Louise Talma Papers
Catalog Record: http://lccn.loc.gov/2006560740
General International Standard for Archival Description
Music DivisionLibrary of Congress Washington, D.C.
Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Music Division, 2011
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Louise Talma Papers 1875-1996 1928-1994
Talma, Louise, 1906-1996
Biographical History for: Louise Talma Papers 1875-1996 1928-1994
Biographical Note Date Event 1906, Oct. 31 Born, Arcachon, France 1911 Began piano lessons 1914 (summer) Moved with mother, Cécile Talma, to New York 1922-1930 Studied at the Institute of Musical Art, New York City 1926-1928 (winters) Taught theory and ear training at the Manhattan School of Music 1926-1927 (summers) Studied piano with Isidore Philipp at the Fontainebleau School of Music 1928-1939 (summers) Studied composition with Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau School of Music 1928-1979 Teacher and assistant professor of music, Hunter College, New York City 1931 Bachelor of Music, New York University 1932 Awarded Joseph Bearns Prize for Composition 1933 Master of Arts, Columbia University 1936-1939 (summers) Became first American to teach at Fontainebleau 1943 First visit to the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire Performance of Four-Handed Fun with composer and life-long friend Lukas Foss Composed Piano Sonata no. 1 1944 Composed Toccata for Orchestra 1946-1947 Awarded successive Guggenheim Fellowships 1949-1982 Periodically studied or taught solfege, analysis, and harmony at Fontainebleau 1950 Composed The Divine Flame 1955 Awarded Fulbright Fellowship 1958 Composed The Alcestiad 1962 The Alcestiad becomes the first American opera to be performed at a major European opera house 1963 All the Days of My Life commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress 1974 Became first woman elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters 1990 Composed Infanta Marina 1996, Aug. 13 Died at the Yaddo Artist Colony, Saratoga Springs, New York
Scope and Content Note Music materials from the Louise Talma Papers span the period 1875 to 1996, with the majority dating from 1928 to 1994. These consist chiefly of holograph manuscript scores, sketches, tone rows, and photo-reproduced manuscripts bearing annotations in the composer's hand. Many works are accompanied by errata, correspondence, programs, notes, and other items of interest. Talma's tendency to date sketches and manuscripts at different stages in her creative process is useful for tracing her compositional shift from neoclassicism to serialism and atonality. Her final work, Spacings (1994), was completed at Yaddo only two years before her death and marked the end of a nearly seventy-year career as a composer. Notable manuscripts in the collection include holograph scores for the opera The Alcestiad (1958) and the oratorio The Divine Flame (1946-1948), Four-Handed Fun (1943), Piano Sonata no. 1 (1943), and her award-winning Toccata for Orchestra (1944). Talma also possessed a variety of music manuscipts from other composers, many of whom she met while at Fontainebleau, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. Her close relationship with Lukas Foss is evident by the significant quantities of inscribed holograph scores that the renowned composer gave to Talma throughout the 1940s and 1950s. These include his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra no. 2 (1949-1951), Fantasy Rondo (1944-1945), The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1949), Psalms (1956), and Song of Songs (1946). The collection also contains holograph scores by Leonard Bernstein, Norman Dello Joio, and Irving Fine, as well as an 1875 printed edition of Karl Goldmark's Symphony no. 1 inscribed by Marian MacDowell to Talma.
series
Music
subseries
Dramatic, 1958
file
The Alcestiad, 1958
Photocopied holograph manuscript full score
Holograph manuscript short score
Photocopied holograph manuscript piano-vocal score
Libretti
Errata, correspondence, interview transcripts, articles, and promotional materials
Vocal, 1928-1993
All the days of my life
Birthday song (voice, flute, viola), 1960
Holograph manuscript score
Sketches
Cantata: All the days of my life (voice, clarinet, cello, piano, percussion), 1963
Photocopied holograph manuscript score
Parts
Lyric sheets, correspondence, and programs
Carmina Mariana (voices, piano), 1943
Manuscript vocal score
Vocal parts
Programs
Carmina Mariana (voices, organ), 1963
Carmina Mariana (voices, organ, orchestra), 1964
Death be not proud (voice, piano), undated
Lyric sheet
Diadem (voice, instrumental ensemble), 1980
2 holograph manuscript short scores
Photocopied holograph manuscript short score
Sketches and tone rows
Lyric sheets, errata, and programs
Finis (voice, piano), 1992-1993
Sketch
Fourteen groundbass variations on Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird (voices, piano), 1938
Glory be to God for dappled things
Have you heard? Do you know?: divertimento in seven scenes (voices, orchestra), 1975-1980
Holograph manuscript full score
2 holograph manuscript piano-vocal scores
Errata, correspondence, and programs
Heaven-haven (voice, piano), 1993
The hound of Heaven: poem for tenor and small orchestra, 1938
Lyric sheets
In praise of a virtuous woman (voice, piano), 1990
2 holograph manuscript scores
Tone rows
Correspondence
Infanta Marina (voice, piano), 1990
Lyric sheets, notes, and articles
Leap before you look (voice, piano), 1945
Letter to St. Peter (voice, piano), 1945
One need not be a chamber to be haunted (voice, piano), 1941
Pied beauty (voice, piano), 1946
Rain song (voice, piano), 1973
Seven songs (voice, piano), 1986
Song of the songless (voice, piano), 1928
Sonnet: I wake and feel the fell of dark (voice, piano), 1946
Sonnet: Not, I'll not, carrion comfort (voice, piano), 1950
Spring and fall (voice, piano), 1946
Terre de France (voice, piano), 1945
The tolling bell (voice, orchestra), 1967-1969
Errata, correspondence, articles, and programs
Variations on Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird (voice, oboe/flute/violin, piano), 1979
Oboe/flute/violin part
When the storm breaks for him (voice, piano), undated
Wishing well (voice, flute), 1986
Lyric sheet and correspondence
Choral, 1929-1989
Celebration (women's chorus, orchestra), 1977
Holograph manuscript piano-vocal score
Lyric sheets, errata, correspondence, and notes
La corona (chorus), 1954
Lyric sheets and program notes
The divine flame (voices, chorus, orchestra), 1946-1948
Orchestral parts
Lyric sheets, errata, and notes
Give thanks and praise (double chorus, piano), 1989
The leaden echo and the golden echo: a choral dialogue (2 choruses, piano), 1950-1951
Program
Let's touch the sky (chorus, winds), 1952
Instrumental parts
Lyric sheets and notes
Psalm 42 (chorus, piano), undated
Psalm 84 (chorus), 1978
The spirit of the Lord (voice, chorus, orchestra), undated
Three madrigals (women's chorus, string quartet), 1929
A time to remember (chorus, orchestra), 1966-1967
Untitled (women's chorus, string quartet), 1929
Voices of peace (chorus, strings), 1973
Lyric sheets, notes, programs, and promotional materials
Instrumental, 1932-1994
The ambient air (flute, violin, cello, piano), 1983
Bagatelle (piano), 1950
Bagatelles (piano), 1955
Conversations (flute, piano), 1985-1987
Notes, program, and promotional materials
Dialogues (piano, orchestra), 1963-1964
Errata, correspondence, and program
Fanfare for Hunter College (brass quintet), 1983
Four-handed fun (2 pianos), 1939
2 photocopied holograph manuscript scores
Full circle (orchestra), 1985
Isabeau poème (orchestra), undated
2 holograph manuscript full scores
Notes
Lament (cello, piano), 1980
Passacaglia and fugue (piano), 1955, 1962
Pastoral prelude (piano), 1949
Piano sonata no. 1, 1943
Piano sonata no. 2, 1955
Six etudes (piano), 1954
Sonata for violin and piano, 1962
Violin part
Errata and program
Song and dance (violin, piano), 1951
Soundshots (piano), 1944, 1974
Errata and correspondence
Spacings (viola, piano), 1994
Sketches and tone tows
String quartet, 1954
Summer sounds (clarinet, string quartet), 1969-1973
Articles, programs, and promotional material
Textures (piano), 1977
Notes, article, and program
Three duologues (clarinet, piano), 1967-1968
Note, program, and promotional material
Toccata for orchestra, 1944
2 photocopied holograph manuscript full scores
Errata
Untitled (piano), 1932
Venetian folly (piano), 1946
Wedding piece: Where thou goest, I go (organ), 1940
Woodwind piece (wind quintet), undated
Miscellaneous Sketches, 1930s-1993
Choral with commentary (string quintet), undated
Composition and counterpoint exercises, 1931-1933, 1939, 1972, undated
Elegies (voice, piano, strings), 1981-1984
Fanfare for tenor saxophone and band, 1970
Keyboard exercises with Cecil Effinger, 1939
Latin text settings, 1938, undated
Lyric sheets and texts, 1930s-1940s, undated
Organ registration notebook, circa 1939
Prayer for freedom (chorus, orchestra), undated
Prometheus. Overture (orchestra), 1948
Three blackbirds (voices, piano), undated
Variables (chamber orchestra), 1974
Unidentified (orchestra), 1932
Unidentified (orchestra), undated
Unidentified sketches and fragments, 1938-1993, undated
Music by Other Composers, 1875-1996
Allanbrook, Douglas
Mass (chorus), 1946
Amlin, Martin
A lasting spring (voice, piano), 1985
Shadowdance (orchestra), 1982
Sonata for flute and piano, 1987
Sonata for piano no. 5, 1981-1982
Bach, J. S.
Jesu, nun sei gepreiset, BWV 41. Lass uns, o höchster Gott (voices, orchestra), undated
Manuscript vocal part in the hand of Talma
Benson, Warren
If I could be (piano), 1963
Bernstein, Leonard
Round (voices), 1962
Bonet, Narcis
El bon Jesuset (voices), 1974
Chanler, Theodore
Dance in two parts (piano), 1944
The doves (voice, piano), 1946
Printed score
First recital (piano), undated
Four pieces for organ, undated
Four songs (voices), 1947
Miscellaneous songs (voices or voice, piano), 1947, undated
Photocopied holograph manuscript scores
The second joyful mystery (2 pianos), 1948
Toccata for piano, 1939?
De Prado, Jose Almeida
Ave Maria (voices), 1971
Dello Joio, Norman
To a young musician (piano), 1944
Unidentified instrumental works
Sketches; [10] p.
Fauré, Gabriel
Salve Regina: op. 67, no. 1 (voice, organ or piano), undated
Manuscript score in the hand of Daniel Pinkham
Fenmen, Mithat
Küçük su (voice, flute, oboe), 1938
Fine, Irving
Music for piano, 1947
Notturno (strings, harp), 1951
String quartet, 1951-1952
Notes and programs
Foss, Lukas
Behold! I build an house (chorus, organ or piano), 1950
Caprizio (piano), 1943?
Concerto for piano and orchestra no. 2, 1949-1951
Counterpoint exercises, undated
Holograph manuscript
Fantasy rondo (piano), 1944-1945
For Cornelia (voice, piano), 1955
The gift of the magi (orchestra), 1945
The jumping frog of Calaveras County (voices, optional chorus, orchestra), 1949
Programs and clippings
A parable of death (narrator, voice, chorus, orchestra), 1952
Printed piano-vocal score
Psalms (chorus, 2 pianos or orchestra), 1956
Scherzo (piano), 1953
Song of anguish (voice, orchestra), 1945
Song of songs (voice, orchestra), 1946
String quartet no. 1, 1947
Goldmark, Karl
Symphony no. 1, op. 26, 1875
Haieff, Alexei
Gifts and semblances (piano), 1945
Johnson, Lockrem
Little elegy (voice, piano), 1957
Jenni, D.
Crux Christi ave! (voices), 1977
Photocopied holograph manuscript piano-vocal rehearsal score
Kornsand, Emil
Essay (piano), 1950
La Montaine, John
Miscellaneous instrumental and vocal works, 1958-1963, 1970-1973, 1989
Printed or photocopied holograph manuscript scores
Twelve relationships: op. 10 (piano), undated
Labes, Jeff
The dream pillow (voices, orchestra), 1975
Lieurance, Thurlow
Came the dawn (voice, piano), undated
Manuscript score
Malamed, Zelda
A red, red rose (voice, piano), undated
Messiaen, Olivier
Île de feu 1 (piano), 1950
Miscellaneous composers
Madrigals, 1930s-1950s?
Printed and manuscript scores
Paderewski Testimonial Concert, 1941
Manuscript scores in the hand of Talma
Unidentified
Scores and sketches
Nordoff, Paul
Eight songs to poems of E. E. Cummings (voice, piano), 1948
Five songs to poems of E. E. Cummings (voice, piano), 1950
Sonata for violin and piano, 1951-1952
Pinkham, Daniel
Ave Regina cœlorum (voice, piano), undated
Photocopied manuscript score
Partridge in a pear tree (voice, piano), 1948
Pisk, Paul A.
Of faith: op. 83, no. 6 (voice, piano), 1954?
Poulenc, Francis
Litanies à la vierge noire (voices, orchestra), undated
Manuscript full score in the hand of Talma
Read, Gardner
Jesous Ahatonhia: op. 87 (voices, organ), 1950
Passacaglia and fugue in D minor: op. 34 (organ), 1937
Riley, Dennis
Canon a 4 (voices), 1983
Scheidt, Samuel
Duo seraphim clamabant (voices), undated
Shapero, Harold
Sonata for piano no. 1, undated
Two psalms (voices), 1952
Shackelford, Rudy
The leaden echo and the golden echo (voices, double chorus, vibraphone, percussion), 1973
Smith, Gregg
Louise (voices), 1996
Spies, Claudio
Canciones de cuna (voices), 1947
Eight songs (voice, piano), 1947
In paradisum (chorus), 1950
The mystery; Eve (voice, piano), 1949
Seven canons (voice, flute, bassoon, piano), 1959
Verses from the Book of Ruth (women's voices, piano), 1959
Spisak, Michel
Concertino (trombone, orchestra), 1951
Printed trombone-piano score
Trombone part
Stern, Robert
A continuation of A mini fanfare (unspecified instruments), 1995
Stravinsky, Igor
Ave Maria (chorus), 1938
Szalowski, Antoni
Concertino (flute, orchestra), 1951
Printed flute-piano score
Flute part
Thurston, Ethel
O Maria virginei (voices, unspecified instruments), undated
Vidal, Paul
Keyboard harmony, undated
Violette, Andrew
Piano sonata no. 5, 1984
Webern, Anton
Symphonie, op. 21 (instrumental ensemble), 1956
Excerpt
Variationen für Klavier, op. 27, 1965
Musical analysis by Talma
Wyner, Yehudi
Sonata for piano, 1954