Call Number:

C0288

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 27 boxes
• 24 volumes

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Roger Sessions Scores, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1909-2001 (inclusive) and 1909-1985 (bulk)

Creator:

Sessions, Roger (1896-1985)

Form:

Cantatas., Notebooks, Concertos., Correspondence, Operas., Scores., and Symphonies.

Abstract:

The collection contains the manuscripts of composer and educator Roger Sessions. It includes compositions reflecting his use of the 12-tone system of composition and ranging from exercises and studies to concertos, sonatas, operas ("Lancelot and Elaine" and "Montezuma"), and symphonies (1 through 9). Also included are miscellaneous musical works such as divertimenti, nocturnes, chorale studies, quintets, and cantatas along with the manuscripts for two prose works.

Composer and educator, Roger Sessions graduated from Harvard and studied under Horatio Parker at Yale. In 1926 he won a Guggenheim Professorship and worked at composition in Europe until 1933 as a winner of the American Rome Prize. He held posts at Princeton (1935), Berkeley, CA (1945), Princeton again (1953), and the Julliard School (1965). Among his compositions are four symphonies, several operas, a notable violin concerto (1935), and chamber music. His best known work remains his early Black Maskers (1923).

The collection contains the manuscripts of Sessions' compositions reflecting his use of the 12-tone system of composition and ranging from exercises and studies to concertos, sonatas, operas ("Lancelot and Elaine" and "Montezuma"), and symphonies (1 through 9). Also included are miscellaneous musical works such as divertimenti, nocturnes, chorale studies, quintets, and the cantata "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." In addition, there are manuscripts for two prose works, "The Musical Experience," a lecture delivered at the Julliard School of Music in 1947, and an article, "To the Editor," which appeared in Perspectives of New Music in 1967.

Additions to the papers include ozalid copies of various cantatas, concertos, symphonies, and miscellaneous works, original scores for a violin concerto, sketches for Symphony No. 1, correspondence with Luigi Dallapiccola and two musical manuscripts by Jean Binet. New additions include a small "Composer's notebook" which he carried in his pocket; two letters to Carl Miller, an ALS to Arthur Mende; a letter dated Jan. 14, 2001, from Anne Welch Gordon to "Princeton University Music Dept." regarding giving the "Composer's notebook and the correspondence to the Music Library; an unidentified manuscript, and photocopies of correspondence.

For information on the Roger Sessions Society, visit: http://www.uncwil.edu/music/sessionssociety/

The papers of Roger Sessions are divided into two main groups by the fact that some are bound (volumes) and some are unbound (boxes). Within these two groups, the papers have been arranged first by genre (cantatas, concertos, exercises and studies, opera, quartets, sonatas, symphonies, miscellaneous musical works, prose works, correspondence & photographs, and papers of others); then by the titles of the individual works; finally, in a sort of rough chronological order, so that sketches fall before completed works, folders marked "1938-1956" come before folders marked "1939-1956," and so on.

Separate lists are available for the contents of the bound material (volumes 1-23), the unbound material (boxes 1-13), and additional unbound material (boxes 14-17). If you know what you are looking for, the best place to look is in the Index to all of the previous lists, which starts on page 9. Wherever feasible, Sessions' original organization of the material has been kept intact, and the folders are as he marked them.

In the Index, two double-digit numbers separated by a slash (e.g. 01/01) indicate a box and folder number (in the above example, Box 1, Folder 1). Ordinary numbers, such as 5 or 23 (in bold), refer to the numbers of bound volumes. The interval 04/06 - 05/02 includes the folder 4.5/01, an oversized folder in Box 4.5 which contains sketches of Quartet No. 2.