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Collection Data
- Description
- The Jerzy Fitelberg papers primarily hold the composer's score manuscripts. They also contain correspondence, concert programs and clipping files.
- Names
- Fitelberg, Jerzy, 1903-1951 (Creator)
- Fitelberg, Grzegorz, 1879-1953 (Contributor)
- Noskowski, Zygmunt, 1846-1909 (Contributor)
- Spitzmüller, Alexander, 1862-1953 (Contributor)
- Steuermann, Edward (Contributor)
- Szałowski, Antoni, 1907-1973 (Contributor)
- Szymanowski, Karol, 1882-1937 (Contributor)
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Correspondent)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1921 - 1952
- Library locations
- Music Division
- Shelf locator: JOB 95-14
- Topics
- Arrangers (Musicians)
- Composers
- Musicians
- Genres
- clippings (information artifacts)
- personal correspondence
- programs (documents)
- Scores
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: The composer Jerzy Fitelberg (1903-1951) was born in Warsaw, Poland. His father, Grzegorz Fitelberg, was a composer and the conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic until the Second World War. Jerzy began music training at the Conservatory of Warsaw, then studied with Franz Schreker and Walter Gmeindl from 1922 to 1926 at the Academy of Music in Berlin, where he remained until 1932. In 1928 his String Quartet No. 2 won first prize in a competition sponsored by the Polish government in Paris, and in 1936 he won the Library of Congress's Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge chamber music medal for his String Quartet No. 4; The piece was premiered at a chamber music festival at the Library in 1937. The success he gained as a young composer was marked by numerous performances at festivals, including those of the International Society for Contemporary Music in 1932 and 1937. From 1933 to 1940 Fitelberg lived in Paris, after which he moved to New York. The American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him a grant in 1945, and in 1950 his Suite for Organ won a composition prize from the Pennsylvania College for Women. That same year the Koussevitsky Foundation commissioned his last work, Concertino Da Camera for Violin and Piano, which he completed two days before his death.
Fitelberg's work includes music for chamber groups, chamber orchestra, full orchestra, an opera and a choral work, as well as scores for two films. He also wrote articles for the journal Modern Music.
Sources:
Boguslaw Schaeffer. "Fitelberg, Jerzy." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2093058 (accessed March 27, 2012).
"Jerzy Fitelberg, 48, A Polish Composer," The New York Times, April 27, 1951, p. 23.
- Content: The Jerzy Fitelberg papers hold the composer's score manuscripts and personal files containing clippings, correspondence and concert programs. Scores make up the bulk of the collection and contain works composed from 1921 to 1951. Among them are solo instrumental pieces; string quartets and other chamber works; songs for voice and piano; a choral work; orchestral concerti for piano, violin, and string quartet; works for full orchestra including Les Adventures de Mickey (1934) and The Golden Harp: Variations on a Polish Folk Song for String Orchestra (1943); the children's opera Henny Penny (1949); and Fitelberg's film scores. The papers also hold a small set of score manuscripts by other composers, including Grzegorz Fitelberg, Alexander Spitzmüller, Eduard Steuermann, and Karol Szymanowski.
The clipping files and concert programs document Fitelberg's career in Europe and America from the late 1920s until his death. The correspondence is sparse but includes letters from Artur Rodzinski, Margaret Carson, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters concerning the grant it awarded to Fitelberg.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 5.84 linear feet (22 boxes)
- Type of Resource
- Notated music
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: JOB 95-14
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b19638340
- MSS Unit ID: 18597
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 5f7473f0-7d6e-013a-6217-0242ac110003
