Henry Leland Clarke letters - Archives West (original) (raw)

Overview of the Collection

Creator

Clarke, Henry Leland

Title

Henry Leland Clarke letters

Dates

1915-1987 (inclusive)

19151987

1930-1986 (bulk)

19301986

Quantity

.84 cubic feet, including text and 1 photograph (2 boxes)

Collection Number

(Accession No. 5124-001)

Summary

Correspondence of composer and music educator Henry Leland Clarke.

Repository

University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu

Access Restrictions

The papers are open to all users.

Request at UW

Languages

English, French

Sponsor

Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Biographical NoteReturn to Top

Henry Leland Clarke, composer and professor of music, was born in Dover, New Hampshire, on March 9, 1907. He received his undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. While at Harvard, he studied composition with Gustav Holst. During this same period, his studies took him to Paris, New York, and Bennington, Vermont, where he studied under Nadia Boulanger, Hans Weisse, and Otto Luening, respectively. Over the course of his life, Clarke taught at Bennington College, Westminster Choir College, Vassar College, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Washington. He retired from the University of Washington as professor emeritus in 1977. He afterwards moved to Deerfield, Massachusetts, where he died on March 30, 1992.

In addition to his academic work, Clarke composed two full-length operas. The first, The Loafer and the Loaf, was completed in 1951 and concerns a debate over the morality of stealing a loaf of bread. The music is essentially tonal and makes apt use of musical quotation, with some experimentation with chromaticism and atonality. In 1972, Clarke finished his second opera, Lysistrata, based on the play by Aristophanes. It shows the full development of his "word tones," in which a specific pitch is assigned to each word of the text and that particular pitch is used for each occurrence of the same word.

Clarke was also a member of the Composers' Collective of New York and wrote songs for the group under the pseudonym J. Fairbanks. The collective, which grew out of a seminar in writing songs for the masses in 1933, sought to make an American contribution to the international working-class music movement then flourishing in Europe.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

The papersconsist primarily of the personal correspondence of Henry Leland Clarke. The letters, which include related materials such as articles and a photograph, document his longstanding relationships with numerous composers and musicologists of note, as well as with some of his teachers and fellow students at Harvard University. Major correspondents include Nadia Boulanger, David Boyden, Norman Cazden, Archibald T. Davison, Felix Lee De Cola, Johnny Green, H. Wiley Hitchcock, Harrison Kerr, Boris Kremenliev, Paul Henry Lang, Otto Luening, Hans Moldenhauer, Zygmunt Mycielski, Earl Robinson, Robert L. Sanders, Virgil Thomson, and G. Wallace Woodworth. Also included is correspondence from his wife, Julia, with elected officials concerning such disparate issues as the Vietnam War, nuclear proliferation, and labor.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Restrictions on Use

The creator's rights have not been transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

Preferred Citation

Henry Leland Clarke letters. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle, Washington.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Arrangement

Arranged in two series:

• Henry Leland Clarke correspondence, 1915-1987
• Julia Newbold Clarke correspondence, 1946-1978

Acquisition Information

Donated by the Memorial Libraries, Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1998.

Processing Note

Processed by Shawn Kilburn in 2005.

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

Henry Leland Clarke correspondence, 1915-1987Return to Top

Julia Newbold Clarke correspondence, 1946-1978Return to Top

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

• Composers' spouses--Washington (State) Seattle
• Composers--United States--20th century
• Composers--Washington (State) Seattle--Archives
• Music teachers--Washington (State) Seattle
• Musicologists--United States

Personal Names

• Boulanger, Nadia
• Boyden, David Dodge, 1910-1986
• Cazden, Norman, 1914-1980
• Clarke, Henry Leland--Archives
• Clarke, Julia Newbold
• Davison, Archibald T. (Archibald Thompson), 1883-1961
• De Cola, Felix Lee
• Green, Johnny, 1908-1989
• Hitchcock, H. Wiley (Hugh Wiley), 1923-
• Kerr, Harrison
• Kremenliev, Boris, 1911-
• Lang, Paul Henry, 1901-1991
• Luening, Otto, 1900-1996
• Moldenhauer, Hans
• Mycielski, Zygmunt
• Robinson, Earl, 1910-
• Sanders, Robert L., 1906-1974
• Thomson, Virgil, 1896-1989
• Woodworth, G. Wallace

Corporate Names

• University of Washington--Faculty

Form or Genre Terms

• Photographs
• articles
• correspondence

Other Creators

• Personal Names

  • Clarke, Julia Newbold (creator)

Corporate Names

• University of Washington. University Archives

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

• University Archives/Faculty Papers (University of Washington)