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Title:
Marc Blitzstein Papers, 1918-1989
Creator: Blitzstein, Marc, 1905-1964 Quantity: 40.0 cubic feet (39 archives boxes and 74 flat boxes), 71 reels of microfilm (35 mm), 23 tape recordings, and 114 disc recordings
Call Number: U.S. Mss 35AN; Micro 1049; Disc 33A; Disc 161A; Audio 513A; Audio 554A; Audio 740A; Audio 761A; Audio 763A; Audio 764A; Audio 773A; Audio 1049A
Abstract: Personal and professional papers of Marc Blitzstein, a composer, lyricist, and librettist best known for his concern with making his work socially as well as artistically significant. The collection documents the creative process of composition and of Blitzstein's efforts to reconcile the political, psychological, and musical aspects of composition. Blitzstein was most famous for: his operas The Cradle Will Rock (1937), Regina (1949), Reuben, Reuben (1955), and Juno (1959); his motion picture score for Native Land (Frontier Films, 1942); The Airborne Symphony (1946); and his adaptation of The Threepenny Opera (1954). The collection is comprised chiefly of scores and scripts, with recordings, related correspondence, research material, and clippings, pertaining to Blitzstein's work in motion pictures, opera, ballet, theater, and symphonic orchestra. Also included are personal papers such as correspondence, contracts, notebooks and journals concerning his travels, writings and lecture materials, and scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and memorabilia, and a taped interview of Blitzstein and opera singer Lina Abarbanell. Papers of Blitzstein's wife, Eva Goldbeck (1901-1936), including many personal letters, journals, and unpublished writings, are also present.
Summary Information
• ... Marc Blitzstein Papers, ...
• ... : Blitzstein, Marc, 1905-1964: : ...
• ... Personal and professional papers of Marc Blitzstein, a composer, lyricist, and librettist best known for his concern with making his work soc ...
• ...ll as artistically significant. The collection documents the creative process of composition and of Blitzstein's efforts to reconcile the political, psychological, and musical aspects of composition. ...
• ...Blitzstein's efforts to reconcile the political, psychological, and musical aspects of composition. Blitzstein was most famous for: his operas The Cradle Will ...
• ...d scripts, with recordings, related correspondence, research material, and clippings, pertaining to Blitzstein's work in motion pictures, opera, ballet, theater, and symphonic orchestra. Also included ...
• ... lecture materials, and scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and memorabilia, and a taped interview of Blitzstein and opera singer Lina Abarbanell. Papers of Blitzstein's wife, Eva Goldbeck (1901-1936), ...
• ...gs and memorabilia, and a taped interview of Blitzstein and opera singer Lina Abarbanell. Papers of Blitzstein's wife, Eva Goldbeck (1901-1936), including many personal letters, journals, and unpublis ...
Biography/History
• ... Composer-lyricist Marc (Marcus Samuel) Blitzstein was born in Philadelphia on March 2, 1905, to banker Samuel M. Blitzstein (died 1945) and ...
• ...cist Marc (Marcus Samuel) Blitzstein was born in Philadelphia on March 2, 1905, to banker Samuel M. Blitzstein (died 1945) and Anna (Levitt) Blitzstein (died 1970). From his earliest years he displaye ...
• ...born in Philadelphia on March 2, 1905, to banker Samuel M. Blitzstein (died 1945) and Anna (Levitt) Blitzstein (died 1970). From his earliest years he displayed musical talent and he began public appe ...
• ...m his earliest years he displayed musical talent and he began public appearances at the age of six. Blitzstein began composing at the age of twelve, and in his teens he was called a “piano prodigy.” A ...
• ...th Rosario Scalero, at the same time as he studied piano with Alexander Siloti in New York. In 1926 Blitzstein moved to Europe. In Paris he studied music composition with Nadia Boulanger, and at the B ...
• ... Hands (Hande ). Blitzstein's musical energy found its release in many forms: concert works, opera, film scores, and ...
• ... escape questioning the role of their work in a world faced with urgent social and political needs. Blitzstein was particularly haunted by the conflict between art for art's sake and art as a tool for ...
• ...m. He was also one of the few who used art for social needs without sacrificing his musical genius. Blitzstein also passed on his ideas to others. In 1935 he began lecturing at the New School for Soci ...
• ...ents. He was playwright-in-residence at Bennington College in 1962-1963. In 1936 Blitzstein's first major work, The Cradle Will Rock, ...
• ...considered too controversial by the Works Progress Administration, and work on the show was halted. Blitzstein, director Orson Welles, and producer John Houseman moved the piece to another theater; it ...
• ...ting evening of theatre this New York generation has seen.” On April 15, 1936, Blitzstein's Piano Concerto and piano solo piece ...
• ... Norman Cazden, who played solo parts for both pieces, noted that the program was wholly devoted to Blitzstein's works, and that the composer himself played the accompaniment to the ...
• ... to the Piano Concerto . In 1938 Blitzstein's radicalism became increasingly political when he joined the Communist Party. (He resign ...
• ...munist Party. (He resigned his membership in 1949.) Continuing to search for socially relevant art, Blitzstein wrote the opera No for an Answer about t ...
• ...roversial and was objectionable to the New York Commissioner of Licenses. After World War II began, Blitzstein elected to discontinue performances of No for an ...
• ...s no time to wash our dirty linen in public.” (Quote provided by Josephine Davis, 1985.) However, Blitzstein's abilities were recognized publicly in 1940 and 1941, when he received two John Simon Gugg ...
• ...osition prize of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. On August 29, 1942, Blitzstein enlisted in the military; ultimately he served as a sergeant with the Army Air Force and ...
• ...ne Symphony , premiered by the New York City Symphony in 1946, were products of these years. Blitzstein was discharged from the military June 26, 1945. ...
• ...ed on Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes , was Blitzstein's next major opera; it opened in New York in 1949. ...
• ... Juno and the Paycock , was produced in 1959. During the 1950s Blitzstein's most acclaimed work was the translation and adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's ...
• ...The Threepenny Opera , which ran from 1954 to 1961. Blitzstein's version of the song “Mack the Knife” became an immediate hit. With the collaboration of ...
• ...ion of the song “Mack the Knife” became an immediate hit. With the collaboration of Kurt Weill, Blitzstein made the piece into a minor classic. First performed in 1952 at Brandeis University, ...
• ... The Threepenny Opera opened in New York in 1954. In 1960 Blitzstein was awarded a Ford Foundation grant to write an opera about Sacco and Vanzetti. For the c ...
• ...acco-Vanzetti case was a symbol of the plight of the oppressed in society. The story had interested Blitzstein for decades, and he had first composed it as a tone poem in 1932 while in Italy on a Prix ...
• ...s a tone poem in 1932 while in Italy on a Prix de Rome. For more than a year during the early 1960s Blitzstein struggled with the project, but he was torn by the contradiction that seemed to exist bet ...
• ...on when he was funded by the Establishment. Determined to work on a new project, Blitzstein left for Martinique and it was there that he was robbed and murdered on January 22, 1964. ...
• ...e Davis, and her sons, novelist Christopher Davis and lawyer Stephen Davis. Marc Blitzstein was married once, to Maria Luise Eva (called Eva) Goldbeck, who was born August 26, 1901, ...
• ...he were divorced January 1, 1924, but probably remarried a few years later. In the early 1930s Marc Blitzstein met Eva Goldbeck, who was by then a radical writer and translator. They were married Marc ...
Scope and Content Note
• ... nervosa) on May 26, 1936. The Marc Blitzstein Papers contain extensive information on both the personal and professional aspects of thi ...
• ...ls, and making musical and script sketches, through producing the first work. Also illuminating are Blitzstein's efforts to reconcile the political, psychological, and musical aspects of composition, ...
• ...cal aspects of composition, often at the same time he was struggling financially. The papers depict Blitzstein's concern with social and political implications of music, the relationship between music ...
• ... be functional, rather than merely “pure.” Included as well are personal papers and writings of Blitzstein's wife, Eva Goldbeck. The collection is arranged into the following series ...
• ...respondence, research materials, clippings and other documents that allow the researcher to explore Blitzstein's work. Within each of the series the materials are ordered chronologically; unproduced w ...
• ...ies. The PERSONAL PAPERS give the researcher a glimpse into the personalities of Blitzstein and Eva Goldbeck, as well as an indication of the artistic struggles they faced. Included ...
• ...“Injunction Granted” and “Power,” from the Living Newspaper of the Federal Theatre Project; Blitzstein worked for this governmental agency during the Depression. Documentation of MO ...
• ... significant among these is Native Land , for which Blitzstein wrote the musical score. Native Land , wh ...
• ...iered in May 1942, depicts the struggles of American labor to organize and protect civil liberties. Blitzstein later revised the score into an orchestral suite. Also included are 38 disc recordings (m ...
• ... Materials in the OPERA series often present a nearly complete picture of a production. Blitzstein usually composed his music at the piano. For many of his works, therefore, there are init ...
• ...lved into piano scores, piano-vocal arrangements and, finally, orchestra-conductor scores. Although Blitzstein and others labeled these works “opera,” he conceded that they might more accurately be ca ...
• ... he conceded that they might more accurately be called “musical plays,” developing to the limit Blitzstein's innovation of musical conversation. In this series are ...
• ... , Juno , and several unproduced works, including Blitzstein's last major project, “Sacco and Vanzetti.” There are tape recordings of portions of ...
• ... The Cradle Will Rock , first produced in June 1937, was Blitzstein's first major work and brought him to the attention of the working, political, and musica ...
• ... The Cradle Will Rock was in fact cancelled just before opening night. Blitzstein, together with Orson Welles and producer John Houseman, moved the production to another t ...
• ...s in 1941. The opera Regina was Blitzstein's attempt to bring out yet another facet of the voracious Hubbards in the musical version ...
• ... The Little Foxes. Begun in 1946 with Hellman's permission, Blitzstein served as librettist, composer and lyricist of this work supported by the Koussevitzky Mu ...
• ... were then given, many of New York's critics as well as Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, hailed Blitzstein's creation. Nine years later on April 27, 1958, a shorter “tighter” version was produced ...
• ...atements, and general correspondence. The series BALLETS contains materials from Blitzstein's major ballets, Cain and ...
• ...al unproduced works there are also musical sketches and scores. Together these files illustrate how Blitzstein developed the music for a variety of ballets. Files on Blitzstein's SY ...
• ...illustrate how Blitzstein developed the music for a variety of ballets. Files on Blitzstein's SYMPHONIES Freedom Morning and ...
• ...sion between white and black American servicemen when the blacks arrived in England during the war. Blitzstein composed the work while living in barracks with the blacks, who did menial work for the U ...
• ...Symphony , first performed in 1946, was commissioned by the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force while Blitzstein served in the Armed Forces. It was written to commemorate and chronicle 50 years of power ...
• ... Armed Forces. It was written to commemorate and chronicle 50 years of powered flight, but was also Blitzstein's warning against future wars. It was typical of Blitzstein in that it was a departure fr ...
• ...0 years of powered flight, but was also Blitzstein's warning against future wars. It was typical of Blitzstein in that it was a departure from the symphonic form being scored for orchestra, speaker, a ...
• ...ids of the World Unite” and “Cantatina for Women's Chorus and Percussion.” Blitzstein wrote much incidental music for the THEATER, beginning with ...
• ...R, beginning with Lear , the culmination in 1937 of Blitzstein's work for two productions of King Lear; ...
• ...jui Ballet.” Within the series OTHER COMPOSITIONS are musical works written by Blitzstein which do not fall into other series. These include musical settings of poems by Walt Whitma ...
• ...al works and some by such other composers as Bach, Palestrina, Ravel, and Chopin. Transcriptions by Blitzstein include works which Blitzstein rewrote or arranged for combinations of musicians other th ...
• ... composers as Bach, Palestrina, Ravel, and Chopin. Transcriptions by Blitzstein include works which Blitzstein rewrote or arranged for combinations of musicians other than those in the original work. ...
• ...ter Tschaikowsky. ADAPTATIONS contains, among other works, materials from one of Blitzstein's greatest successes, his translation and adaptation of ...
• ... The Threepenny Opera ran on Broadway from 1955-1961. The song “Mack the Knife” made Blitzstein famous in another genre, popular music. The files concerning ...
• ...ic, and scores. Also included is a script edited for a British acting company. Other adaptations by Blitzstein include Brecht on Brecht , ...
• ...roduced but with fairly extensive files. In the RADIO series is music written by Blitzstein for several radio productions. These include I'v ...
• ... WORKS BY OTHER COMPOSERS contains two works by Leonard Bernstein, who was a friend of Blitzstein's. These are On the Town and ...
• ... Trouble in Tahiti , written in 1952 and dedicated to Blitzstein. Another noted composer, Virgil Thompson, wrote ...
• ... included in this series. The SCRAPBOOKS are comprised of eleven volumes kept by Blitzstein from 1937 to 1960. Noteworthy individual items in the scrapbooks include: ...
• ... Volume 1: Photographs of Blitzstein in rehearsal for The Cradle Will Rock. ...
• ... Volume 3: Recommendations of Blitzstein by Henry Allen Moe of the Guggenheim Foundation, Aaron Copland, and Davidson Taylor of CB ...
• ... Letter from Radio/Television Daily informing Blitzstein that “Mack the Knife” from The Threepenny Opera ...
Related Material
• ... Additional Blitzstein material is held by the New York Public Library, in the Federal Theatre Project Archive a ...
• ...onal Archives (Collection 69, correspondence file). A small collection of sheet music of several of Blitzstein's earliest works (all which are present in this collection) is located at the Edwin A. Fl ...
Administrative/Restriction Information
• ... Literary and performance rights reside with the executors of the Blitzstein Estate. Recordings presented by Eric Gordon (Audio 761A, Audio 763A, and Audio 764A) may ...
• ...arch only. Presented by Marc Blitzstein, New York, New York, 1962; Norman Cazden, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1964; Robert Dietz, B ...
• ...es, New York, New York, 1972; Sally Lou Todd, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1975-1976; the Estate of Marc Blitzstein, via Josephine and Edward Davis, Trustees, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1978; Eric Gordon, ...
Contents List
Personal Papers
series
• ... 5/1-23 Memorials Made at Blitzstein's Death, 1964: ... • ... 1049A/10 Part 5, including Blitzstein interview: ... • ... 1049A/27 Marc Blitzstein - “Variation III” (from “The Guests”): ... • ... 1049A/27 Marc Blitzstein - “Three, Four Dance;” Finale (from “The Guests”): ... Writings
series
• ... Marc Blitzstein's Writings: ... • ... 11/907-911 Article about Marc Blitzstein's music, undated: ... • ... 16/1-482 “The Operatic Style of Marc Blitzstein in the American 'Agit-Prop' Era” / by Robert J. Dietz, ... • ... 17/1-11 “Marc Blitzstein and the 'Agit-Prop' Theatre of the 1930s,” article in the University of Texas Yearbook / by ... • ... 17/108-438 Miscellaneous Blitzstein programs, 1927-1983, undated: ... Operas
series
• ... 24/786-791 “Blitzstein's Answer” / by Samuel L.M. Barlow, Modern Music ... • ... 26/749-846 Script, “Blitzstein's Copy,” with cast list and annotations, undated ... • ... 27/1-45 Script, published copy, with Blitzstein's notes, 1953: ... • ... 1049A/12 10. a and b - Blitzstein: Orig ... Symphonies
series
• ... Notes for New York Times Article, by Blitzstein: ... • ...mphony /performed by the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, conductor, Narration by Blitzstein, for broadcast over Station WEAF, New York, 1946 ... Other Compositions
series
• ... Walt Whitman's Poems Set to Music by Blitzstein: ... • ... e.e. cummings poems set to music by Blitzstein: ... • ... 58/512-520 Cos Cob song volumes; including Blitzstein's Song, “Jimmie's Got a Goil,” 1935, 1962 ... • ... Vocal Works and Songs by Blitzstein: ... • ... “War Department Manual, Volume 7, Part 3” / music by Blitzstein: ... • ... Writing tablet: canons; double choir; miscellaneous by Blitzstein; Madrigal of Monteverdi; Harmonic progressions of Bach, Palestrina, Ravel, Chopin ... • ... Transcriptions by Blitzstein: ... Adaptations
series
• ... Articles, 1959, : Annotated by Blitzstein: ... • ... 65/313-432 Piano-vocal score, with Blitzstein translation: ... • ... 65/455-465 Lyrics, Bizet manuscript and Blitzstein translation: ... Works by other composers
series
• ... Trouble in Tahiti / by Leonard Bernstein, dedicated to Blitzstein: ... • ... 66 Piano-vocal score, annotated by Blitzstein, 1952: ... • ... 66/832-856 Conductor's score, with Blitzstein's annotations: ... • ... 66/857-869 Score for production by Blitzstein: ... Other Tape and Disc Recordings
series
• ... These compositions are not by Blitzstein, but are included because Lehrman finished Blitzstein's ... • ... These compositions are not by Blitzstein, but are included because Lehrman finished Blitzstein's Idiots First. ... |