American Musicological Society Records

This collection comprises the administrative records of the Society, reflecting trends in musicological scholarship and academic training through the course of the twentieth century. Included is correspondence with individuals and institutions related to music research, as well as correspondence among officers of the Society and among committees. Also included are minutes, membership records and directories, records of annual meetings, events and chapters, financial and tax records, and miscellaneous administrative records. Publication series contains substantial correspondence with authors and editorial staff regarding scholarly works, including Tischler’s Earliest Motets, the Works of William Billings, Ockeghem’s Works, and the New Josquin Edition. Administrative correspondents include Presidents Charles Seeger, Curt Sachs, Gustave Reese, Donald Grout, William Mitchell, William S. Newman, Oliver Strunk, Jan LaRue, James Haar, Claude Palisca, Margaret Bent, H. Wiley Hitchcock, Janet Knapp, and Lewis Lockwood; Treasurers Otto Albrecht and Paul Henry Lang; Executive Director Alvin Johnson; Secretary Rita Benton; and Members of the Board Nino Pirrotta, Manfred Bukofzer, Alfred Einstein, Arthur Mendel, and Edward Lowinsky.

 The American Musicological Society, founded in 1943 to promote the systematic study of music, actively documents its history, its members, and, more generally, the history of musicology in North America through its oral history project. This collection contains transcripts and written memoirs resulting from oral history project which began in 1996 and continues to the present.

The records primarily consist of correspondence with authors, editorial staff, employees of the William Byrd Press, and officers of the American Musicological Society; copies of many issues of the Journal at various stages in th e publication process; and business records. The most prominent figures in the collection are the editors of the Journal; musicologists Oliver Strunk, Donald Grout, Lewis Lockwood, James Haar, Martin Picker, Don Randel, Lawrence Bernstein, Nicholas Temperley, Ellen Rosand, and Richard Kramer are also well represented.

Otto Edwin Albrecht (1899-1984) was an internationally known music bibliographer and professor of romance languages and musicology at the University of Pennsylvania. This collection documents his professional career and contains extensive information on his research relating to the history of music in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, the location of European music manuscripts in the United States, and his work identifying sources for Répertoire International des Sources Musicales; his work with music organizations including the American Musicological Society and the Music Library Association; and his work at and for the University of Pennsylvania's Music Library.

Leonard B. Meyer (1918-2007) was a musicologist and composer who taught at the University of Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1988. The papers, dating from 1935 to 2008, consist of correspondence with Meyer, drafts and notes for many of his works, research and teaching materials, musical compositions, and memorabilia.