Vivian Fine collection, 1927-2004

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu012001 Vivian Fine Music Manuscripts Processed by the Music Division of the Library of Congress Music Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2011 Guides to Special Collections in the Music Division of the Library of Congress

Catalog Record: http://lccn.loc.gov/2006560739

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Music Division, 2011 Finding aid written in English. Collection Summary Vivian Fine Music Manuscripts 1927-2004 (bulk 1929-1994) ML31.F52 Fine, Vivian, 1913-2000 approximately 1,200 items 16 containers 8.0 linear feet Collection material in English Music Division Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

Vivian Fine was an American composer, pianist, and educator. The collection primarily consists of Fine's holograph manuscript scores, sketches, and parts for works composed between 1929 and 1993. In addition, the collection contains a small amount of correspondence, programs, and clippings. Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

People Fine, Vivian, 1913-2000--Correspondence. Fine, Vivian, 1913-2000--Manuscripts. Fine, Vivian, 1913-2000. Fine, Vivian, 1913-2000. Fine, Vivian, 1913-2000. Selections. Seeger, Ruth Crawford, 1901-1953--Correspondence. Organizations Vivian Fine Collection (Library of Congress) Subjects Music--Manuscripts. Women composers--United States. Women music teachers--United States. Titles Vivian Fine collection, 1927-2004 Form/Genre Clippings (Information artifacts) Correspondence. Programs (Documents) Administrative Information Provenance

Gift, Vivian Fine, 2000.

Accruals

No further accruals are expected.

Processing History

The Vivian Fine Music Manuscripts were processed by Thomas Barrick in 2011. Thomas Barrick coded the finding aid for EAD format in 2011.

Transfers

Sound recordings have been transferred to the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division where they are identified as part of the Vivian Fine Collection (Library of Congress). An inventory of these recordings is available in the Library of Congress Music Division collection file.

Related Material

The Library of Congress Music Division holds several collections that contain materials, such as correspondence and music, relating to Fine and her work. They are the Aaron Copland Collection; Nicolas Slonimsky Collection; Jacobo Ficher Collection; Herman Langinger Music Publishing Files; Artur Rodzinski Collection; and the Martha Graham Collection. Fine's holograph score for Poetic Fires (ML30.3c.F554 no. 1 <case>) is located in the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation Collection and Ode to Henry Purcell (ML29c.F528 no. 1 <case>) is located in the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation Collection.

Materials from the Vivian Fine Music Manuscripts are governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.) and other applicable international copyright laws.

Access and Restrictions

The Vivian Fine Music Manuscripts are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Music Division prior to visiting in order to determine whether the desired materials will be available at that time.

Certain restrictions to use or copying of materials may apply.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [item, date, container number], Vivian Fine Music Manuscripts, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note Date Event 1913, Sept. 28 Born, Chicago, to Russian-Jewish immigrants Rose and David Fine 1918 Began piano studies with mother Became youngest student ever to receive a scholarship from the Chicago Musical College 1924-1926 Studied piano with Djane Lavoie-Herz, former student of Scriabin 1926 Composed first work, Lullaby, for piano 1926-1928 Studied harmony and composition with Ruth Crawford and counterpoint with Adolf Weidig at American Conservatory in Chicago Met Henry Cowell, Dane Rudhyar, and Imre Weisshauss, who became early supporters 1929 Solo for Oboe premiered at Carnegie Hall 1931 Moved to New York City Dance accompanist, Gluck-Sandor Dance Theater and other studios 1932 Became member of Aaron Copland's Young Composers' Group Premiere of Four Polyphonic Pieces for Piano at the First Yaddo Festival 1934-1942 Studied composition with Roger Sessions 1935 Married sculptor Benjamin Karp 1937 Helped found The American Composers' Alliance 1937-1945 Studied piano with Abby Whiteside 1942 Daughter Margaret born 1943 Studied orchestration with George Szell 1945-1948 Faculty member, piano department, New York University, New York, N.Y. 1948 Adjunct faculty member, literature and materials, Juilliard School, New York, N.Y. Moved to New Paltz, New York Daughter Nina born 1953-1960 Artistic director, Rothschild Foundation 1964-1987 Teacher, composition, Bennington College, Bennington, Vt. 1980 Elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters 2000, Mar. 20 Died, Bennington, Vermont Scope and Content Note

The Vivian Fine Music Manuscripts chiefly consist of holograph scores, sketches, and parts for works written between 1929 and 1993. Fine's compositions spanned a variety of musical genres: solo instrumental, chamber, orchestral, as well as accompanied vocal and choral pieces. Notable compositions include Capriccio for Oboe and String Trio (1946), The Great Wall of China (1946), Fine's collaboration with Martha Graham, Alcestis (1960), and chamber operas The Women in the Garden (1978) and Memoirs of Uliana Rooney (1994). A small quantity of correspondence, programs, and clippings supplement the music manuscripts. The correspondence captures Fine's years of compositional growth while studying with Ruth Crawford (Seeger) and making acquaintances with figures such as Henry Cowell, George Antheil, Dane Rudhyar, and Aaron Copland.

Organization of the Vivian Fine Music Manuscripts

The Vivian Fine Music Manuscripts are organized in three series:

Music, 1929-1993 Correspondence, 1929-1933 Miscellany, 1927-2004 http://lccn.loc.gov/2006560739 Container List Container Contents 1-15 Music, 1929-1993 1/1 Aegean suite (piano) 1985 Score 1/2 After the tradition (orchestra) 1987 Score, sketches, parts 13/1-2 Alcestis (orchestra) 1960 Score, parts

Ballet for Martha Graham

13/3 Asphodel (soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, percussion, piano) 1988

Words by William Carlos Williams

Score, sketch 1/3 Birthday waltz (viola, piano) 1989 Score, viola part

Inscribed: For dearest Ellie on her 75th birthday

1/4 Canciones y danzas (guitar, flute cello) 1991 see also Oda a las ranas Score, sketches

Second movement is Oda las ranas

1/5 Cantata for solo voice and six instruments (tenor, oboe, strings, piano) 1961 Sketches, oboe and vocal parts 1/6 Canticles for Jerusalem (mezzo-soprano, piano) 1983

Words by Judah Halevi

Score, sketches 1/7 Canticles from the other side of the river (violin, cello, flute, clarinet, percussion, piano) 1993 Score, parts 1/8 Capriccio for oboe and strings 1946 Score, sketch, parts (oboe, violin, viola, cello) 1/9 Chaconne (piano) 1947 Score 1/10 Chamber concerto for cello and six instruments (cello, oboe, strings, piano) 1966 Score, parts

Laid in: notes on movements

1/11 Concertante for piano and orchestra 1944-1943 Score, parts 2/1 Concertino for piano and percussion ensemble 1965 Score, parts 2/2 Concerto for piano, strings, and percussion (one performer) 1972 Score, sketches/performance notes 2/3 The confession: from Phédre (voice, flute, piano, string trio) 1963

Words by Jean Baptiste Racine

Scores, sketches, string parts, lyric sheets 2/4 Dance suite for orchestra 1938 see also Opus 51. March Score

Laid in: note regarding ASCAP, 1967

2/5 Dancing winds (wind quartet) 1987 see also Emily's images Score, parts 2/6 Discourse of goatheads (bass trombone) 1988 Score, sketch, part 13/4 Divertimento (woodwinds, trumpet, percussion, piano) 1933 Score, parts 2/7 Divertimento for cello and percussion 1951 Score 2/8 Dollars and cents 1942 Scores

Titles: Guns and tanks will keep us free; Here is your dinner; I believe everything they say; Inflation song; You've got to get wise

2/9 Double variations for piano solo 1982 Score 2/10, 13/5 Drama for orchestra (after paintings by Edvard Munch) 1982 Scores, sketches/notes, parts 3/1 Dreamscape (flutes, cello, percussion, piano) 1964 Sketches, parts 3/2 Duo for 3 timpani and piano 1965 Score 7/7 Eclogue (horn) 1978 see also Quartet for brass Score

Extracted from third movement of Quartet for brass

13/6 L'ecole des hautes études (The school of higher studies) (clarinet, piano, bass, percussion) 1988 Parts 3/3 Eleven transformations for four cellos and tape 1970 Score 3/4 Elizabeth's aria for projected opera 1980 Score 3/5 Emily's images (flute, piano) 1987 Score, sketches

Titles are from poems by Emily Dickinson: A spider sewed at night; A clock stopped - not the mantel's; Exultation is the going; The robin is a Gabriel; After great pain, a formal feeling comes; The leaves like women interchange; A day! Help! Help! another day

Other sketches in notebook: Tomorrow and tomorrow; Lullaby; Sheila's song; Inscriptions; Whitman songs 3; Harpsichord; Cello sonata; Dancing winds; Pizzicato fanfare

3/6 Epitaph upon the death of Sir Albert Morton's wife (voice, piano) 1941

Words by Sir Henry Wotton

Score 3/7 Fanfare (2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani) 1971 Score, parts 3/8 Fantasy for cello and piano 1962 Scores, sketches 3/9 Five preludes (piano) 1939-1941 Scores 3/10 Five Victorian songs (soprano, flute, clarinet, viola, cello) 1988 Score

Titles: Aloof (words by Christina Rosetti); Cadmus and Harmonia (words by Matthew Arnold); Spring and fall (words by Gerard Manley Hopkins); Invictus (words by William E. Henley); Sonnet from the Portuguese (words by Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

3/11 The flicker (flute or piano) 1973 Score, sketches

3/12 A flower given to my daughter (low voice, violin, viola, cello) 1935

Words by James Joyce

Score

Unidentified sketches on verso of score

At end: notes regarding "Mr. [Roger] Sessions" analysis

3/13 For a bust of Eric Satie - a short mass 1979

Words by Georges Guy

Score, sketches, parts, lyric sheets 3/14 For Aaron, an offering (4 cellos) 1972 Score

3/15 Four Elizabethan songs (voice, piano) 1938-1941 see also Songs and arias Scores

Titles: The bargain (words by Sir Philip Sidney); Daybreak (words by John Donne); Dirge (words by William Shakespeare); Spring's welcome (words by John Lyly)

"Dirge" has same melody as "Elizabethan song" from Songs and arias

3/16 Four lyric pieces for voice and piano 1933-1939 Scores

Score for The riddle is missing

Titles: A flower given to my daughter (words by James Joyce); Adios Bilbadito (anonymous); Sonnet (words by John Keats); The riddle

4/1 Four piano pieces 1966 Scores

4/2 Four pieces for two flutes 1930 Score, parts

4/3 Four polyphonic piano pieces 1931-1932 Scores

4/4 Four songs (voice, strings) 1933 Score, lyric sheets

Titles: The lover in winter plaineth for the spring (anonymous); Comfort to a youth that had lost his love (words by Robert Herrick); She weeps over Rahoon (words by James Joyce); Tilly (words by James Joyce)

Laid in: arrangement of "She weeps over Rahoon" for wind quintet, 1987

4/5 The garden of live flowers (soprano, tenor, baritone, piano) 1988

Words by Lewis Carroll

Score 4/6 Gertrude and Virginia: a dialogue between Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf, using their own words (soprano, mezzo-soprano, clarinet, percussion, double bass, piano) 1981 Score, clarinet and double bass parts

4/7 The Great Wall of China (soprano, flute, cello, piano) 1947

Words by Franz Kafka

Score, lyric sheets 4/8 A guide to the life expectancy of a rose (soprano, tenor, flute, violin, clarinet, cello, harp) 1956

Words by S.R. Tilley

Score, parts, notes/clipping 4/9 The human mind: Gertrude Stein's aria from the chamber opera "The women in the garden" 1977 (voice, piano) 1987) see also The women in the garden Score

4/10 Hymns (2 pianos, horn, cello) 1991 Score

Titles: Aeolus, god of the winds; Toward a distant shore

4/11 I have not told my garden yet (voice, piano) 1933

Words by Emily Dickinson

Score, sketches

Sketches on verso of score

14/1 In memoriam: George Finckel (4 or more cellos) 1987 Score, parts

4/12 Inscriptions (2 voices, piano) 1986 see also Emily's images Score, sketch

4/13 Lacrymosa (2 trumpets, 2 trombones) 1972 Score

4/14 Lieder for viola and piano 1979 Score, sketches, parts

Includes an arrangement for clarinet and piano

5/1 Light in spring poplars (chorus, viola, piano) 1987

Words by Stephen Sandy

Score 5/2 Little suite for voice and piano 1930

Words by Carl Sandburg

Score 5/3, 14/2 Lyric piece for cello and piano 1937 Score, cello part

5/3 Lyric piece for cello and string quartet, undated Score, parts

5/4 Ma's in orbit (violin, percussion, double bass, piano) 1987 Score, parts

5/5 Madrigali spirituali (trumpet, string quartet) 1989 Score, parts

5/6-8 Meeting for equal rights 1866 (cantata for chorus, orchestra, mezzo-soprano, baritone, narrator) 1976 Score, sketches, parts, text/notes

6/1 Melos (double bass) 1964 Score, sketches

14/3-4 Memoirs of Uliana Rooney (soprano, 2 baritones, 2 female voices as chorus, chamber ensemble) 1993

Libretto by Sonya Friedman

Score, parts, libretto 6/2 Missa brevis (4 cellos, taped voice) 1972 Scores

6/3 Momenti (piano) 1979 Score, sketches

Inscribed: In honor of the 150th anniversary of Schubert's death and dedicated to Roger Sessions

6/4 Morning (chorus, organ, narrator) 1987

Text from "Walden" by H.D. Thoreau

Score, sketches 6/5 Music for flute (alto flute), oboe (English horn), and cello 1980 Score, parts

Inscribed: Commissioned by and dedicated to the Huntingdon Trio

6/6 Music for study (piano) 1935-1941 Scores

Titles: Pieces for children (1938); Five little canons (1941); Two duets for 4 hands (1939, 1941); Two descriptive pieces (1941) (not in folder); Study in changing meters (1935)

14/5 My sledge and hammer ly reclined (chorus, brass, strings, two pianos, percussion) 1967 Score, sketches, parts

6/7 My son, my enemy (percussion, string quartet, piano) 1965 Score, sketches, percussion part

6/8 New ways of seeing - music for film (string orchestra) 1954 Score, parts

6/9 The nightingale (mezzo-soprano, percussion - played by the singer) 1976

Words by various authors

Score, lyric sheet 6/10 Nightingales (motet for six instruments) 1979 Score, parts

6/11 Oda a las ranas (Ode to frogs) (women's chorus, flute, oboe, cello, percussion) 1989 see also Canciones y danzas

Words by Pablo Neruda

Score, lyric sheets

Later used as second movement of Canciones y danzas

6/12 Ode to Henry Purcell (soprano, string quartet) 1984

Words by Rainer Maria Rilke and Gerard Manley Hopkins

Score, parts, lyric sheets

Commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in the Library of Congress