Music Manuscript Collections

The Gaylord Music Library Special Collections Music Manuscript Collection contains more than 2500 items that originated with Ernst C. Krohn, who came to this library with the purchase of his library in 1966.

That group includes a contemporary copyist’s manuscript of a J.S. Bach chorale prelude and a holograph of Edward MacDowell’s op. 62 no. 1.

The more significant additions to it since that time have been from the pens of:

• Lewis B. Hilton, professor emeritus in music education of the WashU Department of Music
• Jack Holland, a trumpeter in the KMOX-CBS Radio studio orchestra and teacher
• Anna May Loewenstein Nussbaum, St. Louis musician whose family gave a Department of Music scholarship/travel grant in her name
• Paul Amadeus Pisk, a disciple of Arnold Schönberg and visiting professor of music at WashU from 1963-1972
• Ronald Stein, WashU alumnus and Hollywood composer
• Paul Tietjens, Broadway composer from St. Louis whose family gave the WashU Music Studio building named for him
• Leslie Chabay [Laszlo Csabay], the late head of the Music Department voice faculty

Collecting History

The purchase of the Ernst C. Krohn Musicological Library in 1966 strengthened our resources with an outstanding collection of musical Festschriften and an extensive Americana collection of tune books and hymnals, with many rarities. Archival materials in the Krohn Collection include notebooks, correspondence, scrapbooks, programs, and manuscripts, all reflecting St. Louis musical history.

The George C. Krick Collection of Guitar Music is an important source of 19th—and early 20th-century solo literature. Its 21 volumes have been indexed by Alan Rosenkoetter and are available on microfilm and printout. The library also has a small collection of materials from the Guitar Foundation of America.

The Belleville-Garnett Purchase of 1976 added numerous early editions and facsimiles of late-17th- through early-20th-century composers. This material was purchased from St. Louis antiquarian dealer Anthony Garnett who had acquired it from a collector in Belleville, Illinois.

In the fall of 1998, the Gaylord Music Library purchased a collection of 300 Mozart and Beethoven first and early editions, formerly part of the eminent British musicologist Alan Tyson’s personal collection. To celebrate this acquisition, an exhibition was mounted in Olin Library, and a recital was performed on October 29, 1999. At the recital, Prof. Hugh Macdonald delivered some remarks and reminiscences.

Individual Collections