Creating 'Treasures'

Exploring Juilliard's Manuscript Legacy: Stories Behind the Scores

By Susan Jackson
For all the centuries of work that it represents, Juilliard School Library Music Manuscripts & Other Treasures by and for Performers—a new coffee-table book edited by Jane Gottlieb with the assistance of Richard Griscom—came together remarkably quickly.

Set for release September 26 by Scala Arts Publishers, the book features 11 essays inspired by Juilliard’s world-renowned manuscript collection. Recently, Gottlieb, the vice president of library and information resources and director of the C. V. Starr Doctoral Program, described how it came together. “I’ve always wanted to do this,” she said, and it was a little over a year ago that the opportunity presented itself. Ardon Bar-Hama, who, with funding from the Leon Levy Foundation, was helping the library digitize the manuscript collection, suggested that Gottlieb submit a proposal to Scala. Noting that the book’s publication “wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of the Martin J. Gross Family Foundation,” Gottlieb said that the process was underway within a few weeks.

“One of the things that I’m pleased about was that in writing the introductory paragraphs, I was able to share stories only I knew about my own process of discovering those treasures here as well as other collections we were able to acquire to build upon those collections,” Gottlieb said. “Of course it was also about taking a step back and inviting the wonderful scholars and performers who have worked with these treasures to share their insights.”

The essays follow a preface by President Damian Woetzel and Gottlieb’s brief history of the school and the library specifically. Musicologist and former faculty member Christoph Wolff wrote about the Bach (“small but particularly significant) and Mozart (wind autograph score of Le nozze di Figaro) collections while musicologist Lewis Lockwood wrote about the Beethoven (“jewel box”) collections. Faculty member Michael Musgrave, who teaches seminars on the Brahms and Schumann holdings, wrote about them. Faculty members Jonathan Yeager and Fredara Mareva Hadley discuss manuscripts by composer, Civil Rights activist, and erstwhile Extension student Margaret Bonds. They were donated by David Garvey (Diploma ’49, piano), principal pianist for Leontyne Price (Special Studies ’52, voice), for whom some of the arrangements were written.

Fascinating stories and connections abound. Faculty member J.Y. Song (MM ’93, DMA ’98, piano) wrote about her links with the Arthur Rubenstein Collection—manuscripts seized by the Nazis from the pianist’s Paris home in 1940 that then languished in Soviet Russia and Berlin before being returned to Rubinstein’s children by the German government. Song, who was asked to perform at the ceremony celebrating their return, describes going through the 300 pages of works by composers who “were the musical trailblazers of the 1920s and ’30s,” she wrote. “It was as if Rubinstein’s early concert tours in Europe, the United States, and notably, Latin America, were springing to life within these pages, reviving his musical friendships and collaborations.” Eva, Paul, Alina, and John Rubinstein generously donated their father’s collection to Juilliard.

In gathering the topics for the essays, Gottlieb—who admits she had far too many possible essays at first—tried to cover the greatest hits of the collection. So there are also essays by musicologists Maureen Carr and Philip Torbert on the Stravinsky collection, and Helen Greenwald on the richly illustrated opera collection Philip Gossett (Pre-College ’57, piano) donated to Juilliard in 2017. Two scholars who had worked extensively with the Ysäye manuscripts wrote about them—faculty member Ray Iwazumi (Pre-College ’94; BM ’98, MM ’99, DMA ’04, violin) and Max Tan (Pre-College ’03, piano, ’11, violin; MM ’17, Artist Diploma ’19, DMA ’24, violin). “Having all these materials in one place,” Iwazumi wrote, “allows a rare view into Ysaÿe’s compositional process from the engraver’s model through the last edition overseen by the composer.”

The book is a compelling introduction and companion to this incredible collection. “It was so extraordinary that it came together,” Gottlieb said, acknowledging that it had been very much a collaborative effort. You can see for yourself in September—about a year and a half after the process began—when it goes on sale at the Juilliard Store and other venues.

Susan Jackson is editor in chief of the Juilliard Journal

Treasures is now available at the Juilliard Store