IAML Electronic Newsletter No. 27, December 2007 IAML 2008 Vedi Napoli… … ma non muori. Our next annual confer- ence will take place in Naples (Italy), July 20-25. The web site is already up. Mark your calendar and your bookmarks. Music in libraries Arthur Rubinstein collection to Main Office) in Berlin. By 1947, Rubin- Juilliard School stein had returned to Paris, but it was not The family of pianist Arthur Rubinstein until 1954 that his Paris home was returned (1887-1982) has donated to The Juilliard to him. His final years were spent in Paris School an extensive collection of original and Geneva, where he died in 1982. manuscripts, manuscript copies, and pub- In 1945, the material from Rubinstein’s lished editions seized by the Nazis from library was taken from Berlin to the USSR Rubinstein’s music library in his Paris by the Soviet Army. These 71 items came apartment and recently restituted by the back to Berlin in the course of a partial German government. The 71 items in the return of German cultural assets by the collection were returned in May 2006 to USSR in 1958-59 to the German Democ- the pianist’s four children, Eva Rubinstein, ratic Republic1. The music had been as- Paul Rubinstein, Dr. Alina Rubinstein, and signed to the Music Department of the Ber- John Rubinstein, by New York Consul lin State Library (East) and kept as unproc- General Dr. Hans-Jürgen Helmsoeth. By essed music resources for years. the German government’s own admission, After reunification of the Berlin collec- it marked the first time that Jewish prop- tions, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foun- erty kept in the Berlin State Library was dation was given responsibility for the re- returned to the legal heirs. turn of the works in 1991. Most of the in- The returned items include music by dividual items lacked indications of prove- various composers, some works of which nance and could not be identified until re- are dedicated personally to Arthur Rubin- cently. References to the Rubinstein items stein. Among the original autograph scores were first discovered by a German group is the manuscript of Heitor Villa-Lobos’ of experts who were researching the fate of Rudepoêma, which was dedicated to cultural assets taken by the Soviet occupy- Rubinstein, as well as autographs by Ger- ing forces during the Second World War in maine Tailleferre, who was a member of the Glinka Museum in Moscow in 2003. the Paris group, Les Six. The Dutch musicologist, Willem de Vries, In the fall of 1939, Arthur Rubinstein aided in the discovery of the Rubinstein and his family emigrated to the United States just prior to the invasion of Paris by 1 German troops in 1940. In that year, the Other articles from Mr. Rubinstein’s Paris apart- ment remain in Russia to this day. Their return Nazis confiscated Rubinstein’s property in seems unlikely given their parliament’s decision to Paris and moved his private library to the retain such war-time property as rightfully Russian Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security – a vote shockingly chronicled in the recent docu- mentary The Rape of Europa. To submit an item to this newsletter, please send it via email to the address [email protected] To enquire about ad placement, please write to the advertising manager, David Day. IAML Electronic Newsletter N° 27 December 2007 provenance. After it was confirmed that the available on the Internet its entire collec- manuscripts belonged to the estate of Ar- tion of music manuscripts (see the auto- thur Rubinstein, the Foundation contacted graph manuscript of the Haffner Sym- the heirs. phony). The project will provide much- The scores and manuscripts will be part needed, Web-based access, free of charge, of Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Special Col- to high-quality images and related descrip- lections and available to scholars and re- tions of every page within every music searchers by appointment. Mr. Rubin- manuscript in the collection. Users will be stein’s major collection of papers is housed able to page through a manuscript quickly in the Library of Congress in Washington, or turn to a particular page instantly, per- D.C. The Rubinstein Collection consists of form close comparisons of images from approximately 16,000 items, primarily several different manuscripts at once, and correspondence, and is available to re- study details not readily visible to the na- searchers in the Library’s Music Division. ked eye. Equally important, the digital im- Jane Gottlieb ages will be stored and managed in a way that will ensure their survival across plat- The Morgan Library to digitize forms and changes in file format. music manuscripts These images and descriptions will be The music collection of The Morgan Li- available via the institution’s online public brary & Museum includes over 1,000 mu- catalog. The Morgan will also be working sic manuscripts. Many are in the hand of with other institutions that house signifi- the composer; most have never been re- cant music manuscript collections, includ- produced. Principal strengths are music of ing the Juilliard School, Harvard Univer- the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twen- sity, and the Library of Congress, to de- tieth centuries. The eighteenth century is velop a unified portal for digitized versions represented by Bach, Handel, and Haydn; of their music manuscripts. the Mozart collection is one of the richest in the world. Nineteenth- and twentieth- IMC meeting in Beijing century composers who are especially well represented are Beethoven, Brahms, Cho- The International Music Council (IMC) is pin, Liszt, Mahler, Mendelssohn, and a membership organisation created by the Schubert. Berg, Menotti, Stravinsky, Director General of UNESCO as the advi- Schoenberg, and Webern are also repre- sory body to the agency on musical mat- sented with significant manuscripts. The ters. It functions as an independent interna- Morgan’s collection of music manuscripts, tional non-governmental organization considered one of the best in the world, is maintaining a formal associate relationship consulted by scholars, performers, conduc- with UNESCO. IMC has developed as a tors, and collectors. Currently, access is world expert organisation, a forum for ex- largely provided by appointment through change and reflection and an observatory the Morgan’s Reading Room. The collec- in the field of music. IMC has several tion is also made available to the public categories of membership, like National through a wide array of public exhibitions, Music Councils and International Music lectures, concerts, and other programs. Associations. IAML is one of many inter- Nevertheless, because of the fragility of national members. many of the items in the collection, there IAML has a reputation to meet in mag- are necessary limits on the amount of ac- nificent places (Sydney, Naples, Amster- cess that can be provided. The Library has dam….), but IMC has very high standards recently received a generous grant of too (Petra, Tokyo, Montevideo, Beijing, $500,000 from the Kovner Foundation for Tunis…). a three-year project to digitize and make In October it was my duty and privilege as President of IAML to attend the 32nd 2 IAML Electronic Newsletter N° 27 December 2007 General Assembly (GA) of IMC and the Outreach 2nd World Forum on Music (WFM), which was organized in connection with the As- I would like to draw your attention to a sembly. The six WFM sessions dealt with very worthwhile project being co-ordinated by the Norwegian MIC and endorsed by the basically four themes: Norwegian IAML Branch. • Music in Development “Transposition” is an initiative to help • Intellectual Property Rights the symphony orchestras and conservato- • Many Musics – Enhancing Musical ries in the Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Diversity Saigon. Funding for shipping is available, • Music in the Future. but the project needs donations of scores The Forum sessions were well organized (including orchestral sets), books and some with speakers from all over the world, recordings. If you think you may be able to help, even by donating one or two un- panel discussions and open discussions. wanted items, please click on this link for It was not possible to attend all sessions the explanatory letter and for the lists: because I chose to visit our Chinese IAML Please note that information only on member, the library of the Central Conser- available items is being collected at first – vatory of Music. do not send any music until the project I met the director of the library, Prof. Jia leader contacts you. Guoping, who is a composer and studied I would appreciate it if you could for- with Helmut Lachenmann in Germany. It ward this appeal to any relevant colleagues, was very nice to meet again Gao Jie, di- for example orchestral libraries and na- rector of the Network Center and deputy tional branches. librarian. She attended two IAML confer- Many thanks for your help – this project deserves our support. ences and it was with her help that I could Aurika Gergeleziu organize my visit to the Central Conserva- Chair, Outreach committee tory. Wu Xu, director of the Scores and Audiovisual Department, showed me the The hosts of the meeting, the Chinese library and we discussed many aspects of Musicians Association, had prepared a his work, like cataloguing, acquisitions and very interesting entertaining programme of users. Western music in the Central Conservatory It was fascinating to visit a library which Concert Hall (Sino-German Youth Sym- has both a collection of scores of Western phony Orchestra performing Beethoven music and a collection of notated tradi- and Brahms), a Dance Drama in the new tional Chinese music. Besides many books National Grand Theatre Opera Hall (The and journals in Chinese the library has a Great Dream of Dunhuang Grottos by collection of books and journals in English Lanzhou Opera and Dance Drama Thea- and other Western languages familiar to all tre), a concert of traditional Chinese in- of us.