Research Catalog

Title

Louis Gruenberg papers, 1900-1988.

Author

Gruenberg, Louis, 1884-1964.

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Edwards, George, 1884-1964.
• Gruenberg, Louis, 1884-1964.
• Busoni, Ferruccio, 1866-1924.
• Schoenberg, Arnold, 1874-1951.

Description

20. 6 linear ft. (16 boxes)

Summary

The Louis Gruenberg papers consist of 20.6 linear feet of material dating from 1900 to 1988, with the bulk dating from ca. 1910 - 1963.

Subjects

• Composers
• Clippings
• Programs
• Composers > United States > Twentieth century
• Treatments (documents)
• Gruenberg, Louis, 1884-1964
• Musical sketches
• Librettos
• Scores

Genre/Form

• Clippings.
• Librettos.
• Programs.
• Scores.
• Treatments (documents)
• Musical sketches.

Source (note)

• Gruenberg, Joan Cominos

Biography (note)

• The composer Louis Gruenberg, was a pioneer in forming an American style of classical music.

Language (note)

• The Clippings and concert programs series contains some material in German.

Indexes/Finding Aids (note)

• Finding aid available in repository and on internet.

Call Number

JPB 04-29

OCLC

NYPT05-A3

Author

Gruenberg, Louis, 1884-1964.

Title

Louis Gruenberg papers, 1900-1988.

Biography

The composer Louis Gruenberg, was a pioneer in forming an American style of classical music. Best known for his opera, The Emperor Jones, Gruenberg is notable for having forged a vigorous, original style of music out of American elements. Born in 1884 near Brest-Litovsk, Russia, Louis Gruenberg arrived with his family in the United States in 1885 and received his first music lessons from his father, a violinist. At age eight he began studying piano with Adele Margulies at the National Conservatory of Music in New York. He later studied with Ferruccio Busoni in Berlin, beginning a friendship that lasted until Busoni's death. Gruenberg was at first interested primarily in performing as a concert pianist (he toured as an accompanist for Enrico Caruso and as a soloist), but Busoni encouraged him to compose as well. His first compostions were the operas The Witch of Brocken, Op. 1 (1912) and The Bride of the Gods, Op. 2 (1913). In 1920 he won the New York Philharmonic's Flagler Prize for The Hill of Dreams, Op. 10 (1920), which prompted him to concentrate fully on composition.

In addition to composing his own works, Gruenberg was a strong advocate for new music. He conducted the United States premiere of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire in 1923, and he helped to organize the American Music Guild and the League of Composers. His own works, such as The Daniel Jazz, Op. 21 for voice and chamber ensemble (1925), Jazzberries, Op. 25 for piano (1925), and Jazzettes, Op. 26 for violin and piano (1926), were inspired by African-American spirituals and jazz, following the suggestion of Antonín Dvořák for American composers to look toward music native to their land for sources. Throughout his career Gruenberg also continued to produce operas, notably Jack and the Beanstalk, Op. 35 (1930) and The Emperor Jones, Op. 36 (1931), which was performed at the Metropolitan Opera over two seasons and featured on the cover of Time magazine. It also won the Bispham Memorial Medal and was the greatest popular success of Gruenberg's career. Other notable compositions were his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 47 (1944), which was commissioned and premiered by Jascha Heifetz with Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra; Americana Suite, Op. 48 (1945) and Harlem Rhapsody, Op. 62 (1953).

Gruenberg led the composition department at the Chicago Musical College from 1933 to 1936, after which he moved to California and began writing for film. Three of his scores, The Fight For Life (1940), So Ends Our Night (1941) and Commandos Strike At Dawn (1942), were nominated for Academy Awards. He also wrote operas intended for television. In 1947 he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1950 he left the film industry to concentrate again on his own work. Among his later compositions were two more operas; the oratorio A Song of Faith, Op. 59 (1959 - 1962), which he considered among his best compositions; and several works for voice and piano, including his last, Pages from Rabelais, Op. 78 (1963) Gruenberg died in Beverly Hills, California in 1964.

Language

The Clippings and concert programs series contains some material in German.

Indexes

Finding aid available in repository and on internet.

Connect to:

Request Access to Music & Recorded Sound Division Special Collections material

Finding Aid

Occupation

Composers.

Added Author

Edwards, George, 1884-1964.

Edwards, George, 1884-1964. Hello, Tommy!

Gruenberg, Louis, 1884-1964. Emperor Jones.

Busoni, Ferruccio, 1866-1924.

Schoenberg, Arnold, 1874-1951.

Research Call Number

JPB 04-29