Square College. For a period of four years between 1931 and 1935, the Music Department at the Square was transferred to a short-lived College of Fine Arts located in midtown. In 1935, the College was dissolved and the Department was returned to the Washington Square College. During this period, Alfred Greenfield was appointed Chairman at University Heights, which continued to offer a purely undergraduate curriculum with a B.A. in Liberal Arts. This satellite program was dissolved and moved with the rest of the University Heights College in 1972 to the Square.
Arrangement
Series I: Scores has been arranged alphabetically by composer. The final three boxes in this series contain compilation albums, instructional books, and other music publications with more than one composer/author.
- Series I: Scores
- Series II: Business, Financial and Academic Files
Scope and Content note
The NYU Music Department Collection contains numerous scores accumulated since the department's inception in 1923 along with business, financial, and academic records from the 1970's through the 1980's.
Series Description:
Series I includes orchestral, opera, choral, early music, and popular music scores which were published for the most part between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries.
Series II includes business, financial, and academic records from the 1970's through the 1980's. These include programming files for the Collegium Musicum early music performance series, business and financial records for the League of Composers--International Society for Contemporary Music, along with miscellaneous course materials.
Subjects
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); NYU Music Department Collection; MSS number; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.
Provenance
The Collection was transferred to Fales by New York University's Music Department.
